Ethnicity crime and justice Flashcards
what are stats to show that black and asian people are over represented
• Black people make up just 3% of the population , but 13% of prison population
• Asian people make up 6.9% of the population , but 8% of prison population
what are victim surveys
Crime survey for England and wales ask individuals what crimes they have been victims of
- help gain information when they ask victims to identify the ethnicity of the person who committed the crime against them .
- show that crime is intraethnic
what are 5 recent statistics for ethnicity and crime
- (2024) , people from minority ethnic backgrounds constitute 27% of UK prison population , despite only making up 18% of general population ( TANDFONLINE.COM)
- The Lammy Review (2017) => Black , Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals are more likely to receive custodial sentences for certain offences compared to white counterparts
- 2022/2023 , the stop and search rate per 1000 people was 24.5 for black individuals , compared to 5.9 for white individuals ( GOV.UK)
- In 2022/2023 , arrest rate for black individuals was 20.4 per 1000 people , which is 2.2 times higher than the rate for white individuals . (9.4 per 1000) ( GOV.UK)
- Black ethnic groups has the highest reoffending rate , while white ethnic group has the highest average number of reoffences per reoffender (GIV.UK)
what is the Case of Stephen Lawrence ( 1993)
- A black teenager , Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racially motivated attack in London
- Institutional racism within the police - MacPherson report
- Took nearly 20 years for two of his killers to be convicted , despite strong evidence
what was the case of the Wrongful conviction of the “Cardiff Three” (1988)
- five black and mixed ethnicity men were wrongly convicted for the murder of Lynette White
- Convicted based on coerced confessions and police misconduct , despite no forensic evidence linking them to the crime
What was the case of The windrush scandal (2018)
- many members of the windrush generation were wrongly detained , denied legal rights and even deported due to failures in government record - keeping
- Some individuals were imprisoned for immigration offences despite having lived in the UK for decades
what do Philips and Bowling argue (2012) (limitations of victim surveys )
- evidence suggests that white victims may over -identify Black suspects saying that the offender was black even when they’re not sure
what are some limitations of using victim surveys
- only cover personal crimes , which make up only a fifth of all crimes
- they exclude the under 10s = minority ethnic groups contain a higher r proportion of young people
- exclude crime by and against organisation so they tell us nothing about the ethnicity of white collar and corporate criminals
what do Graham and Bowling argue ( 1995) ( self report studies )
- Based on a sample of 2500 , found that white and black rates of offending were very similar (44% and 43%) but indian (30%) , pakistani (28%) and Bangladeshi (13%) rates were much lower
what does Gilroy state (neomarxist)
- perception of black people as criminals = myth
- official police statistics cannot be trusted - police have negative stereotypes of black people so more likely to offend and charge them
- not surprising that black people commit crime as have to fight to defend themselves in an unjust society
what does Hall state (neomarxist )
- moral panics and focus of public concern and took the attention away from the economic problems in the Uk at that time
- immigrants , particularly black men were associated with “mugging “ by the media
- therefore became the “folk devils “ and focus for society’s problems
- led to increased stop and search
STAT : stop and search for black people is 28x higher than white peiple
what’s evaluation for gilroy
Lea and Young :
- gilroy romanticises street crime as somehow revolutionary , when in their view it is nothing of the sort
- asian crimes rates are similar to or lower than for white . If gilroy were right then people are only racist towards black peiple and not asians which seems unlikely
what’s evaluation for hall
downes and rock ;
hall are inconsistent in claiming that black street crime is we borrowing but also it was rising because of unemployment
Left realists :
- inner city residents’ fears about mugging are not panicky but realistic
what do Lea and young state
- racism has lead to marginalisation and economic exclusion of minority communities who face higher levels of unemployment, poverty and poor housing
- media’s emphasis on consumerism promoted a sense of relative deprivation
- a response = formation of delinquent subcultures
-higher levels of utilitarian crime
what does nightingale state
studied young black males in philadelphia:
- crime was driven by relative deprivation
- faced systematic exclusion due to racism and poverty
what’s evaluation for lea and young
- arrests rates for asian people may be lower than for black people not because they’re less likely to offend but because police stereotype the groups differently , seeing black people as dangerous and asian people as passive
- Murray :
Blames single parent families in black communities for higher offending rates
what do Philips and Bowling state (2007)
members of ethnic minorities are more likely to think they’re over policed and under protected and to have limited faith in the police
what’s the casey report (2023)
report branding the met police as institutionally racist sexist and homophobic
- black people are under protected and over police
STAT : 81% more likely to be in police misconduct
what’s an evaluation for stop and search
not necessarily racism => Lea and young :
- ethnic minorities are more likely to be involved in street crime due to marginalisation
what does Roger hood state
study of 5 crown courts => black men were 5% more likely to receive a custodial sentence and were given sentences on average three month than white men
-STAT ; Black peoole were almost 4 x more likely to be in prison than white peiple
what do sharp and budd state
black offenders were more likely than white offenders to have been arrested
- more likely to commit crimes such as robbery
what’s an evaluation for convictions and imprisonment of ethnic minorities
- ignore other social factors like gender and class
- ignore that ethnic minorities are also more likely to be victims
STAT : People from mixed ethnic backgrounds had a higher risk (20%) of becoming a victim of crime than Black (14%) and white and asian (13%)
