crime + deviance: ethnicity + criminalisation

Question 1

how are black and asian people over-represented in criminal justice system?

Answer 1

-black people make up 3% of population but 13% of prison population
-asian people make up 6.9% of population but 8% of prison population

Question 2

what are alternative sources of statistics?

Answer 2

-victim surveys
-self report studies

Question 3

what are victim surveys?

Answer 3

ask individuals to say what crimes they have been victims of
ask victims to identify the ethnicity of the person who committed the crime against them

Question 4

what do victim surveys show?

Answer 4

-black people are significantly over-represented among those identified by victims as offenders
-show a great deal of crime = intra-ethnic, so it takes place within rather than between ethnic groups

Question 5

limitations of victim surveys?

Answer 5

-only cover personal crimes which accounts for 1/5 of all crimes
-exclude under 10s
-exclude crimes by + against organisations so doesn’t tell us ethnicity of white-collar/ corporate criminals

Question 6

what did Phillips + Bowling find about victims memory of events?

Answer 6

evidence suggests that White victims may ‘over-identify’ Black suspects, saying offender was black even when they’re not sure

Question 7

what are self report studies?

Answer 7

ask individuals to disclose their own dishonest + violent behaviour

Question 8

what did Graham + Bowling find in self-report studies?

Answer 8

found White + Black rates of offending were similar (44% + 43%) but Indian (30%), Pakistani (28%) and Bangladeshi (13%) were much lower

Question 9

what do findings of self report studies do?

Answer 9

challenge the stereotype of Black people as more likely than white people to offend

Question 10

what do Phillips and Bowling note about policing?

Answer 10

since 1970s there has been many allegations of oppressive policing of minority ethnic communities including:
-mass stop + search operations
-paramilitary tactics
-excessive surveillance
-police violence and deaths in custody

Question 11

what is Stop and Search?

Answer 11

police can use this power to stop and search someone they have ‘reasonable suspicion’ of wrong doing

Question 12

how much more likely is a black person to be stopped and search compared to a white person?

Answer 12

9x more likely

Question 13

how much more likely is an Asian person to be stopped and searched compared to a white person?

Answer 13

over 2x as likely

Question 14

what did the Terrorism Act 2000 mean?

Answer 14

police can stop and search persons or vehicles whether or not they have reasonable suspicion
stats show Asian people are more likely to be stopped + searched than other people under the Terrorism Act

Question 15

what are the 3 possible reasons for disproportionate use of stop and search against members of minority ethnic groups?

Answer 15

-police racism
-ethnic differences in offending
-demographic factors

Question 16

what did the Macpherson report find?

Answer 16

it was an investigation into racist murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence
concluded that there was institutional racism within Metropolitan police

Question 17

what is difference in arrests for black people vs white people?

Answer 17

Black people was 3x amount of white people

Question 18

what is the difference with cautions?

Answer 18

black + asian arrestees were less likely than white arrestees to receive a caution

Question 19

what is the reason for this?

Answer 19

members of minority ethnic groups are more likely to deny the offence + exercise their right to legal advice
however not admitting the offence means they cannot be let off with a caution and more likely to be charged instead

Question 20

what do studies show about the CPS?

Answer 20

they are more likely to drop cases against minority ethnic groups

Question 21

what do Bowling and Phillips suggest this is because?

Answer 21

evidence presented to CPS from police is often weaker and based on stereotyping minority ethnic groups as criminals

Question 22

what type of court to minority ethnic groups tend to go for it?

Answer 22

tend to opt for a trial in front of a jury at Crown Court compared to magistrates court
may be due to distrust of magistrates impartiality

Question 23

are Black and Asian defendants more or less likely to be found guilty?

Answer 23

less likely

Question 24

what does this suggest?

Answer 24

discrimination, the police + CPS may be bringing weaker or less serious cases against members of minority groups that are thrown out by the court

Question 25

what is difference in imprisonment rates between the races?

Answer 25

-Black offenders have imprisonment rates 1 percentage point higher and Asian offenders 3.4 points higher than white offenders

Question 26

what is one possible reason for harsher sentences?

Answer 26

Pre-sentence reports written by probation officers
- it is intended as a risk assessment to assist magistrates in deciding on appropriate sentence for given offender

Question 27

what did Hudson + Bramhall find about PSR’s ?

Answer 27

they allow for unwitting discrimination as reports written for Asian offenders were less comprehensive + suggested they were less remorseful than White offenders
said this bias is in context of ‘demonising’ Muslims in the wake of events of 11th September 2001

Question 28

how much of the prison population is from minority ethnic groups?

Answer 28

just over 1/4

Question 29

how much more likely is a black person to be in prison compared to a white person?

Answer 29

almost 4x more likely