Crime & Deviance: Ethnicity, Crime & Justice

Question 1

Official Stats & ethnicity

Answer 1

Black people and Asians are over represented.
-Black people make up 3% of population but 13% in prison.
-Asians make up 6.9% of population but 8% in prison.
-Black people are 7x likelier to get stop & searched & 3 1/2x likelier to be arrested.

Question 2

Alternative sources of Stats: Victim surveys

Answer 2

-CSEW allow victims in the past 12 months to identify ethnicity of the person who committed the crime against them.
-Black people are over represented among those identified as offenders.
-These show that a lot of crime is intra-ethnic & takes place within ethnic groups.

:( Rely on victims memories, and Philips & Bowling found that white victims may ‘over-identify’ black suspects when they’re unsure.
:( Cover only personal crimes (1/5).
:( Exclude corporate crimes.
:( Exclude under 10s, minority ethnics contain a high proportion of young people.

Question 3

Alternative sources of Stats: Self-report studies

Answer 3

-On a sample of 2,500, Graham & Bowling found that white and black rates of offending were very similar (44%-43%) but Indian (30%) & Pakistani/Bangledeshi was lower (28%-13%).
-Sharp & Budd note that the 2003 Offending, Crime & Justice survey of 12,000 people found that 40% of whites & mixed committed an offence, followed by Black people (28%) & Asians (21%).

Challenges the stereotypes that Black people are more likely to offend.

Question 4

Ethnicity, racism & the CJS: Policing (Philips & Bowling 2012)

Answer 4

Since the 70s, there’s been allegations of oppressive policing of minority ethnic groups.
-Through; mass stop and searches, police violence etc.

Question 5

Ethnicity, racism & the CJS: Stop & Search

Answer 5

-Minority groups are likelier to be stop and searched and police can use this power if they have ‘reasonable suspicion’ of wrongdoing.
-In 2020, Black people were 9x likelier to be stop and searched and Asians over twice.
-Under the Terrorism act 2000, police can stop and search vehicles even without suspicion & stats show Asians were stopped more.
-Philips & Bowling say members of these communities think they are ‘over-policied’ & ‘under-protected’.
-In 2019, black people were 4x likelier to have violence used against them & 5x likelier to be tased.

Question 6

Ethnicity, racism & the CJS: Explaining stop & search patterns

Answer 6

Police racism: Macpherson report on the police investigation of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence found that there was institutionalised racism within Metropolitan police.
Philips & Bowling say that officers hold negative stereotypes & deliberately target minorities.
-In low discretion stops police act in relevant info about an offence (ie, description of offender).
-In high discretion stops police act without intelligence, where discrimination is likelier.
Demographic factors: minorities are over represented in population groups who are most likely to be stopped ich as the young, unemployed etc, who tend to me minorities.

Question 7

Ethnicity, racism & the CJS: Arrests & cautions

Answer 7

-In 2018-9, the arrest rate for Black people was 3X the rate for White peole.
-Black and Asian people were less likely to receive a caution.
-One reason could be that minorities may be likelier to deny the offence and exercise right to legal advice due to distrust in police.

Question 8

Ethnicity, racism & the CJS: Prosecution & trial

Answer 8

-The CPS is the body responsible for deciding if a case brought by police should be prosecuted in court.
-Studies suggest that CPS is likelier to drop cases against minority ethnic groups.
-Philips and Bowling say this is because the evidence presented against them is weak and based on stereotyping.
-When cases go ahead, minorities tend to elect for trial before a jury, which could be due to mistrust in the magistrates impartiality. However, sentences in the Crown court could be more severe.

Question 9

Ethnicity, racism & the CJS: Convictions & sentencing

Answer 9

-Black and Asians are less likely to be found guilty.
-Suggests discrimination.
-Black offenders have imprisonment rates 1% higher & Asians 3.4% higher.
-Black men 5% likelier to receive a custodial sentence & given longer sentences.

Question 10

Ethnicity, racism & CJS: Pre-sentence reports

Answer 10

-A PSR is intended as a risk assessment by probation officers to assist magistrates in deciding on the appropriate sentence for a given offender.
-Hudson & Bramhall argue that these allow for discrimination and reports on Asian offenders were less comprehensive, biased & demonised Muslims after 9/11.

Question 11

Ethnicity, racism & CJS: Prison

Answer 11

-In 2021, over 1/4 in prison were from minority ethnic groups & among British nations, 5.5 per 1000 Black people compared to 1.4 per white people.
-Black people almost 4x likelier to be imprisoned.

Question 12

Explaining the differences in offending

Answer 12

-Until 70s, general agreement that minorities offended less than Whites.
-Mid 70s onwards, increased conflict between police & African-Caribbean’s & ‘black criminality’ became a problem.
-In 90s, ‘Asian gangs’ became an issue and was spread more after 9/11.

Left realism: argued stats represent real rates of offending.
Neo-marxism: stats are socially constructed from racist labelling.

