(1) disproportionality in the criminal justice system AND (2) explaining the patterns

How does data show that minority ethnic groups are overrepresented in the criminal justice system?

According to Ministry of Justice, in 2014:

• Black groups over 4x as likely to be stopped + searched

• 3x as likely to be arrested

• 3x as likely to be prosecuted

• average length of custodial sentences higher for all ethnic minority groups

• Crime and Justice Survey’s self-report data (not completely reliable but probably fairly representative) suggests that, relatively, Black offenders are over-represented + White offenders under-represented in CJS stats

How do disproportional outcomes differ according to the category of offence?

• for every 100 White women handed custodial sentences at crown courts for drug offences, 227 Black women

• similar trends in sexual offences for White vs Black men

• disparities not one way - BAME females less likely to be charged by Crown Prosecution Service than comparable White groups; similar trend with Black men

How do neo-Marxists attempt to explain ethnic disproportionality within the criminal justice system?

• product of criminalisation by the police/courts rather than higher levels of criminality

• Stuart Hall et al: in 1970s a moral panic developed around “mugging” & young Black men served as scapegoats for an economic + political crisis in Britain

• Home Secretary in House of Commons quoted 129% increase in muggings in London over 4 years

• Hall et al noted there’s no legally defined crime called mugging so Home Secretary could not have accurately measured it ~ found no basis in criminal stats for figure of 129%

• nearest legal category = robbery or assault with intent to rob ~ official stats showed 14% average annual increase from 1965-1972 ~ growing more slowly at time of panic than it had done in previous decade!

• public concern —> change of operational procedure + police priority —> more arrests, more offences classified as muggings + longer sentences (amplification spiral)

• threat to state authority in this period (IRA in N Ireland, student militancy etc.) ~ mugging presented as symbolic threat to stability of society + breakdown of law + order, with Black mugger symbolising this threat

• public persuaded that “immigrants” to blame for social problems

How did Stuart Hall et al also attempt to explain African Caribbean criminality itself?

• many immigrants encouraged to come to Britain from Commonwealth in 50s/60s, during period of full employment + labour shortage

• recession in 1970s —> immigrant groups became “surplus labour force”; those who remained in employment often took on menial, low-paid jobs (“white man’s shit work”) & others turned to “hustling” eg. petty street crime, casual drug dealing, prostitution to earn a living

How can Stuart Hall et al’s work on the moral panic surrounding Black people and other ethnic minority groups be criticised?

• Downes + Rock: self-contradictory; imbalance between idea of moral panic + recognition that African Caribbean street crime etc. was actually rising

• underemphasis on victims of muggings; young Black men conceived of as victims of oppressive state over-reacting to relatively minor criminal activity

What does neo-Marxist Paul Gilroy argue about Black over-representation in the criminal justice system?

• Black criminality = “myth” ~ minority ethnic groups actually defending themselves against unjust society

• hit back against police harassment, racially motivated attacks + discrimination

• stats reflect police prejudice; evidenced by fact that Police Federation magazine claimed Jamacia shipped convicts to Britain to export crime problems

How do left-realists counter the neo-Marxist view on ethnic disparities within the criminal justice system?

• Lea + Young (1984): criticise Gilroy by quoting figures that 92% of crimes known to police brought to their attention by public so cannot entirely be consequence of police discrimination

• today official statistics for some crime eg. burglary rate for African Caribbeans to be lower than that for whites

• most victims of African-Caribbean crimes are African-Caribbeans ~ how can this be a political attack on White racist state?

• more plausible that street crime a reaction to oppression ~ response to relative deprivation, sense of marginalisation + formation of subcultures

What was the Macpherson Report?

• due to tenacity of Black stabbing victim Stephen Lawrence’s parents & support from the Daily Mail particularly, in 1997 new Home Secretary Jack Straw ordered public enquiry into police investigation into the crime

• Macpherson explained Met. Police Service investigation’s failure as product of “institutional racism” ie. the “collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate + professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin”

• prompted Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 (duty on public bodies to promote equality) + Criminal Justice Act 2003 (scrapped double jeopardy ie. principles preventing one for being tried twice for the same crime after being cleared at the first hearing)