Ethnicity Flashcards
What does data about stop and search tell us?
2019-2020: per 1000 people stop and search rates:
157 Black other compared to 5 for White British an 29 for Bangladeshi
- The police are racist
- May have been in a racially diverse inner city
- Personal appearance, demeanour
- Individual police responses
- Black people are more criminal so are stopped more
What does data about disproportionality in arrests tell us?
Black other- 64 compared to 9 for White British and 14 for Bangladeshi
- The police are racist
- Personal appearance demeanour
- Being Islamic and suspected of terrorism might explain differences between indian and pakistanis/bengalis
- Certain groups are more criminal and so are arrested more
- Types of crimes- black people may commit the more obvious crimes
What does data about custody rates by ethnicity and age group tell us?
The custody rate is slightly higher for minority groups than white people:
Type of crime Previous criminal record Living situation and family, employment- character Court etiquette Judge racism
What do self-report studies tell us about ethnicity and offending?
The last major self-report study of ethnicity and offending in Britain was carried out in 2005, with more than 10,000 respondents, including a sample booster of minority ethnic participants.
It collected data on 20 offences (mainly street crimes) and found that the highest rates of offending were among ‘Whites’, with 42% admitting an offence in their lifetime, compared with 39% of those with ‘Mixed’ ethnicity, 28% of those with ‘Black’ ethnicity, and 21% of those with ‘Asian’ ethnicity.
Whites also had the highest offending rates for more serious offence categories.
The only category where Black offending rates were higher than White rates was in terms of robbery (2% compared to 0.5%)- but robbery only accounts for a small proportion of crimes so cannot therefore account for the overrepresentation of Black offenders and suspects in the criminal justice system.
Describe racial trends in hate crime.
Race hate crimes accounted for about 72% of hate crime offences and had risen by 6% since 2018-19, the figures reveal.
It takes the police 5 times as longer to deal with a hate crime offence than another
Explain ethnicity and fear of crime.
In 2015/16, around one-fifth of people aged 16 and over in England and Wales believed that they were either ‘very likely’ or ‘fairly likely’ to be a victim of crime in the next year.
Overall, the figures for fear of crime have remained consistent between 2013/14 and 2015/16.
In 2015/16, a smaller proportion of White people reported a fear of crime compared with Asian people, Black people, and those from the Other ethnic group.
Asian people and those from the Other ethnic group had the highest levels of fear of crime.
Explain the role of policing in creating the inequalities shown by the data.
Following the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, the resulting Macpherson Report found that the Metropolitan Police was institutionally racist, and that there weren’t enough BAME people working as officers.
The report said stop and search tactics were useful when used the right way - but it wanted the police to actively review the ethnicity of people being stopped, to look out for patterns that might suggest discrimination.
Stop and Search data shows clear ethnic disproportionality.
Black and Asian people are more likely than White people to be stopped and searched repeatedly and have more intrusive searches. When serious violence or terrorism is a concern, police can stop and search without reasonable suspicion of a crime, and minority ethnic groups are particularly prone to searches in these circumstances.
Whilst Phillips and Bowling recognise that demographic factors play a role in this disproportionality, they argue that stereotypes and prejudice may still play a role, and it is inherently unfair and undermines public support for the police.
Arrests data also shows clear disproportionality, and, after arrest, minority ethnic groups are more likely to remain silent, seek legal offence, and deny the offence.
What does the data on sentencing and imprisonment suggest?
The data on sentencing and imprisonment is clearly quite complex, but the custody rate is higher for some minority ethnic groups. This may be the result of unconscious bias, or other factors.
A number of factors can affect whether those convicted are sent to prison, particularly the seriousness of the offence.
Other factors that are statistically significant in 2011 included previous convictions, and nationality. It may also be that plea has some impact.
What does the left realist approach say when explaining race and criminality?
Lea and Young (1984), leading writers in the left realist tradition, accept that high levels of crime really do exist in inner city areas where there are often high numbers of members of ethnic minorities, and draw attention to the fact that those who live here are the main victims of crime as well. Their explanation of crime is based on the concepts of:
Relative Deprivation- Minorities suffer relative deprivation not only in areas shared with sections of the white working class (high unemployment and poor environment), but also racial discrimination and racially motivated attacks.
Marginalisation- Young unemployed blacks are marginalised in that they are unorganised and have few pressure groups to lobby on their behalf, so their frustrations are more likely to be expressed in illegal activity.
Subculture- Subcultural responses include the hustling subculture described by Pryce in his ethnographic study of St Paul’s in Bristol, with young blacks involved in petty street crime, drug dealing and prostitution, getting by from day to day.
Lea and Young argue that it would be very surprising if there wasn’t higher levels of crime in groups that are relatively deprived and marginalised. They argue that statistics are not entirely the result of police racism but, rather, reflect some real and significant differences in crime rates between ethnic groups.
What does Paul Gilroy say when explaining race and criminality?
Gilroy comes from an anti-racist perspective and describes a ‘myth of black criminality’ and attributed statistical differences in recorded criminality between ethnic groups as being due to police stereotyping and racist labelling .
Gilroy also argued that crime amongst Black British ethnic groups was a legacy of the struggle against White dominance in former colonies such as Jamaica. When early migrants came to Britain they faced discrimination and hostility, and drew upon the tradition of anticolonial struggle to develop cultures of resistance against White-dominated authorities and police forces.
While Left Realists such as Lea and Young argued that some criminal acts such as rioting could involve protest against marginalisation, but Paul Gilroy goes much further, seeing most crime by Black ethnic groups as essentially political and as part of the general resistance to White Rule.
Evaluate Gilroy’s theory of race and criminality.
This theory is criticised by Lea and Young (1984) on several grounds:
(-) First generation immigrants were actually very law-abiding citizens and as such did not resist against the colony of Britain and were less likely to pass this anti-colonial stance to their kids.
(-) Most crime is against other people of the same ethnic group and so cannot be seen as resistance to racism.
(-) Lea and Young criticise Gilroy for romanticising the criminals as somehow revolutionary.
(-) Asian crimes rates are similar or lower than whites, which would mean the police were only racist towards blacks, which is unlikely.
(-)Most crime is reported to police not uncovered by them so it is difficult to suggest racism within the police itself.
What does the Neo-Marxist perspective say when explaining race and criminality?
According to Hall et al., the apparent increase in mugging was down to the efforts of a single police officer in the British Transport Police who was prone, with his colleagues, to arresting groups of young Black men for alleged muggings. Despite the lack of evidence- and often even victims!- the officer was successful in securing many convictions, producing an entirely manufactured crime wave.
Evaluate Stuart Hall’s approach to explaining race and criminality.
(+) It may be biased, BUT: a wide ranging and imaginative study based on detailed evidence.
(-) However, very difficult to prove that this was about a crisis of capitalism. Furthermore, the association between criminality and Black youth, made by both the police the media, have continued since the 1970s, so it may not be necessary to have a ‘crisis of capitalism’ to scapegoat minorities
What are some of the cultural factors that thinkers on the Right suggest are involved in elevated crime rates among certain ethnic groups?
Theorists such as Charles Murray and Tony Sewell suggest that family structure- i.e. lone parent families- may encourage criminality as (according to Murray) such family structures may be evidence of loose morality, and, according to both, single mothers may be inadequately equipped to discipline boys.
They also both emphasise the contribution of particular norms and values to criminality- for Murray, the distinct norms and values of the ‘underclass’, and for Sewell, ‘gangsta culture’.
