rends in ethnicity and crime: ethnic minorities are three times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police. ethnic minorities are more likely to be given a harsh sentence than ethnic majorities.
morris: bame communities contain larger numbers of young people compared to white ethnic majority, this explains why there is higher ethnic minority criminality as young people are more likely to commit crime. evaluation: sociologists say that it is impossible to determine if it is age of the offenders that cause higher rates or their ethnicity.
reasons for ethnic minority criminality
gilroy says that police focus on ehnic minorities and therefore they are more likely to be stopped and searched or arrested compared to white majority. evaluation: sociologists say that targetting can be due to moral panics such as black muggers in 1970s and therefore based on actual criminality.
weddington et al, says that areas with large number of thnic minorities are more likey to be focused on by police which leads to higher stop and search statistics. ethnic minorities are more likely to be living in zones of transtion where criminality tends to be much higher due to lack of social cohesion. evaluation: this may only be true for first generation immigrants but many ethnic minorities have moved out of zones of transition after 1 or 2 generations.
mcphersons report : mcphersons report suggests that police are racists and have steriotypes towards ethnic minorities. result of the stephen lawrence murder highlighted racist policies within the police force. evaluation: since the mcpherson report the police force has been changing their policies to deal with institutional racism and recruiting more ethnic minority officers but this has not stopped the crime rate among ethnic kinority groups.
hirschi: suggests that people commit crime regardless of their ethnicity. they commit crime due to lack of social controls of attachment, commitment, involvement and belief in their lives. asia parents have stricter control over young people which could explain the lower crime rates amongst asian communities. evaluation: sociologists say that this is more of a age differences in criminality than ethnic minority.
left realists lea and young: suugest that ethnic minorities suffer from marginilization and relative deprivation. this could lead to ethnic minorities forming subcultures and turn to crime. evaluation: not all ethnic minorities turn to subculutures and not all subculutres are criminal.
gilroy: ethnic minorities particularly black men often feel alienated by everyday experiences of racism and what they percieve to be racist police and so crime becomes a form of protest. evaluation: mosts crime commited by black people is towards black people which unddermines gilroys theory.
sewell identifies three factors that could be respocsible for high crime rates amongst black boys: lack of father figure, boys look to their community for role models such as gang leaders. negative experience of white culture: they may feel they are being treated differently by school and police. media, media influence of hip hop and rap stars make people blieve that status can be achieved through aquisition of designer clothing and jewllery. contriuction of hyper masculinity based on violence and sexual conquest. evaluation: their is a rise in black role models such as barack obama.
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