ethnicity, crime and justice Flashcards
trends
black people make up 3% of the population but 13% of the prison population over represented.
Asians 6.5% of population, 7.7% of pp
white people under represented at all stages of the criminal justice system
how =ever these stats only tell us which ethnic groups are more likely to involvement in Cjs.
victim surveys
ask individuals to say what crime they have been victims of. in case of mugging, black people are significantly over represented.
limitations of victim surveys
rely on victim memories
only cover personal crimes
exclude white collar crime
self-report studies
ask individuals to disclose own dishonest/ violent behaviour
Graham and bowling
blacks and whites had similar rates of offending, white Indians and Pakistanis had lower rates. whites most likely to admit to offending. finding of self report studies challenge the stereotypes of blacks being more likely to offend
process of the criminal justices system
criminal justice process criminal justice processes- stop and search arrests and cautions prosecution and trail conviction and sentencing
Philips and bowling
since the 1970s there have been many allegations of oppressive policing of minority ethnic communities including mass stop and search operations, excessive surveillance and armed raids
stop and search
blacks are 7x more likely to be stopped and searched Asia 2x
Asians more likely to be stopped under the terrorism act
reasons why stop and search is disportionate
- police racism: institutional racism (Stephen Lawrence MacPherson report)
- ethnic minorities in offenders- reflects levels of offending
- demographic factors more likely to be stopped e.g.g youth
arrests and caution
arrest rates 3x for blacks, black and Asians less likely to receive a caution. one reason is that ethnic minorities more likely to deny offences and not be let off with a caution
prosecution and trial
criminal prosecution service more likely to drop cases against ethnic minorities . evidence is weaker and based in stereotypes
convictions and sentencing
interesting to note that blacks and Asians are less likely to be found guilty. but suggests discrimination that police are bringing weaker evidence. blacks given sentences on average on 3 months longer than whites
pre sentence reports
written by probation officers, risk assessment for sentencing. reports on Asians offenders less comprehensive and “demonised” muslins after 9/11
prison
2014 over a quarter from ethic minorities
blacks 4x likely to be in prison
ethnic minorities less likely to be granted bail
similar patterns in other countries E.g. countries
lea and young
argue that the official statics may actually reflect real offending rates in real life and not just police racism. this is due to relative deprivation, marginalisation and subcultures. the fact that 90% of crime is reported to the police and not found by the police suggest that it is not just police racism that calls high offending rates for ethnic minorities
criticisms for lea and young “left realists)
even if the police do not act under racist assumptions its not enough to explain the massive ethnic group differences in offending rates all the time
police racism cannot explain massive differences between blacks and Asians in the cjs.
Gilroy and Hall
reject that statistics reflect reality, but instead say that it is social construction
Gilroy
argues that black criminality is a product of a racist stereotype of Afro-Caribbean and Asians. in real life there is no real differences in criminality than any other group.
what does Gilroy argue that ethnic minority crime is
a resistance to racism in society and this resistance has root in British imperialism
Gilroy’s theory is criticised by lea and young on three grounds
first generation immigrants were very law-abiding citizens and as such did not resist against the colony of Britain and were less likely to pass an anti-colonial stance to their kids.
most crime is against other people of the same ethnic and cannot be seen as resistant to racism. criticise Gilroy for Romanising the criminals of revolutionary
Asian crime rates are similar or lower than whites, which would mean the police were only racist towards blacks which is unlikely
hall et al
they argue that the 1970’s saw a moral panic over black “muggers” that served the interest of capitalist
moral panic
in the 70’s, there was a crisis of high inflation, unemployment and strikes. and a media driven moral panic about “moral panic” about “new” crime (mugging)m which was allegedly committed by black youths. According to hall et there was a significant increase in this type of crime
what did the myth of “black mugger” do
serve as a scape goat to distract people from the capitalist crisis that was apparent. this moral panic was meant to divide the WC on racial groups and weaker their oppotion on racism.
AO3 hall
Downes and rock claim that hall et al were inconsistent in saying that black crime crime was not rising but at the same time saying it was because employment.
they do not show how the capitalist crisis lead to moral panic or provide or provide evidence for people panicking and blaming blacks
left realist argue that inner circle cities fears about mugging and not panicky but realist
bourgoise
he argues that discrimination has excluded these groups from legitimate economic opportunities. they have created their own alternative economies fuelled mainly by marginally and clearly illegal activities
how is information for ethnic victimisation shown through methods
racist incident- which are seen by the victim or other person to be racist
racially or religiously aggravated offences- when the offender is motivated hatred of either race or religion
extent of victimisation
61,000 racist incident recorded by police in 2006/7, property damage and verbal harassment
BCS estimates there were actually 184,000 racial incident 2006/7
police recorded 42,000 causes of racially or religiously aggravated offences, only 10,600 were prosecuted or cautioned in 2006
Sampson and Philips
notes that racist victimisation tends to be on going with periods of minor incidents and major on like physical violence
