Ethnicity & crime

Sources of statistics on ethnicity + criminalisation

Sources of statistics on ethnicity + criminalisation

→ Official statistics

→ Victim surveys

→ Self-report studies

→ Generally, evidence is inconsistent

Official statistics on ethnicity

→ Black people are 7x more likely to be stopped & searched than whites

EVAL:

→ are they more likely to commit, or to be suspected?

Victim surveys and ethnicity

→ Ask people to say what crimes theyve been victims of

→ May ask the ethnicity of the offender; black people more likely to be identified as muggers

EVAL:

→ reliant on V’s memory, and crime tends to be intra-ethnic

Self-report studies and ethnicity

→ These are where individuals disclose crimes theyve committed

→ Tend to show consistent patterns amongst themselves

Graham & Bowling -- self-report

Black/white people have near identical offending rates, Asian people lower

Policing and racism in the CJS

The justice system is institutionally racist; many allegations of oppressive policing

→ Stop/search, failure to respond to racist hate crime, police violence, etc.

→ M/e groups are more likely to see themselves as over-policed and underprotected

Stop and search statistics

→ Black people are 9x more likely to be stopped

→ Asian people 3x more likely

→ Very few stops result in an arrest

Why are more ethnic minorities stopped and searched?

→ Ethnic differences in offending; maybe some groups are just more likely to offend

→ Police racism; may influence decisions to stop

→ Demographic factors; more young/unemployed/urban dwelling ethnic minorities, and these demographics also get stopped more

Waddington -- stop and search

Police stop more black people because htey are more often out at night in inner cities (which are higher policed)

→ More likely to be stopped because of where they are, not their ethnicity

Stats on arrests and cautions

→ Arrest rate for blacks is 3x higher than whites

→ Black/Asian less likely to receive cautions

Stats on prosecution and trials

→ Crown Prosecution Service is more likely to drop cases against whites

• Found guilty more often

→ M/e more likely to elect for trial by jury in the Crown Court

• Leads to higher sentences

→ Higher imprisonment rate for blacks than whites

Sentencing and prison statistics

→ More jail sentences given to black offenders than white/asian

→ Black/asians serve longer sentences

→ M/E groups less likely to get bail

MacPherson Inquiry

→ Followed death of Stephen Lawrence

→ Said police are institutionally racist

Lea & Young -- left realism

Ethnic differences in stats reflect real differences in the levels of offending

→ Crime is a product of relative deprivation, subculture, marginalisation

→ Racism leads to marginalisation/economic exclusion of m/e groups

→ Racist policing cant account for ALL of the difference in statistics

• Also cant explain why blacks convicted more than Asians

Conclusions drawn by Lea & Young -- left realism

→ Statistics represent real differences between ethnic groups

→ These are caused by a difference in levels of relative deprivation/marginalisation

Other explanations given by the New Right

→ Lack of education; affects self-confidence (Merton strain theory)

→ Lone parents; single parents often poorer, also usually headed by mother if black (NR say this leads to deviant boys)

→ Influence of black rappers; believe this encourages violence/criminality

• EVAL: cant blame on one form of entertainment

What do Neo-Marxists say?

Statistics are actually the outcome of a social construction process

→ This stereotypes minorities as more criminal

Gilroy -- myths

Black Criminality is a myth creates by racist stereotypes of A-C/Asian people

→ No more criminal than other groups, but CJS act on racist stereotypes

Gilroy -- crime as political resistance

M/e crime is a form of political resistance against racist society

→ Rooted in early struggles against imperialism

→ Mirrors anti-colonial methods of resisting oppression e.g. riots

• Now we criminalise it though

Evaluation of Gilroy

→ Left realists: first-gen immigrants were law-abiding so likely wouldnt pass on traditions of anti-colonial struggle

→ Romanticises street crime as revolutionary

→ Most crime is intra-ethnic; not a struggle against racism

Hall et al -- policing the crisis

Moral panic over black muggers in 70s served interests of capitalism

→ Was a scapegoat to distract attention from a crisis of capitalism

→ Helped to divide the w/c, weakening opposition to capitalism

Evaluation of policing the crisis

→ Inconsistent; say black street crime wasnt rising, but also show it was due to unemployment

→ Doesn’t explain HOW crisis led to moral panic

More recent explanations of ethnicity and crime

→ Neighbourhood factors

→ Getting caught

Fitzgerald et al -- neighbourhood factors

Street robberies highest in poor areas, but where people had contact with richer groups

→ Young black people more likely to live in these areas, but white people in these areas are more likely to commit crimes

→ Shows ethnicity wasnt a cause

Sharp & Budd -- getting caught

Black offenders commit crimes where victims can identify them, and are often more visible to police

→ Means theyre more likely to be arrested

→ e.g. assoc. with known criminals, previous school exclusions

Risk of being a victim

→ Varies by ethnic groups

→ Differences could be due to racism, but also being unemployed/young/male

• Groups with higher proportions of young unemployed males have higher rates of victimisation

Impact of racist victimisation

→ Repeated instances can cause psychological and physical harm

→ Many ethnic communities are overpoliced/underprotected, so communities may organise their own defences