Beneath the Surface takes a London Borough as a case-study in order to analyze the theoretical and policy problems posed by the incidence of racial harassment in Britain. Based on the method of local investigative inquiry it examines in great detail the extent, pattern and locations of racial harassment in Waltham Forest. It also analyzes the issues associated with problematic policy responses from both the local policy and the local authority. The attributes of Beneath the Surface lie in two areas which introduce a new analytic approach. Firstly, it critiques the official view of racial harassment exemplified by the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police, which identifies racial harassment as random and not conforming to the contours of a pattern. It does this by demonstrating the significance of a theoretical analysis of racial harassment based on ideas drawn from social geography, which is used to illustrate the level at which protracted patterns in racial harassment can be revealed.
