Topic 6 - Ethnicity Flashcards
1
Q
What is a victim survey
A
- Ask individuals what crimes they have been victims of
2
Q
What can we learn from the data gathered via victim surveys
A
- Gain info about relationship between ethnicity and offending
- Intra-ethnic
3
Q
A03 Victim surveys
A
- BOWLING and PHILLIPS evidence suggests that white victims over-identify black people as offenders
4
Q
Self-report
A
- Ask individuals to disclose their own deviant behaviour
5
Q
GRAHAM and BOWLING
A
- Found offending rates for black and white respondants were very similar (43% and 44%) - offending amongst Asian people was lower
6
Q
SHARP and BUDD
A
- Found that white people and those of mixed origins were most likely to say they had committed an offence (40%), followed by black people (28%), and Asians (21%)
7
Q
HOME OFFICE
A
- Conducted multiple self-report studies intro drug use in the 1990s
- Found that those from mixed ethnicity backgrounds (27%) said that they had used drugs in the last year compared with 16% of black or white people
8
Q
Challenging stereotypes (self-report)
A
- Black people are more likely than white people to offend
9
Q
Policing
A
- Stop and search
- Terrorism act 2000
- Tasers
- Demographic factors
- Ethnic differences in offending
- Police racism
10
Q
Stop and search
A
- Enables the police to stop people on the basis of reasonable suspicion
- Black people 7x more likely to be stopped than white people and Asians 2x as likely
11
Q
Terrorism Act 2000
A
- Enables the police to stop people without reasonable suspicion
- Asian people were three times more likely to be stopped and searched than other groups under this act
12
Q
Tasers
A
- Chance of being involved in a Taser incident varies
- Asian people = 3 in 10,000
- White people = 6 in 10,000
- Black people = 18 in 10,000
13
Q
Demographic factors
A
- Ethnic groups are over-represented in the population group who are most likely to be stopped, e.g., young and unemployed
14
Q
Ethnic differences in offending
A
- Low discretion: police are acting on descriptions, e.g, what the offender is wearing and descriptions
- High discretion: no intelligence, police base their stops off of stereotypes
15
Q
Police racism
A
- MACPHERSON report concluded that there were institutional racism within the Metropolitan police force including the endorsement of a “canteen culture”
- Canteen culture: to sum up attitudes (often racist and sexist) that prevail among workers within an organisation, despite these attitudes being officially disapproved of by the organisation they work for
16
Q
Arrests and cautions
A
- 2014/15 = arrest rates for Black people was 3x the rate for White people
- Once arrested Black and Asian people were less likely to recieve a caution
- Explanation = ethnic minorities are less likely to admit the offence due to a mistrust of the police (they cannot be cautioned)
17
Q
Prosecution and trial
A
- CPS are more likely to drop cases against ethnic minorities, evidence presented against them is weaker and based on stereotyping
- Ethnic minorities are more likely to elect for a trial before a jury (mistrust of migistrate’s impartiality - crown courts can impose harsher sentences if found guilty)
18
Q
Conviction, sentencing, and prison
A
- Black and Asian defendents more likely to be found not guilty, suggesting discrimination may bring weaker cases against ethnic minorities and then thrown out by the courts
- Black offenders have imprison rates 3% higher, and Asian offenders 5% higher than White offenders
- HUDSON and BRAMHALL found pre-sentence reports allow for discrimination, reports on Asian people were less detailed and suggested they were less remorseful than White offenders (source of bias is the demonising of Muslims following 9/11)
- 2014 = 1/4+ of the male prison population were from ethnic minority backgrounds
- Black people 4 times more likely to be in prison than White people
- Black and Asian offenders more likely to serve a longer sentence
- All ethnic minority groups have a higher average proportion of prisoners on remand as they are less likely to be granted bail
19
Q
Explaining differences in offending
A
- Left-realism = statistics represent a real difference in rates of offending
- Neo-marxism = statistics are socially constructed resulting from racist labelling and discrimination in the CJS
20
Q
Ledt-realism (explaining differences in offending)
A
- LEA and YOUNG
3 factors that produce crime:
1. Relative deprivation
