Ethnicity's relation to crime Flashcards
What do Lea and Young argue?
The views that certain ethnic groups commit more crimes than others and the role of fascism in the criminal justice system, are not mutually exclusive
What does Anderson say that police assume about white and black people?
White people= middle-class, trustworthy
Black people= lower class, criminal
Who found that there was a difference in sentencing based on ethnicities, particularly race, and found that black men were 5% more likely to be imprisoned than white men?
Hood
Who argued that police stop, harass, and abuse young black males on a regular basis on the street, even though most have done nothing to deserve it?
Anderson
What was the average custodial sentence length for black people, and what was it for white people?
20.8 months for black
14.9 months for white
What did Hall consider?
The issue of policing and race relations in the two decades between the Scarman report of 1982 and the McPherson report of 1999.
What is the Scarman report of 1982?
The official response to racial violence and rioting in some British cities in the early 1980s
What did the McPherson report conclude?
The official inquiry into the murder of the black teenager Stephan Lawrence in 1993 and the subsequent police investigation
What does Hall argue about the police investigation into Stephan Lawrence?
It was flawed but unsurprising. There is institutional racism in the Metropolitan police force.
Who supports Hall’s conclusions?
Phillips and Bowling → ethnic minority neighbourhoods were still overpoliced with military style methods despite the McPherson report
What is institutional racism?
Racism within the social processes and practices of an institution- widely applied to the police
What did Waddington et al argue that the higher levels of stopping and searching of young black and asian males did not show?
Did not show institutional racism, instead these ethnic backgrounds just have more ‘availability’ in public places
The study showed they were not treated disproportionally by the police as their stop and search rate was in line with ‘available population’.
Between 1993 and 2003, what was the prison population increase for:
* White people
* Black people
* Asian people
White- 48%
Black- 138%
Asian- 73%
What is ‘police culture’/’cop culture’/’police occupational culture’?
Refers to a shared set of norms, values, attitudes, and practices, which develop amongst the police, and which affect the way in which they carry out their duties
What key term refers to the attitudes and values exhibited by the police in their off-duty socialising?
‘Canteen culture’
What did Smith and Grey’s report for the Policy Studies Institute highlight?
The explicit and accepted racist language of police officers
What did Holdaway find in his research on police culture, when he was a serving officer in the ‘70s?
‘Racialisation’ of policing, arguing that routine and mundane police work and relationships may take on a racial ‘framing’, by which people/events are seen in ways that prioritise race when it is irrelevant. And ignores race when it is relevant
Who found that inappropriate use of discretion has led to over and under-policing of particular types of offenders and victims?
Chan
What does Bhilox argue?
Most policing is directed at the excluded members of society, who are often poor, young, and black
Who argued that racism in the criminal justice system leads some black men to reoffend as a defiant reaction to societal rejection?
Glynn
What is ‘differential deployment’?
Concentrating policing on areas where the targeted reside
What is ‘methodological suspicion’?
Routinely suspecting only a limited proportion of the population
What did Scraton find?
Sees the police as an occupying force imposed on the working class/ethnic minority communities- they impose the law which reflects ruling class interests, and black criminality= culture of resistance
Summarise what Gilroy says
The history of race relations is a significant factor in explaining criminality amongst some ethnic groups eg British Asia and the African Carribeans are former British colonies , which experienced cultural erosion
Why were crime levels amongst British Asians disproportionately lower than those of white people?
Due to strong family values and socialisation within the family, and them not fitting with the police stereotype of criminals
Who discusses the ‘paradox of inclusion’ in which there’s a desire to be part of mainstream culture being blocked by poverty, and this results in crime ?
Nightingale
What did FitzGerald and Sibitt argue about crime within Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups?
These groups may have very different social class and cultural backgrounds, which have long masked different crime patterns within these groups
Who do Lea and Young challenge?
Those who dismiss any link between race and crime as ‘merely’ evidence of racism in the criminal justice system
What will racial discrimination lead to?
An acute awareness of ‘unnecessary injustices’ and unemployment
What do Lea and young discuss about the intersection of race and crime?
The ways in which a minority of the oppressed groups in any industrialised society are ‘brutalised’ into criminality, so race and crime combine to explain patterns in offending
What do Bowling, Parmar and Phillips say?
The ‘pliability’ of Asian stereotypes demonstrates that previous conformist perceptions of Asians, particularly Muslims, have altered. Stereotypes assumed to explain law-abiding behaviour, relating to strong sense of community, family, and religious values, which promote crime/ deviance
What did the report from the Home Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons in 2007 conclude?
A range of factors contributed to high levels of criminality amongst black youths- including poverty, educational underachievement, school exclusions, family conflict and lack of positive role models (single parent families)
Who suggests that the stereotype of the ‘passive Asian’ has given way to a climate of ‘Islamophobia’ following 9/11 and terrorist scares?
Abbas
What does Palmer challenge?
Arguments which see race as a secondary factor to social class, suggesting that they place too little emphasis of racial discrimination
What have current concerns about ‘radicalisation’ led to?
Claims about targeting of young Muslims by the police, and harsher punishments being issued by courts
What did Pitts find that Britain has witnessed a rise of since the 1990s and why?
Rise in violent youth gangs and associated gang-related street street culture as young people have found themselves ‘immobilised’ at the bottom of the economic ladder, marginalised from mainstream society.
What do Lea and Young say about moral panics?
Criticise moral panics surrounding ‘black crime’, i.e. the way the media have focused on mugging, and linked it to ethnicity
What do Lea and Young challenge in the Sun newspaper?
Headline= ‘BLACK CRIME SHOCK: blacks carried out twice as many muggings as whites in London last year’
What does Gunter say about subcultures and crime amongst young black males in East London?
Highlights significance of ‘road culture; and ‘badness’ on young black people’s identities, experiences and life choices
