Claims-Making and the Prosecution of Black Defendants in Drug Trafficking Trials: the Influence of Deprivation

Abstract

The relationship between the prosecution and black 1 people has nowhere received a specific or full notice as far as analysis is concerned. On the basis of detailed observations of drug trafficking trials at a London Crown Court, this paper reveals the prosecution of cases concerning black defendants. In doing so, it demonstrates how drug trafficking cases were socially constructed through the process of claimsmaking, a rhetorical activity that entails the use of language to present and fathom claims effectively in order to persuade. The prosecution described the defendants alleged involvement in drug trafficking as a profit making venture and within the process of claims-making constructed a relationship between drug trafficking and socio-economic deprivation. Subtly, racial imageries of crime and deprivation appeared to be represented in the prosecution discourse as evidence of drug trafficking. It is concluded that the defendants faced a higher likelihood of being officially classed as drug traffickers.