Explanations for trends in ethnicity - stats are accurate

Question 1

Crime statistics are accurate

Answer 1

Left realism
Subcultural explanation
Right realism
Triple quandary
Functionalism
Hirschi

Question 2

What do left realism believe about trends relating to ethnicity

Answer 2

Lea & Young (left realists) – first criminologists to acknowledge that black people were not simply victims of a racist police force and criminal justice system but are actually more likely to be involved with street crime than white people.

Minorities suffer relative deprivation not only in areas shared with sections of the white working class (high unemployment and poor environment), but also racial discrimination and racially motivated attacks.

Young unemployed black people are marginalised in that they are unorganised and have few pressure groups to lobby on their behalf, so their frustrations are more likely to be expressed in illegal activity such as violence and rioting (non-utilitarian crime).

Subcultural responses include the hustling subculture described by Pryce in his ethnographic study of St Paul’s in Bristol, with black youths involved in petty street crime, drug dealing and prostitution, getting by from day to day.

This leads to utilitarian crime being committed to gain status and in response to their relative deprivation.

Question 3

Criticisms of left realism:

Answer 3

Not all ethnic minorities join a subcultures and not all subcultures are criminal in nature.

They argue we cannot explain the differences between minorities in terms of police racism.HOWEVER, this does not take into account that police have more negative stereotypes of black people in comparison to Asian i.e. seeing the black individual as dangerous, and Asians as passive.

Furthermore, stereotypes for Asians have changed since 9/11 which may explain why Asian crime rates are increasing as they’re being targeted by the police.

Question 4

Triple Quandary

Answer 4

Sewell - identifies three risk factors which could be responsible for the relatively high levels of crime amongst black boys:

1)Lack of a father figure - Large numbers of single mother families amongst black. families mean that boys look to their community for role models such as gang leaders.

2) Negative experiences of white culture - Black boys are disaffected by their experiences of school, policing and employer racism.

3)Media - Media influence of hip-hop and rap stars believe that status can be achieved in two ways:
Acquisition of status symbol designer clothing and jewelry.
Construction of hyper masculinity based on violence and sexual conquest

The rise of positive black role models such as Barak Obama.

There is no causality established between single parenthood and criminality.

Black crime tends to victimise black people.

Question 5

How does Hirschi explain the trend in crime

Answer 5

Young people regardless of their ethnicity commit crime due to lack of social controls of attachment, commitment, involvement and belief, in their lives. Asian females have stricter controls over young people which could explain the lower rates of criminality amongst Asian communities.

• This can be criticised for being an explanation of age differences rather than ethnicity.