Ethnicity and crime Flashcards
What are some statistics for Black people in relation to crime and deviance ?
. Black people are twice as likely to be arrested and convicted
. Black people are almost three times more likely to be sent to prison
. In some areas black people are 29 times more likely to be stopped and searched
Statistic for mixed ethnic people :
Those of mixed ethnicity are significantly more likely to be arrested than white people
Statistic for asian people
Asian people are more likely to be stopped and searched
What do the statistics for ethnic groups in crime show ?
Shows criminalisation of ethnic minority groups
- e.g. those defined / labelled as criminals
. also poses the question - do eth miners groups commit more crime or are they wrongly overrepresented?
What did Graham and Bowling Find in their study on ethnic minorities ?
They found that :
. Black (43%) and white (44%) people had similar and almost identical rates of crime but asian actually had lower rates ( indian 30%, pakistani 28% and bangladeshi 13% )
What did Sharp and Budd Find in their study on ethnic minorities ?
Notes that the 2003 offending, crime and justice survey of 12k people found that white and mixed ethnicity were more likely to say they had committed a crime, followed by black ( 28% ) and asian ( 21% )
What was the trend in victim surveys when respondents were asked to identify if they have been victims of crime ?
Commonly the reported ethnicity of a ‘mugger’ is black
What does the Brisih Crime Survey in 2007 show ?
The survey found that in 90% of crime where the victim was white at least one of the offenders were white
What are some reasons for ethnic rates of offending ?
. BAME people feel the ‘strain’ more
. Institutional racism
. interactionist theories
. subcultural theories
How are BAME people represented in the media and the criminal justice system ?
BAME people being disproportionately represented in the cjs as deviants
What is Gilroys theory - Myth of black criminality
The idea that black criminality is a myth - black people are not criminals they are just represented / labelled as such
How does Mertons - Strain theory - Relate to crime statistics in BAME people ?
Ethnic minority groups are over represented in poverty measure - 40% of ethnic minorities classified as below poverty line - link to status frustration + illegitimate opportunist structure
- The lack of resources leads to strain but a lack of legitimate opportunities leads to retreatism or innovation in order to achieve society’s goals
What did Hall et al identify ?
. Examined the unequal structure of British society and the perceptions of the black community in the UK
. Identifying the aggressive policing tactics based on labels given to BAME ( specifically black people that are labelled as ‘dangerous’ )
. Media legitimised police actions by portraying black communities as criminal - like George Floyd
- States the government distracts society from the ‘real’ issue by creating an issue - by creating their ‘own’ criminal government that increases danger to distract from societal issues - like capitalism
What did Waddington and Feilding identify ?
They both found evidence of racial stereotyping in the attitudes of off-duty police and development of a ‘canteen culture’
- Further found that whites have the lowest stop and search rates - With black peoples being stopped and searched 9 times more than white people in 2019
What are some reasons for differences in crime rates between ethnicities ?
. Institutional racism
. Strain theory
. Over policing - Labelling / racist policing
. Racial profiling
