Crime and Ethnicity Flashcards

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1
Q

Material Deprivation

A

Close link between poor and crime.
> Ethnic minority groups more likely to live in poor areas meaning ethnic minorities commit more crime.
EVAL - Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds have lower rates of crime than white people despite being 6 times more likely to be poor.
EVAL - not all crimes are linked to poverty for example fraud domestic violence can be committed by middle class people.

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2
Q

Age Profiles

A

16 - 24 year olds most likely to commit crime
> Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani families tend to have more children compared to white people meaning there is high proportion of ethnic minority groups in 16-24 year olds.
> It would be logical to link patterns to age rather than ethnicity.
EVAL - why are crime rates highest among British - Asian groups so why is age the explanation for crime rate stats.

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3
Q

John Lee and Jock Young (1984)

A

they don’t believe OCS are innacurate. Young black men may commit more crime than other ethnic groups.
> 92% of the crimes dealt with by police come from the public reporting crime to them - making it to difficuilt to argue over-representation of black men in crime stats is caused by police discrimination.
> they believe that real differences in ethnicity and crime exist.
factors they say on why young black men commit more crime compared to other ethnic minorities:
A) Social marginality - underachievement at school, a lack of employment opportunities and racism have pushed soem ethnic minority groups to edges of society
B) Relative Deprivation - young black men can feel they cant access luxuries others can, causing them to commit crime with the goal to access luxury.
C) Subculture - other two factors combined to create subcultures as they provide sense of social support. Violence and street crime are a means of achieving financial gain.
EVAL - they refuse to accept that police racism and discrimination can create false misunderstanding of ethnicity and crime.
EVAL - ignore that men from all ethnic groups experience relative deprivation for example British-Asian men commit crime due to relative deprivation.

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4
Q

Police racism

A

white officers tend to discriminate ethnic minority groups
young black men 7X more likely to be stop and searched than any other ethnic minority groups in men.
only 12% of stop and search result in arrest.
EVAL - Waddington et al (2000)
interview officers - found they stop and search young black as they are over-represented in poor areas - not due to racism.
EVAL for Waddington et al:
hawthorne effect: officers will not admit they are racist and therefore lie.
EXAMPLE - George Floyd killed by white officer for no reason - due to racism?

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5
Q

Paul Gilroy(1982)
Myth of Black criminality

A

racist stereotyping led to a ‘myth of black criminality’ - created by ‘negative stereotyping’ by police.
> Black men were ‘labelled’ as likely ‘muggers’ and Asian were seen as ‘illegal migrants’.
> police treated ethnic minorities unfairly therefore creating official statistics.
> Black men crime form a symbolic resistance towards the racism they face - for example London riots, 2011 protesting against police racism.

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6
Q

Institutional Racism - Macpherson inquiry

A

1993 Stephen Lawrence (young black male) was stabbed
> after pressure from parents, the ‘Macpherson inquiry’ was set up to investigate the handling of the situation by the police.
> Macpherson concluded police were institutionally racist - they have ‘deeply-embedded procedures and culture that excludes/disadvantages non-white people.
> black men were 5% more likely to be given a prison sentences than white men for similar crimes and spend more time as well.
> this skews the official crime statistics, creating inaccurate perception.
EVAL - police have made progress in addressing the racism problem with higher quality training to take place to cut out any racism within the police.

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7
Q

Ethnicity and sentencing in courts

A
  • Crown Prosecution Service(CPS) more likely to terminate case-file for White-British backgrounds - showing discrimination
  • Ministry of Justice shows White-heritage people least likely to recieve an immediate custodial sentence compared to black/Asian people - also average sentence given to blacks was greater than all other ethnic groups.
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