ethnicity, crime and justice

What shows differences in ethnicity

Official statistics on the criminal justice process shows some striking differences between ethnic groups

Who are more likely to be imprisoned

Black people are more likely to be imprisoned

What is there a risk of

Not only are there ethnic differences in criminalisation, but some ethnic groups are also more at risk of being victims of a crime. As there is evidence of the scale of racially motivated offences against minority groups

What are the 3 ways of gathering statistics on ethnicity and crime

•official statistics

•victimisation studies

•self-report studies

What are black people to statistics

Overrepresented in the system - black people make up just 3% of the population but 13.1% of the prison population

What are white people to the system

Underrepresented in the system

What aren’t a reflection of offending (criticism)

Statistics are not necessarily a reflection of offending rates but the actions of the police officers as many sociologists success that police officers are motivated by racism and the arrest rates reflects this

What do victims surveys show

Show that black people are significantly over represented amount those identified as offenders and that a great deal of crime is intra-ethnic

What do self-report studies show to Graham and Bowling’s study

Graham and Bowling- study of 14-25 year olds were found that blacks and whites had similar rates of offending

What challenges the stereotype of black people being overrepresented

Graham and Bowling- The findings of the self report studies challenge the stereotype of black people as being more likely than whites to offend, though they support the widely held views that Asians are less likely to offend. This makes the evidence inconsistent

What is a contradiction between sources of data

While official statistics and victim surveys point to higher rates of offending by black’s, not the result from self-report studies

What do Philips and Bowling say on policing

Phillips and Bowling- since 1970s increasing allegations of Oppressive Policing of minority ethnic groups

What do they say on policing tactics

“Mass stop& search operations, paramilitary tactics, excessive surveillance, armed raids, police violence and deaths in custody, and a failure to respond effectively to racist violence.

What is canteen culture to Phillips and Bowling

Phillips and Bowling- when stereotypes are endorsed and upheld by culture among police officers. The negative stereotypes about Black Minority Ethnic people as criminals which leads to racial profiling and stop and search

What is the relevance to stop and search

Members of minority ethnic groups are more likely to be stoped and searched by police

What is the statistic on stop and search for ethnicity

Black people are 7 times more likely to be stopped and searched and Asian people over twice as likely compared to whites

What does the Terrorism act 2000 do

Police can stop and search persons or vehicles whether or not they have reasonable suspicion. Asians are more likely to be stopped and searched because of this

What are the 3 ways of explaining stop and search patterns

•police racism

•Ethnic differences in offending

•Demographic patterns

What is ‘institutional racism’ to Macpherson 1999

“The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin.

How can institutional racism be detected

It can be detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance and stereotypes

What is useful to disproportionality in stop and search

Useful to distinguish between low levels of discretion and high levels of discretion

What are low levels of discretion

Police act in relevant information about a specific offence

What are high levels of discretion

Police act without specific intelligence. Often use stereotypes

What is less likely to happen once arrested

Once blacks and Asians are arrested it is less likely to be cautioned this is due to ethnic minorities groups are more likely to deny the offence and exercise the right to legal advice.

What is shown with the CPS

The CPS must decide if there is a realistic prospect of conviction and whether it is in public interest. Studies have shown that CPS is more likely to drop cases against ethnic minorities

What do Bowling and Phillips a Regie on the CPS

Bowling and Phillips- argue this is because the evidence presented to the CPS by the police is often weaker and based on stereotyping

Why are minority ethnic groups more likely to elect for trial

When cases do go ahead- members of minority ethnic groups are more likely to elect for trial before a jury in the crown court rather than magistrates- maybe due to mistrust of magistrates impartiality

What is a reason for harsher sentences

Pre-sentence reports as these are written by probation officers, intended as a risk assessment to assist magistrates in deciding appropriate sentences

What do Hudson and Bramhill argue on pre-sentence reports

Hudson and Bramhill- argue that PSRs allow for unwitting discrimination, found that reports on Asian offenders were less comprehensive and suggested that they were less remorseful than white offenders

What were the rates of prison population in 2014

Over a quarter of the prison pop were from minority ethnic groups

What is the reason for this

Ethnic minorities are less likely to be granted bail while awaiting trial

What does left realism argue on explanation for ethnic differences

Statistics represent real differences in rates of offending

What do neo-Marxism argue on explanations of ethnic minorities

Statistics are a social construct resulting from racist labelling and discrimination in the criminal justice system

What are the 3 reasons to differences in offending to Lea and young

Lea and young

•marginalisation

•relative deprivation

•sub cultural response

Left realism - relative deprivation+ ethnicity

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How are ethnic minorities disadvantaged

Young black males, have much higher levels of unemployment, much less successful in the labour market. Therefore they suffer lower wages and higher levels of relative deprivation

Marginalisation

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who are more likely to be marginalised

Young ethnic minority males are more likely to experience marginalisation because they are under-represented at the highest levels of society, in government, political parties and trade unions

What do Lea and Young argue on marginalisation

Lea and Young- argue it would be surprising if there were not higher crime levels among those groups which experienced higher levels of deprivation and marginalisation

Subcultures and ethnicity

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What does the media do with subcultures

media emphasis on consumerism promotes a sense of relative deprivation by setting material goals that are not achievable by legitimate means

What is a response to this

One response is delinquent subcultures- higher levels of utilitarian crime and non utilitarian crime

What shows that levels of criminalisation is not always down to police racism

Over 90% of crimes known to the to the police are reported by members of the public rather than the police themselves, arguing that high levels of criminalisation not always down to police racism

