topic 2- social dist of crime: ethnicity

what do official statistics highlight

highlight that thee are some significant ethnic differences in the likelyhood of being involved in the criminal justice system

what are official crime statistics

generated by what is recorded by the police and then what is processed by the criminal justice system

the Office for National Statistics removed their ‘gold standard’ in 2014 because of their inconsistencies in collection of data

what is the Crime Survey of England and Wales?

A large Home Office survey where people report the crimes they have been a victim of. Reveals many crimes not included in police statistics but doesn’t include ‘victimless crimes’

give statistic to prove overrepresetnation of black people as prison population, percentage

black people make up 3% of population but 13% of prison population

statistic provided by ministry of justice in 2008, racial profiling

in 2019, black citizens are 9 x more likely to be stopped and searched according to CSEW

what is a criticism of using official statistics

do not necessarily provide a reliable and valid picture of criminality

statistics show whose suspected, criminalised and defined as a criminal

only tell us of the involvement of the OS e.g. difference in arrest rates could just show police strategies

what are the 2 alternative sources of statistics

victim surveys and self report studies

give an example of victim survey

Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)

what does the victim CSEW ask

asks individuals what crimes they have been victims of in the last 12 months

how does the CSEW identify what ethnic group is responsible for the crime

asks the individuals what the ethnicity of the offender was

what crime is an example of black people being more likely to be the offendor

mugging

what is the term the victim surveys identify

intra-ethnic

what does intra-ethnic crime mean

the offendor and victim are from the same ethnic group

what is a limitation of victim crime surveys

they rely on victims memory

phillips and bowling highlight that white victims may 'over identify' black suspects, even saying that the offendor was black even if they are not certain

what is another limitation of victim crime surveys, businesses

they exclude crimes by and against oganisations such as businesses and thus, tell us nothing about ethnicity of white collar and corporate criminals

limitation of victim crime surveys - age

exclude under 10’s: minority ethnic groups contain a higher proportion of young people

limitation of victim crime surveys - type of crime

only ask about personal crime which make up only 5% of all crimes

list all the limitations of victims crime surveys

1. reliance on memory

2. bias of victim

3. exclusion of corporate crime

4. exclusion of under 10’s

5. only focus on personal crimes

what do self report studies ask

ask individuals to disclose their own disohnest and violent behaviour

who did a study of report studies and what did they find

graham and bowling conducted a self report study based on 2,500 people and found that white adn black rates of offending were very suimilar (44%, 43%) wheras Indian (30%), pakisatani (28%) and Bangladeshi (13%) rates were much lower

how is graham and bowling’s findings suppoorted

sharpe and budd note that the 2003 offfneing crime and justice survey of 12,000 people found that around 40% of whit epeople and those of mixed ethnic orgins said they had committed an offence, followed by black people (28%) and asian people (21%).

what study conducted shows about drug yuse

sue sharp and budd fiund that 27% of males of ‘mixed’ ethnicity said they had used drugs in the last year compared with 16% of balck and white males and 5% of asian males

use of clas a drugs such as heroin and concraine was much higher among white pople than black or asian

therefore what do self report studies show

challenge the stereotype that black people are more likely than white people to offend

they support the widely held view that asian people are less likely to offend

risk of self-report studies

• may be inconsistent due to lying or exaggeration of involvement

• some respondents may give socially desirable answers

• some ethnic groups may underreport due to distrust of CJS

• Self report studies often contain trivial crime rather than serious crime like drug trafficking

name 5 reasons why black people are more likely to be in prison

1. policing
2. stop and search
3. arrests and cautions
4. prosecution and trial
5. convictions and sentencing

what do phillips and bowling note, policing

since the 1970s there is clear evidence of oppressive policing to minority ethnic groups

what is a statistic to prove racism in stop and search

minority ethnic group individuals are more likley to be stopped and searched by the police, where the police can use their power if they have reasonable suspicion of wrongoing.

in 2020, black people are 9 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people and asians wee twice as likely as white people

what is the terrorism act 2000

police can stop and search people or vehicles whether or not they have reasonable suspicion.

statistics show that asian people are more likely ot be stopped and searched than others under the terrorism

following the introduction of the act, in n 2001/02 there were 8,550 stop and searches and this figure rose to 21,577 in 2002/03 – a 151 per cent increase.

and following the introduction of the act stop and searches to Asians increased by 285 per cent in 2003.

therefore, what do philllips and bowling highlight about stop and seartches

individuals of minority ethnicity feel that they are are 'over policed and under protected' and thus have little faith in the police

USE OF FORCE, what statistic about tasers, evidence of racism in stop and search

black people are 5 times more likely than white people to be tasered - Grierson

how does macpherson report explain stop and search patterns

police racism- the met are institutionally racist

what do phillips and bowling point out about police racism, to explain stop and search patterns.

point out that many officers hold negative stereotypes about minority ethnic groups as criminals, leading to deliberate targeting for stop and search.

these steroetypes are enforced and upheld by the ‘canteen culture’ of rank and file officers

ethnic differences in offending is nother explanation to stop and search patterns, explain

an alternative explanation to police racism to explain the fact that ethnic minorities are overrepresented in S+S is that there are ethnic differences in offending.