Question 13

Explaining differences: Left-realism (Lea & Young 1993)

Answer 13

Left realists see crime as the product of relative deprivation, subculture & marginalisation.
-Argue racism has led to economic exclusion of minority groups who face higher unemployment, poorer housing etc.
-Media’s emphasis on consumerism promotes relative deprivation through setting materialistic goals that many and achieve.
-Argue that young black men form delinquent subcultures, creating more utilitarian crime & since these groups are marginalised and have no organisations representing their interests, their frustration leads to non-utilitarian crimes.

Question 14

Lea & Young - Conclusions

Answer 14

-Agree that police may be racist but don’t think this is a full explanation.
E.g. notes that over 90% of crimes are reported by public, not discovered by police.
-Argue that we cannot explain differences between minorities in terms of police racism and criminalisation of Asians and Blacks.
-Conclude that stats are real and due to RD & marginalisation.

:( Arrests may be lower for Asians because they’re stereotypes differently (ie. passive) & this may have changed since 9/11, explaining the rise in their criminalisation rates.

Question 15

Explaining differences: Neo-Marxism - Gilroy - the myth of Black criminality

Answer 15

Argues that minority groups are criminalised more because of racist stereotypes.
-Argues that minority crime can be seen as a form of political resistance against a racist society, which has roots in earlier struggles with British imperialism.
-Most Black & Asians, originated in former British colonies where their anti-imperialist struggles taught them to resist oppression (ie. riots).
-Adopted same forms in facing racism in Britain, but their political struggle was criminalised.

Question 16

Gilroy’s Criticisms (by Lea & Young)

Answer 16

-First gen immigrants in 50-60s were law abiding, so it’s unlikely they passed down a tradition of anti-colonial struggle.
-Most crime is intra-ethnic so it’s not an anti-colonial struggle against racism & Gilroy is romanticising street crime as revolutionary.
-Asian crime rates were similar to whites, so how is police only racist to black people?

Question 17

Neo-Marxism - Hall et al: Policing the crisis

Answer 17

Argue that 70s saw a moral panic over black ‘muggers’ that served the interests of capitalism.
-British capitalism faced a crisis of high inflation & employment and there was conflict in Northern Ireland such as student protests.
-Opposition to capitalism growing means ruling class need to use force to maintain control.
-Hall et al noted there wasn’t a significant increase in robbing but ‘mugging’ was soon to be associated with Black youth by media and police.
-Says the emergence of moral panic over mugging at the time of the capitalist crisis was international and served as a scapegoat to draw attention from true problems such as unemployment.
-Argues that this divided the working class and lessened opposition.
-Hall does argue that this increased criminality too since Black youth was marginalised and some drove into a lifestyle of crime to survive.

Question 18

Criticisms of Hall et al

Answer 18

-Downes & Rock argue that they’re inconsistent in claiming Black street crime wasn’t rising, but then saying it was due to unemployment.
-Don’t show how the capitalist crisis led to a moral panic or provide evidence that public were panicking.
-Left-realists argue that inner-city residents fears about mugging are realistic.

Question 19

Explaining differences: Other approaches - Neighbourhood (Fitzgerald et al 2003)

Answer 19

-Found rates were higher in poorer areas where deprived young people came into contact with more affluent groups.
-Young black people were likelier to live in these areas.
-However, white people affected by these factors were also likelier to commit street crime.
-So ethnicity isn’t a cause, but black people were likelier to live in poorer areas because of racial discrimination in housing.

Question 20

Explaining differences: Other approaches - Getting caught (Sharpe & Budd 2005)

Answer 20

-Black offenders were likelier to be caught.
-More likely to commit crimes such as robbery, where victims can easilt identify them.
-& they were likelier to be excluded or associate with known criminals, increasing ‘visibility’ to the authorities.

Question 21

Ethnicity & Victimisation

Answer 21

Racist victimisation occurs when an individual is selected as a taher because of their race, ethnicity or religion:
-This isn’t a new concept; but was brought into greater focus after Lawrence.
-Info on racist victimisation comes from 2 main surveys such as the CSEW & police-recorded stats which usually cover:
-Racist incidents
-Racially or religiously aggravated offences

Question 22

Extent & risk of victimisation

Answer 22

-76,000 hate crimes & 6,800 religious ones in England & Wales 2019-20.
-Most go unreported, CSEW estimates there was 104,000 racial & 42,000 religious motivated incidents.
-On average, around 60,000 racially aggravated offences per year.
-Mixed (20%) had a higher risk of being a victim than Black (14%), White (13%) & Asians (13%).
-May be due to factors other than ethnicity such as unemployment, young and being male is linked with victimisation.

:( Stats record instances of victimisation, but not the victims experiences. Sampson & Philips note, racist victimisation is ongoing over time with repeated incident of abuse.

Question 23

Response to victimisation

Answer 23

-Ranges from situational crime prevention measures (fire-proof doors) to organised self-defence campaigns aimed at physically defending neighbourhoods.
-Need to be understood in context of under-protection by the police who often ignore racial dimensions of victimisation or fail to report incidents properly.
-E.g. Macpherson Enquiry (1999) concluded the police investigation into the death of Lawrence, was ‘marred by professional incompetence, institutional racism’…