Ethnicity And Crime

Question 0

Gilroy, from a neo-Marxist perspective, argues that..

Answer 0

Black crime was a form of political resistance against a repressive, racist state. He denies there was greater criminality; instead, the media created a folk devil of black people

Question 1

Official statistics found that..

Answer 1

In 2007, 26% of male prisoners and 29% of female prisoners were from black and ethnic minority groups! despite making up only 9% of the general population

Question 2

However, criticisms of Gilroy are..

Answer 2

• he ignores the fact that much black crime is committed against other black people rather than just the ‘white establishment’
• also ignores that much crime is actually reported by the public, suggesting it is not the police being racist as they are just doing their job

Question 3

Support for Gilroy come from Hall et al who said that..

Answer 3

• During the 70’s Britain faced a crisis of hegemony where the leaders couldn’t convince the followers to follow.
• ruling class needed scapegoat due to this civil unrest - used the media to create the ‘black mugger’

Question 4

Hall et al believed that moral panic helped capitalism in several ways..

Answer 4

• firstly, the public was persuaded that society’s problems were caused by immigrants rather than faults of the capitalist system
• also, the government was able to justify the use of force to suppress the groups that were challenging them
• the societal reaction to threat of violence led to labelling of many young blacks as deviants

Question 5

Downers and Rock criticise Hall et al by saying that..

Answer 5

• The study was contradictory; claiming both that black street crime was not rising, while arguing it was bound to rise as a result of unemployment
• Also, the study fails to show how moral panic over mugging was caused by a crisis of British capitalism

Question 6

A further criticism of Hall et al comes from Young who argues that..

Answer 6

The study provides no evidence that the public was panicking about mugging, nor does it show that they had identified the crime with blacks. However he argues that it would’ve been rational if the public had been concerned about street crime

Question 7

Reiner (2000) argues that..

Answer 7

There exists a ‘Canteen Culture’ amongst the police.

A macho, suspicious, racist and mistrusting culture against non-whites

Question 8

Going against Gilroy are Lea and Young who come from a Left-Realist perspective. They look at..

Answer 8

How many ethnic minority groups suffer from;

• Marginalisation
• Relative deprivation
• Negative subcultures

Question 9

Lea and Young also argue that..

Answer 9

the disproportionate number of black males convicted of crime is not a result of racism as suggested by Gilroy. They believe there has been an increase in the ethnic minority crime rate

Question 10

Lea and Young go on to argue that individuals..

Answer 10

React to these factors in different ways, yet many black minority groups do in fact react through crime and deviance

Question 11

Bowling and Phillips support Lea and Young by saying that..

Answer 11

High levels of poverty and social exclusion could explain why there is a high level of robbery amongst black people

Question 12

Becker talks about the idea of labelling..

Answer 12

• E.g. British crime survey statistics show that young black males are more likely to be stopped and searched than any other group. This is result of police officers’ belief that this particular social group is more likely to offend
• can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 13

Cohens talks about the idea of Moral Panic..

Answer 13

This occurs when something or someone emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests, e.g. The ‘black mugger’