3.ethnicity and crime (c&d) Flashcards
compared to white peoples, black people were:
-three times more likely to be arrested
-fives times more likely to be in prison
-more likely, if found guilty, to receive a custodial sentence
-3 times more likely to be cautioned by police
-if arrested, more likely to be charged and face court proceedings than to receive a caution
-more likely to be arrested for robbery
compared to white peoples, asians were:
-twice as likely to be stopped & searched
-more likely to be charged & face court proceedings than to receive a caution
-more likely to receive a custodial sentence if found guilty
-more likely to be arrested for fraud & forgery
victim surveys
-can gain info about ethnicity & offending when they ask victims to identify ethnicity of person who committed crime against anything
-shows lot of crime is intra-ethnic (takes place within ethnic groups)
weaknesses:
-rely on victims memory of events. philips & bowling (2012) suggest white victims may ‘over-identify’ blacks
-only cover personal crimes, which make up a fifth of all crime
-exclude the under 10s: minority ethnic groups contain higher proportion of younger people
self report studies
-based on sample of 2,500 people, Graham & Bowling (1995) found blacks (43%) & whites (44%) had similar rates of offending, while indians (30%) had lower rates
-home office conducted 9 self report studies on drug use since the early 1990s, all with very similar findings
ethnicity, racism and the criminal justice system
-since 1970s, many allegations of harsh & unfair policing of ethnic minority groups including: stop & searches, police violence & deaths in custody and police failure to deal effectively with racist violence
sociological explanations for differences in offending between different ethnic groups
-official stats on criminal justice process show at differences between ethnic groups
-left realism- stats represent real differences in rate of offending
-neo marxism- stats are social construct resulting from racist labelling & discrimination in criminal justice system
left realism
-young and lea-EM do commit more crime as they’re marginalised & experience feeling of relative deprivation
-relative deprivation & marginalisation- racism led to marginalisation of EMs, face higher lvls of unemployment, poverty & poor housing. media exposes EMs to consumer goods, fuels feelings of RD as they can’t afford consumer goods
-subcultures- commit crime to get goods they desire, commit crime to express feeling of frustration
evaluation of left realism
-lea and young criticised for view on role of police racism. arrest rates for asians may be lower than blacks because police stereotype the two groups differently, seeing blacks as dangerous & asians as passive
neomarxism
paul gilroy: myth of black criminality
-myth created by stereotypes of afro-carribeans & asians. EMs are criminalised & their crimes recorded in high numbers in official stats
-crimes of EMs form political resistance against racist society
-most black and asians in uk come from former british colonies where anti-imperialist struggles taught them how to resist oppression
criticisms of neomarxism
-first gen immigrants in the 1950s & 60s were very law abiding so it’s unlikely that they passed down a tradition of anti-colonial struggle to their children
-most crime in intra-ethnic so it can’t be seen as an anti-colonial struggle against racism
extent and risk of victimisation
-police recorded 54,000 racist incidents in england & wales in 2014/15- mostly damage to property or verbal harassment
-most incidents go unreported. CSEW estimates 89,000 racially motivated incidents in 2014/15
-police also recorded 38,000 racially or religiously aggravated offences in 2014/15
sampson and phillips
racist victimisation tends to be ongoing over time with repeated ‘minor’ instances of abuse and harassment interwoven with periodic incidents of physical violence
