When Americans are asked about what concerns them most about the direction of the country, crime and racial tensions invariably figure prominently in their responses. In the minds of many, these two problems are inextricably linked. Yet, public opinions and beliefs about race and crime are often informed as much by myth and preconception as they are by fact and reality. The landscape of American crime is addressed, and some of the most significant racial pathologies are identified that concern why blacks and whites perceive police actions differently, whether white fear of black crime is justified, and whether blacks really do or should protect their own. Racial hoaxes are scrutinized in terms of the demonization of black men by the mass media and the criminal justice system. The author shows how public notions of wrongdoing are linked to a legacy of racism and covers the historical role of race in the development and operation of the criminal justice, the measurement of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, the ethical duty of researchers to respond to misrepresentations of research on race and crime, and whether the criminal justice system has adequate checks and balances against unexplained racial disparities. References, notes, tables, and figures