Ethnicity Flashcards
ARE more likely to commit crime: Right Realism
- Young, black males more likely to commit crime due to poor socialisation in single parent families
- Lack of male role model, turn to criminal role models on the street e.g. gang leaders
AO3 - more likely to commit crime for monetary gain to support their families, not for male role models
ARE more likely to commit crime: Left Realism
- Marginalisation - edges of society - non-utilitarian crimes to express frustration and resentment¹
- Relative deprivation - cultural inclusion, economic exclusion due to social inequalities (poverty, racial discrimination) - utilitarian crimes²
AO3 - police action to reduce crime among minority ethnic groups has done the opposite -> stop and searches of black and minority ethnic youths led to deviancy amplification
ARE more likely to commit crime: Merton’s Strain Theory
- Pakistani youths more likely to experience a strain to anomie
- Want to achieve the goals of society but cannot do this legitimately due to hardships (racial discrimination) -> utilitarian crimes, innovation
AO3 - Bangladeshis and Pakistanis more likely to experience a strain to anomie due to being among the poorest groups in British society
Have lower crime rates due to a clear cultural identity, stronger controls and community = limits opportunity and desire to commit crime
ARE more likely to commit crime: Cohen’s Subcultural Theory
- Experience status frustration at being unable to achieve the goals of society
- Black youths underachieve at school, leave with little to no qualifications
- Join deviant subcultures to gain status and respect from peers by adhering to the deviant values of the subculture -> risk-taking behaviour like stealing cars or vandalism
AO3 - locality can determine what type of subculture they join, down to where they live instead of their ethnicity
Are NOT more likely to commit crime: Over-policing Ethnic Minority Groups
- Left realists argue that many ethnic minorities (Black, Pakistani, etc.) live in deprived, inner-city areas with high crime rates and military-style policing
- Regular stop and searches due to poor community relationships (do not share info with police)
- Black people 8x more likely to be stopped and searched
- Overuse of stop and searches leads to deviancy amplification -> young, black males engage in crime in response to the unjust, heavy policing
- Official statistics is a reflection of over-policing
- 2011 Riots -> many believe it was due to the killing of Mark Duggan (29 yrs) by the police in Tottenham, North London, with ongoing tension between the police and the local community
- The shooting heightened feelings of anger and distrust towards the police -> Riots
Are NOT more likely to commit crime: Police Stereotypes and Labelling
- Police stereotypes mean more ethnic minority groups are likely to be labelled as deviant/criminal
- Cicourel would argue this is due to ethnic minorities fitting the image of the typical delinquent (low income, WC backgrounds)
- Coronavirus - Black and Asians twice as likely to be fined under coronavirus rules compared to white
- AO2 -> Black woman fined £660 for failing to justify her journey on public transport and not providing her identity to police officers
Fine overturned days later when it was clear the police had no power to prevent journeys on public transport - Crime statistics are higher for ethnic minorities, due to police stereotyping not that they commit more crime
AO3 - Marxists - police turn attention away from ruling class crimes by focusing on minority ethnic groups from WC backgrounds
Are NOT more likely to commit crime: Misuse of Stop and Search Powers
- 38 stop and searches for every 1000 black people and 4 for every 1000 white people
- Phillips and Bowling argue policing is oppressive towards ethnic minorities and police take advantage of their ability to stop and search based on reasonable suspicion
- Worsened during coronavirus pandemic - black school worker detained whilst he was waiting in his car for the post office to open on route to work, handcuffed him despite him showing them his work badge
AO3 - Waddington et al -> stop and searches reflect the available population and not unfair policing of minority ethnic groups (black etc.)
Stop and searches occur at specific times in specific places, more ethnic minority groups in those places at those times, so more likely to be stopped and searched
Are NOT more likely to commit crime: Institutional Racism
- Minority ethnic groups over-represented in official statistics because the police are institutionally racist
- Institutional racism - discrimination against particular ethnic groups at an organisational level (intentionally/unintentionally)
- Stephen Lawrence - murdered at a bus stop by a group of white people for being black
- Case was mishandled by the police (key evidence destroyed, leads not followed up, assumed Stephen and his friends were in a gang because they were black)
- Macpherson Report concluded the police were institutionally racist in their handling of the case, collective failure of the police and CJS to investigate Stephen Lawrence’s murder properly and thoroughly due to his race
- Institutional racism was largely subconscious - officers were not intentionally racist, culture of the police force (mainly white) tend to label specific ethnic minorities as less seriously, contributing to racist practices
- Canteen Culture - discriminatory attitudes held by some police officers, express their views with their peers when they are relaxed (lunch break in the canteen) which lead to other police officers agreeing, unable to refute
AO3 - police brutality in the USA and UK -> police murder of George Floyd led to the Black Lives Matter protests to end unjust, racist policing
August Survey 2020 - indicated that ⅔ of ethnic minority groups in the UK feel the UK police are racially biased against them
Are NOT more likely to commit crime: Neo-Marxism (Gilroy, Hall et al - Policing the Crisis)
- Argues black criminality is a myth created by racist stereotypes of African Caribbeans
- Black people are not more criminals than anyone else
- Police and CJS criminalise black people by acting upon racist stereotypes
- Black crime is a political crime against white oppressors, a form of symbolic resistance against white society that has oppressed them (harassment, discrimination)
AO3 - black crime often intra racial (e.g. between black people - gang violence) so difficult to see black crime as an act of resistance to oppression
- Hall et al -> other flashcard