2. Subcultures
3. Marginalisation
21
Q
A03 Left-realism (explaining differences in offending)
A
- Criticised for their views on police racism
- E.g., arrest rates for Asian people may be lower than for Black people not because they are less likely to offend but because the police stereotype the two very differently
- Black males = dangerous, Asian males = passive
- Since 9/11, Asian males now seen as dangerous = rise in criminality for the group
22
Q
Neo-marxist view (explaining differences in offending)
A
- Statistics are the outcome of social construction that stereotypes ethnic minorities as more criminal than the majority population
23
Q
The myth of Black criminality
A
- GILROY
- Black criminality is a myth created by racist stereotypes of African Caribbeans and Asians
- An extension of the resistance shown by the Black population against British Imperialism (political resistance forged during colonial times)
- When faced with racism in Britain they adopted the same struggle to defend themselves but their fight for equality was criminalised by the state
- No more criminal than any other group but are the victim of racial stereotypes and the subject of increased levels of formal social control mechanisms
24
Q
A03 The myth of Black criminality
A
- First generation immigrants in the 50s and 60s were very law abiding so it is unlikely they passed down anti-colonial struggles
- Most crime is intra-ethnic so it can’t be seen as anti-colonial struggle against racism
- LEA and YOUNG argue GILROY romanticises street crime as revolutionary
- Asian crime rateare similar to/lower than White people, if GILROY were right, then the police would only be racist to Black people
25
Q
Policing the crisis
A
- HALL
- Took a neo-marxist perspective of the moral panic that arose over the apparent increase in mugging in the 1970s
- Argues the ruling class are normally able to control the working with consent but in times of crisis = increasingly difficult
- For HALL the moral panic over mugging and the identification of black offenders was not co-incidental
- Black mugger (symbolised the disintergration of social order) = scapegoat to distract attention from wider social problems and enabled the ruling class to employ what was seen as legitimate force to control the Black community
- HALL accepted a level of criminality amongst the Black community as a result of marginalisation
26
Q
A03 Policing the crisis
A
- DOWNES and ROCK argue HALL cannot argue that Black street crime was not rising as well as arguing it was rising: inconsistent approach
- Left realists argue street crime was increasing and so the concerns of wider community over the increase in mugging was justified
27
Q
More recent approaches
A
- Neighbourhood - FITZGERALD
- Getting caught - SHARP and BUDD§
28
Q
Neighbourhood
A
- FITZGERALD
- Explain ethnic differences in crime (street robbery)
- The rates were higher in poorer areas where deprived young people came into contact with affluent people
- Black youths are more likely to live in these types of areas
- White people affected by these factors were more likely to commit street crime
- Ethnicity = not the specific cause but Black groups are more likely to live in poor areas due to racial discrimination
29
Q
Getting caught
A
- SHARP and BUDD
- Some groups run greater risk of being caught (Black offenders more likely to have been arrested)
- More likely to commit crimes such as robbery, where they can be identified and have been excluded from school/associate with known criminals
30
Q
Ethnicity and victimistion
A
- Racist victimisation = individual selected as a target on the basis of their ethnicity and this issue was brought by the murder of Stephen Lawrence
- CSEW:
1. Racist identities
2. Racially or religiously aggravated offences
31
Q
Extent and risk of victimisation
A
- 2015 = 54,000 racist incidents were recorded in England and Wales (damage to propery or verbal harassment)
- CSEW estimated 89,000 racially motivated incidents in the same year
- Chance of being a victim of crime varies by ethnic group, mixed ethnic groups = likely to be victims, white people = less likely to be victims
- SAMPSON and PHILLIPS = stats do not reflect the experience of being a victim of racist crimes as they tend to be repeated over time
32
Q
Responses to victimisation
A
- Situational crime prevention strategies, e.g., fireproof doors/organised self-defence campaigns
- Macpherson Report = institutionalised racism
