Ethnicity

Question 1

Which ethnicities are over represented in the system?

Answer 1

Black people, and some Asian groups (according to official statistics)

Question 2

Statistics of black people in the criminal justice system..

Answer 2

• black people are twice as likely to be cautioned than white people.
• black people were 2.4 times as likely to be arrested than white people.

Question 3

What is a victim survey?

Answer 3

Asks individuals what crimes they have been victims of, usually in the past 12 months.
The aim is to overcome the problem of offences that have not been recorded or reported by the police.

Question 4

Strengths and weaknesses of using victim surveys..

Answer 4

Strengths: Gain information about ethnicity and offending
Find that a great deal of crime is intra ethnic

Weaknesses: Only cover personal crimes like corporate crimes so does not tell us about ethnic variations of crime.
Relies on memory

Question 5

What is a self report study?

Answer 5

Asks individuals to disclose their own dishonest and violent behaviour (usually anonymously).

Question 6

Strength and weakness of the self report study

Answer 6

Shows light on the dark figure of crime.
However, low response rate effects the representativeness

Question 7

What did GRAHAM & BOWLING find on the self report study

Answer 7

Found that offending rates for white and black respondents were very similar- 43% and 44% respectively.

Question 8

What did SHARP & BUDD find on the self report study?

Answer 8

Found that white and those of mixed origins were likely to say they had committed an offence (40%) followed by blacks (28%) and Asians (21%)

Question 9

How are policing strategies and tactics seen as racist?

Answer 9

1. Stop and search - Black people are 7x more likely and Asians are 2x as likely to be stopped and searched by the police than whites.
2. Terrorism Act- Asians were 3 x more likely to be stopped and searched without reasonable suspicion than any other groups.

Question 10

Arrests and cautions statistics

Answer 10

In 2014/15 the arrests for black people was 3 x the rate for whites.

Question 11

When and why did Asian groups start becoming ‘a threat’ to society?

Answer 11

Late 1990s, the increase of asian gangs, the 9/11 attacks and the poor relationship between the police and Asian youths led society to believe that Asians and Muslims were the enemy.

Question 12

What case study shows that the police have poorly investigated cases due to ethnicity?

Answer 12

Stephen Lawrence case in 1993.