• in low discretion stops, police act on relvant nformation about a specific offence, for example a victim’s descripton of the officer

• in high discretion stops, police act without specific intelligence and tend to be self-initiated activities by officers, and thus the officer uses stereotypes which disproprotionately discriminate against ethnic minorities.

what is a statistic to highlight that black people are more likely to be arrested

black people are 3 times more than white people to be arrested and black and asian people who have been arrested were less likely than white people who were arrested to receive a caution

reason for low caution rates following an arrest for minority ethnic groups

minroity ethnic groups are more likely to deny the offence and expercise their right to legal advice, thus by not admitting to the offence it means that they cannot be let off with a caution and are more likely to be charged instead

5% were issued to Asian defendants, 7% to black defendants, 2% to defendants from the other ethnic group and 86% were issued to white defendants

what is the crown prospecutuon service

the body responsible for deciding whether a case brought by the police should be prosecuted in court, in doing so, the CPS must decide whether there is a realistic propect of conviction and whether prosecution is in the public interest

what do phillips and bowling say about why the crown prosecution service are more likely to drop cases

studies suggest that the CPS is more likely to drop cases aginst minority ethnic groups

Bowling and Phillips argue that this is because evidence is often weaker and based on stereotyping of minority ethnic groups as criminals

what are ethnic minrotieis smore likely to opt for when their case does go ahead

when a case does go ahead, they are more likely to elect for trial before a jury in the crown court rather than in a magistrate’s court, perhaps due to mistrust of magistrate’s impartiality

therefore, because minorities are more likely to be dropped by crown prosecution service how does this support bowling and Phillips point about over identify

white victims say the offendor was black, even if they are not sure. therefore evidence is weak and based on stereotypes

what is interesting to note about black and asian people being found guilty

black and asian defendents are less likely to be found guilty

thus, what does the fact that balck people are less likely to be found guilty prove

this suggests discrimination, in that police and CPS may be bringing weaker or less serious cases aginst members of minroity groups that are thrown out by the courts

what are the improsonmetn rates

black offenders have improsonment rates 1% higher and asians 3.4% higher than white offenders.

this can be due to differences in seriosuness of the offences or the defendent’s past convictions

what styd of 5 crown courts find

Roger Hood (1992) found that even when factors of seriosuness of the offences or defendents past convictions are taken into account, black men were 5% more likely to receive a custodial sentence and were given sentences on average of 3 months longer than white men

reason for harsher sentences

pre sentece reports are written by probation officers, which is a risk assessment to assist magistrates in deciding on appropriate sentence for the offender.

hudsona and bramhall argue that PSRs allow for unwitting discrimination, reports on asian offenders were less comorehensive adn suggested that they were less remourceful than white offenders, which they argue is due to the demonisations of muslims in the wake of 9/11.

prison tatitics

in 2021- ¼ of the prison pop were from minority ethnic groups

black people were almost 4 times moe likely to be in prison than white people and mre likley to be serving longer sentences

what do left realists believe about the differences in offending

see crime as a product of relative deprivation, subculture and marginalization

they argue that racism has led to the marginalisation and economic exclusion of minority ethnic groups who face higher levels of unemployment, poverty and poor housing.

furthermore, the medias emohasis on consumerism promotes a sense of relative deprivation by setting materialistic goals that many members of minority groups are unable to achieve by legitimate means

what do lea and young argue about ethnic differences in statistics

revelas the real differences in levels of offending

they see the formation of delinquent subcultures especially by young, unemplyed black men as producing higher levels of utilitarian crime, such as theft and robbery as a means of coping with relative deprivation. furthermore, because they are marginalised they have no organisations to represent their interests and this causes frustration which casues them to also commit non utilitarian crime such as violence and rioting

what do lea and young acknolwedge

they acknowledge that the police are often racist and this results in the unjustified criminalisation of people from minotiruty ethnic groups.

however, they do not believe that discriminatory policing fully explains the difference in statistics. they note that over 90% of crimes known to the police ae reported by members of the public rather than discovered by the police themselves.

