ethnicity and crime

Question 1

What is Lea and Young’s left realist argument to why BME’s appear more criminal?

Answer 1

• differences in statistics are because black people commit utilitarian crime as a result of material deprivation and non-utilitarian crime as a result of social frustration
• the police are more likely to be selectively racist against black people rather than asians

Question 2

What is an evalutation to Lea and Young?

Answer 2

• post 9/11, the police may be more prejudiced against asians than they used to be

Question 3

What is Gilroy’s neo-marxist argument to why BMEs appear more criminal?

Answer 3

• BME’s commit no more crime than any other group
• statistical differences are due to racist policing as they act on stereotypes
• BME often came from colonies and when they resisted racism it was criminalised

Question 4

What is an evaluation to Gilroy?

Answer 4

• 1st gen immigrants are unlikely to pass down anti-colonial views as they were very law-abiding
• most crime is intra-centric so it can’t be seen as anti colonial

Question 5

Why do neo-marxists Hall et al believe BME’s appear more criminal?

Answer 5

• capitalism used black muggings to spread fear in the 70s to distract people from the failing economy.
• black people aren’t more criminal they are just victims of capitalism

Question 6

What is an evaluation for Hall et al?

Answer 6

• they do not explain how the moral panic was created or evidence that ‘capitalism’ was behind it
• left realists argue the fear of mugging isn’t ‘panicky’ but real

Question 7

What are the three reasons why BME may be more criminal?

Answer 7

• family
• education
• media

Question 8

Why do the new right think the family makes BME’s more criminal?

Answer 8

• the growing rate of lone-parent families means children are being inadequately socialised and are not learning that crime is immoral

Question 9

What is an evaluation to the argument that familys make BME more criminal?

Answer 9

• predetermins that all lone-parent families inadequately socialise their children
• many people with male role models turn to crime so its a generalisation to assume that only those without turn to crime

Question 10

Why might education make BMEs more criminal?

Answer 10

• those who perform worse in education may turn to illegitimate means of making money
• black caribbean ethnicity are one of the worst performing ethnicities.

Question 11

What is an evalution to the argument that education makes BMEs more criminal?

Answer 11

• generalises that all black people will turn to crime if they perform badly in education
• black african ethnicities perform higher than average in education yet are still high in crime stats
• doesn’t count for asian ethnicities which are one of the highest achieving ethnicities but are still high on crime stats

Question 12

Why might the media make BMEs more criminal?

Answer 12

• media reinforces the idea that black people are more criminal leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 13

What is an evaluation to the argument that the media makes BMEs more criminal?

Answer 13

• assumes all black people will live up to the stereotype
• doesn’t account for asian ethnicities which were labelled as terrorists after 9/11