Ethnicity, crime and justice

What sociologists talk about ethnicity and crime

Lea and Young, Gilroy, Hall et al

Lea and Young

Left realists-

-differences in statistics are a result of real differences in offending

-this is because of the way that black people are discriminated against in wider society. Utilitarian crimes are as a result of material deprivation and non-utilitarian crime are as a result of frustration towards society

-believe that police racism is not the main cause as 90% of crimes are reported by the public

What is a criticism of Lea and Young

-dismiss institutional racism

-doesn’t talk about Asian discrimination as it was before 9/11 2001 when Asians were regarded as ‘less dangerous’ by the police

Gilroy

Neo-Marxist:

-BME commit no more crime than others

-instead differences in statistics are a result of racist policing as th3ey act on stereotypes

-BME often come from colonies where they resisted oppression, when they resisted racism in Britain it was criminalised

What is an evaluation of Gilroy

Lea and Young:

-first generation of immigrants were very law abiding, unlikely to pass down anti-colonial opinions

-most crimes are intractable-ethnic

Hall et al

Neo-Marxists

-there was a moral panic in the 1970s about black men and mugging. This is because capitalism was in crisis and they used this story to distract people from the problems of capitalism. So black people were not more criminal but victims of capitalism. Black men then couldn’t get jobs which led to even more crime

What are evaluations of Hall et al

Downes and Rock

-Hall et al claim that black men are less criminal and more criminal

-do not explain how this moral panic was created

How much more likely are black people to be stopped and searched than white people

9 times

What excuse did the system use to put in ethnic minorities to jail

‘War on drugs’ as BME used more drugs

What is utalitarian crime

Crime To get tangible gain due to relative deprivation