ETHNICITY & CRIME Flashcards
What are the two divisive arguments about black and ethnic minority patterns of crime?
- Certain ethnic groups are more criminal.
- Highlight racism within the CJS.
What did Young accept about the two views of patterns of criminality?
They are not mutually exclusive.
What does Young state about discrimination against black males in the CJS?
Convincing evidence, though there may also be higher rates of criminality amongst this group.
What interactionist concept can be applied? To explain what?
Labelling. To explain the high levels of arrest and conviction rates for black males.
Anderson - policing in a neighbourhood.
Argues that police tended to assume white people were middle-class and trustworthy.
Anderson - ‘colour-coding’.
Often worked to confuse race, age, class and gender issues as well as ignoring individual behaviour.
The McPherson Report.
Concluded the official inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
The Scarman Report.
Official response to racial violence and rioting in some British cities in the early 1980s.
What did the Scarman Report conclude?
Social and economic disadvantages faced by ethnic minority groups could create a disposition towards violent protest.
Hall - Stephen Lawrence.
Finds the flawed police investigation into Stephen Lawrence’s murder, unsurprising.
Bowling - McPherson Report.
Ethnic minority neighbourhoods were still over-policed with military style methods.
‘Police culture’.
Refers to a shared set of norms, values, attitudes and practices, which develop amongst the police.
Smith & Grey - report for the Policy Studies Institute
Highlighted the explicit and accepted racist language of the officers they were observing.
Holdaway.
Discusses the ‘radicalisation’ of policing, mundane police work and relationships can take on a ‘racial framing’.
Scraton - force.
See the police as an occupying force imposed on working class and ethnic minority communities.
Scraton - resistance.
Police impose law which reflects ruling class interests, and black criminality is part of a ‘culture of resistance’.
In 1000 white people how many are stopped and searched?
How many people in 1000 black people?
White: 6
Black: 54
9x more likely.
Hood.
Race affects sentencing, black men 5% more likely to be imprisoned.
Anderson.
Police tended to assume white people were middle-class and more trustworthy.
Waddington.
Higher stops and searches is not necessarily evidence of institutional racism.
Glynn.
Belief that the CJS is racist, creates a defiant reaction.
Gunther.
Highlights the significance of ‘road culture’ and ‘badness’ on lifestyle choices.
Young.
Evidence of black males experiencing discrimination in the CJS, however, there may also be higher rates of criminality.
What is the pattern with crime levels among British Asians?
Until recently, have been lower than those of white people. This has been linked to socialisation within asian families and them not fitting the police stereotype of ‘criminals’.
