Ethnicity and Crime Flashcards
FUNCTIONALIST If the Statistics Reflect Reality
Strain Theory. Merton’s theory can clearly apply to members of some minority ethnic groups who statistically perform less well at school and therefore may be denied social mobility by legitimate means.
Bonds of attachment. New and first-generation migrants often live in transient communities in inner cities where there are few tight knit or established communities than in other localities (relate to Travis Hirschi and Shaw and McKay).
Subcultural theories. For the same reasons that Strain Theory might apply, people from minority-ethnic backgrounds might be more likely to form deviant subcultures. While most of the theories referred to “lower-class boys” it is clear that in many towns and cities, the “boys” in question (those joining gangs, etc.) are often from minority-ethnic groups.
Marx- If the Statistics Reflect Reality
Laws are made by the bourgeoisie to control the proletariat. For a range of reasons, some minority-ethnic groups are much more likely to be working class than not, therefore the same arguments exist in relation to ethnicity as exist for social class.
Stuart Hall suggested that black people were forced into the informal economy (and therefore potential criminal activity) by being a reserve army of labour only required to do “white man’s shit work”.
interactionism- If the Statistics Reflect Reality
Deviance amplification and secondary deviance. While most interactionist theories would explain why the statistical picture might be misleading, they can also explain why people from some minority-ethnic backgrounds might actually commit more crimes. The impact of labelling (e.g. stereotypes about the “typical criminal”) might lead to deviancy amplification, secondary deviance and a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Differential association. Edwin Sutherland suggested that people learn “deviant” values through their interactions, and therefore people brought up in, or living in, areas with high levels of crime might themselves become criminal. This could happen in “ghetto” areas.
RR -If the Statistics Reflect Reality
Underclass. African-Caribbean families are statistically more likely to be matrifocal lone-parent families (link to families). New Right sociologists argue that children from single parent families are more likely to commit crime because of the lack of a male role model, but also because of the creation of a workless, welfare-dependent culture.
Broken Windows. Shaw and McKay suggest that inner city areas are transient communities that don’t develop social solidarity and where new migrants don’t put down roots. It is therefore likely that such communities are less likely to self-regulate than suburban or rural communities and are therefore more likely to have broken windows.
LR- If the Statistics Reflect Reality
Relative Deprivation: For a variety of reasons, members of some minority-ethnic groups are more likely to be unemployed, working class or have a low income.
Social Exclusion: Racial discrimination can lead to social exclusion and marginalisation which, left realists also argue, can lead to criminality. Marginalised groups, such as young black unemployed men have no organisations to represent their interests (unlike employed groups who can be unionised) which leads to a lack of power and frustration
Subculture: The above factors lead to the formation of delinquent subcultures, especially among young, unemployed males. This leads to higher levels of utilitarian crime (theft, robbery ‘muggings’) as a means of coping.
EVAL OF If the Statistics Reflect Reality
Their ideas on policing can be criticised on the basis that racism towards black and Asian groups can be based on different stereotypes. Black people are seen as dangerous, aggressive and threatening whereas Asian people are stereotyped as passive and bookish.
Additionally, these ideas can be criticised as being outdated. These stereotypes have changed since the 9/11 attacks when Asian people, particularly Muslims were increasingly seen as dangerous and a threat to UK society from within.
Are the police racist?
Lea and Young acknowledge that the police do act in racist ways and often carry prejudiced ideas but they don’t believe that discriminatory policing (such as the overuse of stop and search) accounts for the difference in statistics
90% of crimes are reported by the public rather than detected by the police reducing the impact of any police racism which might exist
There is a difference between the stop and search, arrest and prosecution rates between black and Asian groups. If the police were racist, wouldn’t they be equally racist to both ethnic minority groups?
Hall, Policing the Crisis
moral panic over “mugging” in the early 1970s. stereotypical reporting = young black men as potential muggers therefore role of folk devils. In fact, mugging (not an official category of crime in any case) was not increasing dramatically.
moral panic= crisis of British capitalism
state deflected attention on to a small group who could be scapegoated and via media the state could be portrayed as cracking down firmly, using new repressive policing which would be useful in tackling future unrest. Young black people were suitable for this role because of their visibility and powerlessness in the sense of lacking organizations or representatives to speak on their behalf
institutional racism in the police force
Stephen Lawrence was murdered by a racist gang, police inquiry was hugely unsuccessful
————-> McPherson Report (famously described the Metropolitan Police as being institutionally racist.)
stop and search by police
Phillips and Bowling- that black people were believed to be prone to violent crime and drug abuse, incomprehensible, suspicious, hard to handle, naturally excitable, aggressive, lacking brainpower, troublesome and ‘tooled up’.
Reiner
Canteen culture - findings on racial prejudice and stereotyping have not been restricted to constables. presence of black people as problematic for the police
Foster
found that explicit racist language was no longer tolerated and reached the view that it is gradually disappearing officers felt less able to carry out unjustified stop and search or ‘fishing trips’ without proper grounds for searching. However, the authors point to the possibility that racist attitudes and behaviour may simply have gone ‘underground’.
Phillips and Bowling
evidence that police officers routinely use skin colour as a criterion for ‘stop and search’ based on stereotyping and over-generalisations about the involvement of black people in crime. use of colour as a criterion is particularly marked in relation to ‘stop and search’ for drug offences
Gilroy- myth of black criminality
statistical differences in recorded criminality between ethnic groups as being due to police stereotyping and racist labelling. struggle to develop cultures of resistance against white-dominated authorities and police forces.
