‘The violence of the system’: race, mental health, state violence

Site Admin • 31 January 2021
People in a staff meeting

all credits : Institute of Race Relations

published : 26 January 2021


At a time when mental health is often decontextualised from the structural violence experienced by the most vulnerable in society, this special issue of Race & Class shows how race, mental health and state violence intersect – in places of detention and incarceration, on the street, in mental health institutions, in counter-extremism policies and in the home.


  • How does state violence impact racialised people experiencing mental ill health?
  • Why is prison used to address social problems?
  • How does state action, or inaction, cause mental health deterioration?
  • How can we build towards abolitionist care and justice, rather than criminalisation and punishment?


These are some of the questions that this special issue of Race & Class explores. Building on material from a two-day Symposium held at Birkbeck, University of London in 2018, it contains essential reading for activists, practitioners and scholars working in the nexus of race, mental health and state violence.

Read full article here >

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