25 years of racial criminalization in Europe

Abstract The text analyze the racial criminalization of immigrants in Europe and in the United States as phenomenon intrinsic to the frame of neo-liberalism globalization at local, national and worldwide level, in particular from 1990 to 2015. Through researches of the last 20 years, the article refers on the theory of interactionist social construction. The author show how the phenomenon is linked to prohibitionism of migrations and protectionism of dominant nationalities and also to produce inferiorization and neo-slavery of migrants, refugees and also of many autochthonous. The racist criminalization of immigrants has therefore a “mirror function” revealing the brutal drift of devices and practices of dominion often internalized by the dominants as well as by the dominated (autochthonous and migrants). The Italian case study is analysed as emblematic.