Topic 2- Trends, Ethnicity differences and differences in offending

Question 1

What is crime usually measured in

Answer 1

Official statistics

Question 2

Where are crime statistics compiled from

Answer 2

Police recorded crime
Victim surveys
Self-report studies
Court and prison records

Question 3

Victim surveys

Answer 3

Include reported and unreported crime
A face to face survey where residents are asked about their experience of crime in the last 12 months

Question 4

Self report studies

Answer 4

Anonymous questionnaires in which people are asked to own up to crimes they have committed

Question 5

Court and prison records

Answer 5

These reveal some of the characteristics of those who are caught

Question 6

Official crime statistics

Answer 6

Drawn from records kept by the police and other official agencies

Question 7

Reasons for unreported crime

Answer 7

Embarrassment
Fear
Don’t know they are a victim of crime
Deal with it themselves
Distrust the police

Question 8

Reasons for unrecorded crime

Answer 8

Not all crimes are entered into official figures
Police priorities

Question 9

Changes in reporting, counting and recording crime

Answer 9

-The media
-Police attitudes
-People reporting less serious offences
-Changing social norms
-Community policing
-Changes in the law

Question 10

Limits of victim surveys

Answer 10

-People may exaggerate or lie
-People may forget they have been victimised
-May not realise they are a victim
-Victims may be embarrassed

Question 11

Limits of self-reported studies

Answer 11

-People may exaggerate or lie
-People may forget the crimes they have committed
-May ignore respondents own definition of crime
-Lack of representativeness

Question 12

What percentage of Black people make up the prison population

Answer 12

13.1%

Question 13

What percentage of Asians make up the prison population

Answer 13

7.7%

Question 14

How many times more likely are Black communities than white communities to be stopped and searched

Answer 14

7 times

Question 15

How many times more likely are black communities than white communities to be in prison

Answer 15

5 times

Question 16

Graham and Bowling

Answer 16

43% blacks and 44% whites had very similar rates of offending while Indians 30%, Pakistanis 28% and Bangladeshis 13% had much lower rates

Question 17

Philips and Bowling

Answer 17

Since the 1970’s there have been many accusations of oppressive policing of minority ethnic groups

Question 18

Macpherson report 1999

Answer 18

Investigating Stephen Lawrence murder concluded there was institutional racism

Question 19

Racial victimisation

Answer 19

Is when an individual is selected as a target due to their race, ethnicity or religion

Question 20

Scarman report

Answer 20

-Brixton riots highlighted the role of resentment felt by the African Caribbean community against the police whom they felt they were being harassed by

Question 21

Lea and Young

Answer 21

Ethnic differences reflect different levels of offending by different groups

Question 22

Neo Marxism

Answer 22

That statistics don’t reflect reality

Question 23

Gilroy

Answer 23

The myth of black criminality=
He believes that it is a myth and that in reality these groups are no more criminal than any other

Question 24

Hall et al

Answer 24

Policing the crisis
-Saw a moral panic over black ‘muggers’ that served the interests of capitalism