Criticisms of Lea and young

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What might the police have

Police might have differential ‘racialised expectations’

What is a possibility of prejudice

It is possible they hold prejudiced stereotypes of one group being more dangerous and aggressive and another being more passive and conformists

What do Lea and young ignore

Lea and young ignore the increased stop and search rate of those from Asian ethnicities since 9/11 and the associated Islamphobic racism that may be behind these biases

Neo-Marxism

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How does neo-Marxism explain the differences in statistics

The differences in statistics between ethnic groups is the outcome of a process of social construction that stereotype ethnic minorities as inherently more criminal than the majority of the population

What is Gilroy’s ‘myth of black criminality’

Gilroy- the idea of black criminality is a myth created by racist stereotypes of African Caribbean and Asians

What does Gilroy argue on black crime

Gilroy- argues that Black crime, particularly in the 1970s was a form of political resistance against a repressive, racist state (capitalist state)

What does Gilroy deny

Gilroy denies that there was greater criminality amongst black people than white, but the media created a folk-devil of black people which generated deviance amplification

What does Gilroy see on black and Asian people in the UK

Gilroy- most black and Asians in the UK originated in the former British Colonies, where their anti-imperialist struggles taught them how to resist oppression- through riots and demonstrations. When they found themselves facing racism in Britain, they adopted the same forms of stuggle to defend themselves- their political struggle was criminalised by British state

How does Lea and Young criticise Gilroy on immigrants

Lea and young- the first generation of immigrants in the 1950s were law abiding

How do Lea and Young criticise Gilroy on crime being intra-ethnic

Lea and young- most crime is intra-ethnic (criminals and victims have same background) - it cannot be seen as anti-colonial struggle against racism

How do Lea and Young criticise Gilroy on Asian crime rates

Lea and young- Asian crime rates are similar to or lower than whites - if Gilroy is right then police are only racist towards Blacks and not Asians.

Hall et al: policing the crisis

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What do Hall er al argue on moral panics

Hall et al; coming from a neo-Marxist perspective, argue that the 1970s saw a moral panic over black ‘muggers’ that served the interests of capitalism in dealing with a crisis

What was the capistalist crisis in the 70s

In the early 70s British capitalism faced a crisis: high inflation, unemployment and strikes. At such times when opposition to Capitalism begins to grow, the ruling class may tend to use force to maintain control. Using force needs to be seen as legitimate or it may provoke more widespread resistance

What are the links to black ‘muggers’ and the crisis of capitalism

The emergence of the moral panic about mugging as a ‘black’ crime at the same time as the crisis of capitalism was no coincidence. The myth of the young black mugger served as a scapegoat to distract attention from the true cause of society’s problems

What did presenting black youth as a threat do

Presenting black youth as a threat to the fabric of court, the moral panic served to divide the WC on racial grounds and weaken opposition to capitalism, as well as winning popular consent for more authoritarian forms of rule that could be used to suppress opposition

What do Hall er al argue

Hall et al - do not argue that black crime was only a product of media labelling. The crisis of capitalism was increasingly marginalising black youth through unemployment, and this drove some into petty crime to survive

how does Downes and Rock criticise Hall et al

Downes and Rock- Hall et al are inconsistent in claiming that black street crime was not rising but also that it was rising because of unemployment

More recent approaches for ethnic differences in crime rates

Neighbourhood getting caught

What did Fitzgerald examine on neighbourhoods

Fitzgerald- examined the role of neighbourhood factors in exaplining the greater involvement of black youths in street robbery.

What rates were highest

Fitzgerald- Rates were highest in very poor areas and where very deprived youths came into contact with affluent groups

What was more likely to young blacks

Young blacks were more likely to live in these areas and to be poor. However, whites affected by these factors were also more likely to commit street crime. Ethnicity therefore as such not a cause. But black people may be more likely to live in poor areas because of racial discrimination

What did Sharp and Budd argue on getting caught

Sharp and Budd- some groups run a greater a greater risk of being caught a black offenders were more likely than white offenders to have been arrested.

What were Sharp and Budd’s reasons

More likely to commit crimes such as robbery, where victims can identify them and to be excluded from school or to associate with criminals

Why does racism victimisation occur

Racism victimisation occurs when an individual’s is selected as a target because of their race, ethnicity or religion. Brought into greater public focus with the racist murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence and how the police handled that case

What are 2 main sources of obtaining information on racial victimisation

Victim surveys and police recorded statistics

What are factors towards victimisation for violent crime

Violent crime- factors such as being young, male, ethnicity and unemployment are strongly linked with victimisation

What does Clancy et al argue on difference in victimisation

Clancy et al - much of the difference in victimisation can be explained in terms of social factors, such as the areas in which minority ethnic groups live, the higher rates of unemployment among minority ethnic groups and the younger age structure of minority ethnic groups compared to Whites. Statistical analysis suggests that such factors are more important than ethnicity

What is criticism of statistic

Statistics record the instances of victimisation, they do not however necessarily capture the victim’s experience of it

What do Sampson and Philips argue on racist victimisation

Sampson and Phillips- racist victimisation tends to be ongoing over time, with repeated minor instances of abuse and harrassment interwoven with periodic incidents of physical violence

what do responses to victimisation range from

Situational crime prevention measures such as fireproof doors and letters boxes to organised self-defence campaigns.

Why do such responses need to be understood

Such responses need to be understood in the context of accusations of under-protection by the police who have often ignored the racist dimensions of victimisation and failed to record or report incidents properly