Ethnicity and crime

Prison statistics

Black people make up 3% of the population but 13.1% of the prison population.

Asian people make up 6.5% of the population but 7.7% of prison population.

Police statistics

Ethnic minorities are 3 times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police.

Court statistics

Ethnic minorities are more likely to be given a custodial sentence then those of the ethnic majority.

Police targetting

• PHILLIPS AND BROWNING 2007 - Ethnic Minorities are “over-policed and under protected”

• GILROY 1982 - “Myth of Black Criminality” – Stereotyping

Police focus on ethnic minorities and therefore they are more likely to be stopped and searched or arrested compared to the white majority.

Targeting could be caused by moral panics such as the Black Muggers in the 1970’s and therefore based on actual criminality.

Can cause a chicken and egg scenario where the targeting leads to higher ethnic minority criminality which leads to more targeting.

Locality theory

WADDINGTON ET AL 2004 - Certain areas are more densely populated with ethnic minorities which explains higher stop and search statistics. Additionally et minorities tend to live in the zones of transition where crime rates are much higher due to the lack of social cohesion.

This maybe the case for first generation immigrants but many ethnic minorities have moved out of the zone of transition after 1 or 2 generations and tend to assimilate into the majority culture.

Institutional racism

HOLDAWAY 1983 – Canteen Culture – Police Officers in themselves are not racists but when together they can reinforce stereotypes which are then acted on duty.

MacPherson Report – 1999 – result of the Stephen Lawrence murder which highlighted racists policies within the police force.

Since the publication of the MacPherson Report, the police force has been actively changing policies to deal with institutional racism, and recruiting more officers from ethnic minorities. However the crime rate amongst ethnic minorities has not decreased.

Social and control theory

HIRSCHI – Young people regardless of their ethnicity commit crime due to lack of social controls of attachment, commitment, involvement and belief, in their lives. Asian families have stricter controls over young people which could explain the lower rates of criminality amongst Asian communities.

This is not limited to ethnic minorities and is more of an explanation for age differences in criminality than ethnic minority.

Subculture

Left Realism (LEA AND YOUNG) – suggest that ethnic minorities suffer from marginalisation and relative deprivation, This can lead to ethnic minorities forming sub cultures which help to alleviate feelings of marginalisation but these can take deviant forms and lead to higher rates of criminality.

Not all ethnic minorities join a sub cultures and not all subcultures are criminal in nature.

political protest

GILROY – Ethnic Minorities, particularly Black men, often feel alienated by everyday experiences of racism and what they perceive as a racist police force, and as such crime becomes a form of protest, Street Crime are seen as forms of resistance against white oppression. For example the crimes of the Black Panthers.

This doesn’t account for the fact that most crime is commit within ethnic minority groups, therefore the majority of victims of black crime are black themselves which undermines GILROY’S theory.

Triple quandry

SEWELL – identifies three risk factors which could be responsible for the relatively high levels of crime amongst black boys:

Lack of a father figure – Large numbers of single mother families amongst black families mean that boys look to their community for role models such as gang leaders.

Negative experiences of white culture – Black boys are disaffected by their experiences of school, policing and employer racism.

Media – Media influence of hip-hop and rap stars believe that status can be achieved in two ways:

- Acquisition of status symbol designer clothing and jewellery. - Construction of hyper masculinity based on violence and sexual conquest.

The rise of positive black role models such as Barack Obama.

There is no causality established between single parenthood and criminality.

Black crime tends to victimise black people.