Crime and ethnicity Flashcards
in 2013 the Ministry of Justice reported that, compared to white people, black people were
- over twice as likely to be cautioned by police
- around 3x more likely to be arrested
- if arrested, more likely to be charged, remanded in custody and face court proceedings than to receive a caution
- more likely, if found guilty, to receive a custodial sentence and for a longer term
- 5x more likely to be in prison
In 2013 the Ministry of Justice found that, compared to white people, Asians were
- more likely to be charged and face court proceedings than to receive a caution
- more likely to receive a custodial sentence if found guilty and for a longer term
Custodial sentence definition
a prison sentence
Indictable offences definition
more serious criminal offences that can be tried at the Crown Court (indictable offences only) or at the magistrates court. These contrast with less serious Summary Offences, such as motoring offences, common assault and criminal damage up to £5000, which are usually only tried by a magistrate’s court.
in UK prisons last year,
- 12% of prisoners were black (4% of total population)
- 8% of prisoners were asian (9% of total population)
- 72% of prisoners were white (82% of total population)
Neo-marxist approaches to the links between ethnicity and offending - black crime as resistance
- Gilroy (1982) - crime by black people (esp in 1970s) was a form of political action, representing a culture of resistance to inequality and oppression
- Gilroy denied that there was greater criminality among black people, suggesting that this is a myth created by negative police stereotypes and the media, who saw minorities as untrustworthy, labelling black people as ‘muggers’ and asians as potential illegal immigrants
Neo-marxist approaches to the link between ethnicity and offending - black crime and scapegoating - the crisis of hegemony and the creation of the ‘black mugger’- Hall et al (1978)
- suggested that in the 1970s Britain was facing an economic and political crisis which threatened the dominance of ruling class ideology
- at the same time, there was growing conflict between the police and black communities, fuelled by selective publication of statistics showing black youth involvement in particular offences, including mugging
- this created a media-generated moral panic about the idea of the ‘black mugger’, which became a folk devil and a scapegoat for societal problems
- argued that there was no real increase in mugging but the moral panic was used to justify more aggressive and repressive police treatment of black people
- the media exaggerated the extent of black crime as a means of reasserting the dominance of ruling class ideas and re-establishing their hegemony
Gov.uk - in 2022, black people were
over 5x more likely to be stopped and searched than white people
Evaluation of neomarxist approaches to the link between ethnicity and offending
+ offer an explanation for black crime as a form of resistance
+ identify aggressive policing as arising from moral panics and stereotypes
- the ‘crisis of hegemony’ from the 1970s no longer exists but the conflict between minorities and the justice system remains
- Gilroy seems to impose his own interpretation of the meaning of black crime as a political act against oppression, but black crime is often committed against other black people
- Lea and Young (1984) point out that most crimes are reported by the public, not discovered by police, so it is hard to explain black crime in terms of police racism
Left realist explanations for the link between ethnicity and crime - Lea and Young
- accept that the rate of criminality for some offences is higher among minority ethnic groups
- suggest 3 factors which contribute to this:
1 - marginality - some groups are pushed to the edge of mainstream society by underachievement in education, unemployment, low pay, lack of opportunity etc - this creates resentment and a sense of powerlessness
2 - relative deprivation - people from minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to face deprived social situations
3 - subculture - marginalisation and relative deprivation can combine in the formation of subcultures, providing peer-group support, which may involve criminality as a response to resentment and status frustration
Poverty, social exclusion and the search for identity - Bowling and Phillips (2002)
- suggest higher levels of robbery by black people could be linked to poverty and social exclusion, which black communities are more likely to suffer
- criminal activities can generate peer-group status and a sense of a powerful black identity
- poverty and social exclusion can also affect asians, however their lower crime rates may be due to stronger cultural identities, and generally stronger controls within asian families and communities, which limit opportunities and desires to commit crime
Labelling and stereotyping
- labelling theorists and marxists argue that statistics suggesting black and asian people are more likely to commit crimes are socially constructed and misleading, providing evidence for selective law enforcement
- racist stereotypes within the police means the minorities are more likely to have their actions labelled as criminal or deviant
Reiner (2000) - interactionist perspective
points out the racist ‘canteen culture’ among the police, which includes suspicion, macho values and racism, and this encourages racist stereotypes and a mistrust of those from non-white backgrounds
Philips and Bowling (2012) suggest evidence in racial discrimination in the criminal justice system is shown
- by indirect racial discrimination (mistrust of police, social position)
- by direct racial discrimination (stop and search, institutional racism, arrests, charging, court proceedings, sentencing, over-representation in prison)
Phillips and Bowling (2012) - indirect racial discrimination in the criminal justice system
- mistrust of the police - means that minority suspects are less likely to cooperate with police, and less likely to admit to offences during interview or before trial, meaning they are ineligible for a caution or reduced sentence - 2023 Baroness Casey Review of Met. police found that less than 50% of public expressed confidence in the police
- social position - minority suspects are more likely to display social characteristics which make a remand in custody more likely than a release on bail, as they are thought to be more likely to abscond, including factors like poor housing and a lack of community
