Ethnicity & Crime - 4.5 Flashcards
3 main ways of measuring criminality among ethnic groups
> Official Statistis
Victim Surveys
Self-Report Studies
Official Stats - Ethnicity & Criminalisation
> BAME overrepresented in CJS, despite being lowest percentage of population
> Black 7x + likely to be stopped & searched, 5x + likely to be in prison
Victim Surveys - Ethnicity & Criminalisation
> Crime often intra-ethnic
> Ask people to identify ethnicity of person who done crime vs them
> e.g. for mugging, black more likely to be identified
Criticisms of Victim Surveys
> Over identify black & only look at personal crimes
> Exclude under 16’s - BAME contain + proportion of young people
> No focus on white collar crime
Self-Report Studies - Graham & Bowling
> Black & white had equal rates of offending, Asian had lower rates
> Goes against the stereotype of black being more likely than whites to offend
Sharp & Budd (Self-Report Studies)
> Those from mixed ethnic origins more likely to self-report crimes
Examples of Racism in Criminal Justice System (CJS)
> Policing > Stop & Search > Arrests & Cautions > Prosecution > Trial > Sentencing & Prison
Phillips and Bowling - Policing
> EM are “over-policed & under protected & oppressed
> e.g. mass stop & search, surveillance etc.
> Fail to respond to racist violence
Stop & Search - Examples of Racism in CJS
> Black people more likely to be stopped and searched than white, only need reasonable suspicion.
> But only few stops result in arrests, also more Asian being stopped due to Terrorism Act (2000)
Canteen Culture (Police Racism)
Police Officers not racist themselves but when together can reinforce stereotypes then acted on duty.
Macpherson Report - (Police Racism)
Institutional Racism in police force in their handling of murder of Stephen Lawerence
Arrests & Cautions - Examples of Racism in CJS
> Asians less likely than white to get cautioned.
> EM more likely than whites to deny offence
Prosecution
> CPS more likely to drop cases against EM compared to white
Evidence given is often weaker & based on stereotypes of EM as criminals
Trial - Examples of Racism in CJS
> EM more likely to use trial in crown court rather than in magistrates due to mistrust of their impartiality (want a jury)
> But Crown Court can give harsher sentences
Convictions - Examples of Racism in CJS
> EM less likely to be found guilty, due to police/CPS discrimination
> Bring weaker cases vs EM, so thrown out by courts
Sentencing - Examples of Racism in CJS
> Larger jail sentences given to Black offenders rather white or Asian
> White or Asian more likely to get community sentences
> Due to differences in seriousness of offence/prior convictions.
Hood - Sentencing
> Even if seriousness of offence & prior convictions are considered
> Black men 5% more likely to get jail sentences longer than white men
Hudson & Bramall - Pre-Sentence Reports
> Harsher sentences due to PSR written by probation officers, allows for discrimination
> Reports on Asian less comprehensive & less remorseful than whites
> Bias due to demonising of Muslims, due to 9/11
Prison - Examples of Racism in CJS
> Black 5x more likely to be in prison than white & Black & Asian usually serve higher sentences
> EM less likely to be granted bail
LR - Explanations for Statistical Differences in Offending
> Black more likely to be criminals due to alienation & marginalisation & relative deprivation
Criticisms of Left Realism
> Rates for Asians lower due to police stereotypes of Blacks as aggressive & Asians as passive
> Stop & search for Asians more likely due to 9/11
Gilroy - Myth of Black Criminality - Neo-Marxism
> Black not more criminal than other groups, but CJS act on racist stereotypes, so more likely to be criminalised
Gilroy - EM crime as Political Resistance
> Black people in UK originate in former British colonies & anti-colonial struggles taught them to resist oppression e.g. riots & demonstrations
> When facing racism in UK, they used same means to defend themselves
> But political struggle was criminalised by state.
Lea & Young - Criticisms of Gilroy
> But 1st generation immigrants were law-abiding, colonial struggle wasn’t passed down, most crime is intra-ethnic
> Romanticises crime as revolutionary, but it’s not
> Asian crime rates are less or the same as white, seems police are only racist towards Black & not Asian which is not true
Hall et al - Policing the Crisis
> Economic recession in 70s caused a rise in unemployment, led to civil unrest e.g. mass strikes
> So capitalism appeared to be failing gov needed a scapegoat to divert attention away from this
> Recession leads to further economic marginalisation of Black youth leading to increase in robbery
Hall et al - Policing the Crisis (Role of Media)
> Led to new moral panic on robbery by media, done by Black youth
> Response was to put police in areas with higher crime which led to more arrests, causing more panic reported by media
> So attention is only on black criminality, not problems of capitalism, causing crime in 1st place
Downes & Rock - Criticisms of Hall
> Contradictory, claims black crime is exaggerated, but also says it’s bound to rise due to unemployment
> If crime rates increase it’s not moral panic but a real event
Fitzgerald - Neighbourhood Factors
> Street robberies higher in poor areas & when deprived young people come into contact with affluent groups
> Young Black people were more likely to live in poor areas, but poor white people in these areas were also more likely to do street crime
> Ethnicity not the cause
Sharp & Budd - Getting Caught
> Black people were more likely than white people to be arrested, as they’d done crimes where vicitms can identify them e.g. robbery
> & being more likely to be excluded from school & association with criminals raised visibility to police
Racist Victimisation with example
> Individual selected as target, due to race, ethnicity or religion
> e.g. racist murder of Stephen Lawerence & Macpherson Report
Extent & Risk of Victimisation
> Police recorded 54K racist incidents in UK in 2015, but much is underreported
> BCS estimates their were 89K, but only small number of people are prosecuted
> EM at more risk of being victims of crime
Responses to Victimisation
> EM active in responding to victimisation
> e.g. fireproof doors, letterboxes, self-defence campaigns etc
> Due to under protection by police e.g. Lawerence case found evidence of incompetence, institutional racism & failure of leadership