they also draw on the fact that black people have cosidernably higher rate of criminalisation than asian people. this means that police officers have to be very selective with their racism against black people and not towards asian people for it to casue a massive difference

what do lea and young conclude about statistics

they condlude that statistics represent real differences in levels of offending between ethnic groups and that these are caused by real differences in levels of relative deprivation and marginalisation

what do neo marxists believe about statistics

statistics do not reflect reality, instead it is an outcome of social construction and sterotypes agaisnt minrotiy ethnic groups as inherently criminal

what does gilroy argue

the idea of black criminality is a myth created by racist stereotypes of the police and criminal justice system. in reality these groups are no more criminal than any other.

as a result of police and criminal justicie sustem acting on racist steoretypes this causes minroty ethncigroups to be criminialised- this giving the impression that there is greater differnces in offending per ethnic group

what does gilyoy say about how imperialisation adn colonisation has impacted black criminalisation

believe that minority ethnic crime can be seen as a form of political resistence against a racist society which roots back to earlier struggels against british imperialism. wherby, black and asian people originate from british colonies and have been taught how to resist oppression in the face of imperialism for exaple through riots and demonstrations.

thus, they adopt these forms of struggle to defend themselves against racism in the uk, but have been criminalised by the british state

however, how does lea and young criticise gilroy , first gen immigrants

first gen immigrants in the uk were v law abiding and therefore it is unlikely black and asian people today have been taught and passed down traditions to resit the police

how do lea and young criticse gilroy, intra

most crime is intra-ethnic therefor the reason they commit crimes cannot be due to the fact that they are fighting anti-colonial struggels

how does stuart hall et all believe the cause of muggging is

as a neo marxist. argues that the 1970s saw a moral panic, created by the media to benefit capitalism.

they argue that in the 70s, british capitalism faced a crisis due to high inflation and rising unemployment which provoked widespread insutrial unrest and strikes and also conflucr in northern ireland was intensiifying. thus, opposition to capitalism began to grow.

how has mugging been intensified by the media

the 1970s saw the emergence of media driven moral panic about the supposed growth of a new crime- muging. hal et al note that there was no evidence of a significant increase in their crime at the time. mugging was associated by the media, police and politians with black youth.

they see the emergence of moral panic around panic and the crisis of cpitalism occuring at the saemt time as no coincidence. they believe that black muggers served as scapegoats to distract attention from the true cause of problems- cpaitalism

it also served to divide working class on grounds of racial groups, thus weaking opposition to capit

what does fitzgeralnd et al find

examine the role of neighbourhood factors in explaining the apprent

Outline two reasons why members of some ethnic groups are more likely than others to receive custodial sentences.

1. minority ethnic gorups are more likely to deny and exercise their right to legal advice (due to not trusting policie offers due to insitutional racism) and thus by not admitting to the offence they cannnot be let off with a caution and are more liekly to be charged instead- 5% of cuations were issues to asian defendents, 7% to black wheras 86% were issued too white defendents

2. ?

Outline three ways the criminal justice system discriminates against ethnic minorities.

1. black people are 9 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people and asians are twice as likely as white people. thus this hghlights that police officers are instituinally racist wherby stop and searches are based on sereotypes, specificlly in high discretion stops where stop and searches are self indiitated by police officers rather than members of the public

2. there is a canteen culture in the police

3. the crown prosection service are more lilely to drop cases against minority ethnic groupps, phillips and bowman argue tat this is because evidence if often weak and based on sterotypes of ethnic minorities as criminals

Outline two ways that ethnic minorities are a victim of crime.

?

Outline three sociological explanations to explain ethnic criminality.

1. Gilroy argues that black criminality is a myth created by racist stereotpes held by the police and criminal justice system, in reality ethnic minorities are no more criminal than other ethnic groups. thus, due to stereotypes ethnic minroities are more likely to be stopped and searched and are likely to be arrested without strong evidence

2. left ralists see crime as a product of relative depivation, subculture and marginalisation. they argue that racism has led to the marginalisation and economic exclusion of ethnic minority cildren and thus they face higher levels of unemployment, poverty and poor housing. thus, they are dispropoetionately involved in criminal behahviour because they are likely to experience limtied economic cirumstances which forces them to utilitarian crime in order to make ends meet. this is further emphasised by living in a consumer society where success is defined materially and thus, they are encoraged to commit crime in order to gain consumer items.

3. etnic minoirty children due to the educational system being institutonally racist are likely to be placed into low sets and streams, causing them to gain proper qualifications that would prepare them for a high paying job. as a result, children of ethnic minorities are likely to join anti school subcultures and by commiting crime they are able to ahceve status amongst their peers.

Outline three explanations for the differences in stop and search.

Applying material from item A, analyse two explanations of the apparent differences in the rates of victimisation of ethnic groups. (10 marks)

Applying material from item B and your knowledge, evaluate sociological explanations of the relationship between ethnicity and offending.  (30 mark)