Crime - Ethnicity Flashcards
What is the race population of the UK according to the 2011 census?
86% White 2.2% Dual Heritage 7.5% Asian 3.3% Black 1% Other
How much of prison population are from ethnic minority?
Prison Stats (2007) - 1/4 of prison population are from ethnic minority
- 13.7% Black
- 3.5% Mixed Race
How more likely are blacks to be involved with police?
Ministry of Justice (2008)
- 7x more likely to be stopped and searcher
- 3x more likely to be arrested
- 5x more likely to go to prison
What did Bowling and Phillips say about over representation of blacks as perpetrators?
White victims remember black offender if not sure who did it.
- they feel over policed and less protected.
What explanations are there for ethnic minority crime?
POLICE RACISM - McPherson report 1999 after murder of Stephan Lawrence concluded that there is institutional racism in the police (canteen culture)
– Bowling and Phillips - officers hold negative stereotypes = more stops and searches.
ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN OFFENDING - police don’t act of relevant information but often act without specific knowledge.
DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS - over represented in young, unemployed, manual working groups.
What arguments are their that ethnic minorities are less likely to be prosecuted?
More likely to drop ethnic minority cases
- Bowling and Phillips say this is because their is weaker evidence based on stereotypes.
discrimination = weaker cases.
What evidence is there that Asians are getting longer sentences and why?
Roger Hood - 5 crown courts and found black men 5% more likely to get custodial sentences (3 months) but Asian men 9 months longer than white men.
- due to demonising Muslims after 9/11.
What are the major social events the criminal justice system and ethnicity?
1950s
Enoch Powell ‘rivers of blood’ speech
Brixton riots
Scarman report - “just a few ‘bad apples’” (not institutional racism)
Stephen Lawrence
McPherson report - police racism institutional
1999
What do left realists say about crime and ethnicity?
Lea and Young (1993)
CRIME IS PRODUCT OF RELATIVE DEPRIVATION. SUBCULTURE AND MARGINALISATION
- racism led to marginalisation and economic exclusion of minorities (unemployment, poverty, poor housing).
- media emphasise consumerism creates relative deprivation by setting materialistic goals that minorities unable to legitimately achieve.
- response in form of delinquent subcultures (unemployed black males).
More utilitarian crime (theft and robbery) as a result of RD
More non - utilitarian crime as a result of marginalisation
How do left realists explain the differences in crime statistics?
Lea and Young - discriminatory policing cannot fully explain statistic difference:
– 90% of crime reported to police is through people, not police discovering themselves (so can’t be all police racism).
differences between minorities also cannot be explained by police racism
– blacks have higher criminalisation rate then Asians (police would have to be very selective in racism)
Evaluation of left realists?
- police stereotype differently - not no police racism.
since 9/11 there has been a rising Asian criminalisation rate.
What do neo - marxists say about crime and ethnicity?
Gilroy - myth of black criminality
- myth created by racist stereotypes of African Caribbean’s and Asians.
Say these groups are no more criminal but police racism and stereotypes mean that they become criminalised (dark figure of crime)
- ethnic minority crime is a form resistance against racist society (roots in struggles against British imperialism)
Evaluation of neo - marxists?
Lea and Young
- first generation immigrants (1950 and 60’s) were law abiding so unlikely they passed struggle onto children.
- most crime intra - ethnic - romanticises street crime as a revolution
- Asian crime rates low - police only racist to blacks?
What did Stuart Hall say about ethnicity and crime?
1970’s moral panic over black muggers which served in interest of capitalism.
- myth of black mugger served as scapegoat to distract attention from true causes of problems such as unemployment. (capitalist crisis)
The moral panic divided working class on racial grounds therefore weakening opposition to capitalism.
- black crime not solely product of police and media labelling.
– crisis of capitalism was increasingly marginalising black youth through unemployment (lead to petty crimes for survival)
Evaluation of Stuart Hall?
- Downes and Rock (2011) inconsistent claims - black street crime not rising but also rising because of unemployment.
- does not show HOW capitalist crisis led to moral panic or provide evidence.
- left realists argue are not panicky, but real.
