Ethnicity and Crime

What are the prison statistics for black people?

• Represent 3% of the general population.

• Constitute 13.1% of the prison population.

What are the prison statistics for asian people?

• Represent 6.5% of the general population.

• Constitute 7.7% of the prison population.

What are police statistics?

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

What are court statistics?

Ethnic minorities are more likely to receive a custodial sentence compared to the ethnic majority.

Who is the thinker for demographic explanations of ethnicity and crime statistics?

Morris

What is demographic explanation of ethnicity and crime statistics?

• BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) groups have a disproportionately higher number of young people compared to the white ethnic majority.

• This explains higher ethnic minority criminality, as young people are statistically more likely to commit crimes.

What is the evaluation for demographic explanation of ethnicity and crime statistics?

Statistical Illusion: It's impossible to definitively determine whether the higher crime rates are due to the age of offenders or their ethnicity.

What is the reason for ethnic minority criminality?

Police targeting

Who is the thinker for police targeting?

Phillips and Browning (2007), Gilroy (1982)

What is police targeting?

• Ethnic minorities are ‘over-policed and under-protected’.

• ‘Myth of Black Criminality’: Stereotyping by the police.

• Police focus on ethnic minorities increases the likelihood of being stopped, searched, or arrested compared to the white majority.

What is the evaluation of police targeting?

• Targeting could be caused by moral panics, such as the Black Muggers in the 1970s, 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  

Who is the thinker for locality theory?

Waddington et al (2004) 

What is the locality theory?

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

What is the evaluation for locality theory?

This may be 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 

Who is the thinker for institutional racism?

Holdaway (1983) 

What is institutional racism?

• Canteen culture: Police officers in themselves are not racists, but when together, they can reinforce stereotypes which are then acted upon on duty  

• McPherson Report (1999): Result of the Stephen Lawrence murder, which highlighted racist policies within the police force 

What is the evaluation for institutional racism?

Since the publication of the McPherson 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  

Who is the thinker for social and cultural theory?

Hirschi

What is the social and cultural theory?

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

What is the evaluation for social and cultural theory?

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

Who is the thinker for subcultures?

Left Realism (Lea and Young) 

What are subcultures?

They suggest that ethnic minorities suffer from marginalisation and relative deprivation, which can lead to ethnic minorities forming subcultures which help to alleviate feelings of marginalisation, but these can take deviant forms and lead to higher rates of criminality 

What is the evaluation for subcultures?

Not all ethnic minorities join a subculture, and not all subcultures are criminal in nature 

Who is the thinker for political protest?

Gilroy

What is political protest?

Ethnic minorities, particularly Black men, often feel alienated by everyday experiences of racism and what they perceive as a racist police force, and such crime becomes a form of protest. Street crime is seen as a form of resistance against white oppression. For example, the crimes of the black panthers 

What is the evaluation for political protest?

This doesn’t account for the fact that most crime is committed within ethnic minority groups, therefore, the majority of victims of black crime are black themselves, which undermines Gilroy’s theory  

Who is the thinker for triple quandary?

Sewel

What is triple quandary?

Three risk factors which could be responsible for the relatively high levels of crime amongst black boys: 

What are the risk factors?

1. Lack of a father figure: Large numbers of single mothers amongst families mean that boys look to their community for role models, such as gang leaders 

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

3. Media: The Media influence of hip-hop and rap stars believes that status can be achieved in two ways: 

4. Acquisition of status symbol designer clothing and jewellery  

5. Construction of hyper masculinity based on violence and sexual conquest 

What is the evaluation for triple quandary?

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

• There is no established causality between single parenthood and criminality 

• Black crime tends to victimise black people