Differential enforcement of the law?

Question 1

What are some of the main factors that are used to explain differential enforcement of the law?

Answer 1

Moral panics
social class
age
gender
ethnicity

Question 2

The 2011 Tottenham riots?

Answer 2

Created a moral panic - affected the sentencing of those involved, as individuals committing minor crimes (theft) received a much more harsher sentence than they would have in normal circumstances.

Question 3

Examples of the harsh sentences from the 2011 Tottenham riots?

Answer 3

• John Blackshaw and Perry Sutcliffe-keenan were jailed for 4 years for using facebook to incite disorder
• Punishments for handling stolen goods increased from 4 months to as much as 18 months in prison

Question 4

What are some case studies for differential enforcement of the law?

Answer 4

• Brock Turner (age): raped an unconscious woman at a college party but only got sentenced 6 months in prison
• vanessa George (gender): 124 counts of making and distributing indecent images of children but only sentenced for 7 years compared to male co-defendent who bought the images and got 9 years in prison.
• Gary Barlow (social class): Invested £26m into a tax-relief scheme and received very little press coverage and not been sentenced only had to pay all the money back