Topic 6: Ethnicity, crime and justice Flashcards
Ethnicity statistics
Black people make up 2.8% of the population but 11% of the prison population. Asians make up 4.7% of the population but 6% of the persons population.
Victim surveys- black-people are significantly over identified in muggings a great deal of crime is intra-ethnic. However victim surveys are flawed as they only cover personal crimes which are just a fifth of all crime.
Graham and Bowling
In self-report studies found that blacks and whites have similar rates of offending while Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have lower rates.
Phillips and Bowling
Whites may over-identify blacks in self-report studies.
Policing- Since the 1970s there have been many allegations of oppressive policing of ethnic minority communities eg deaths in custody, police violence, excessive surveillance and a failure to respond to racist violence.
Stop and search- blacks are seven times mor elderly to be stopped and searched than whites because of ‘reasonable suspicion’. Under the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows stop and search without reasonable suspicion, Asians are more than three times more likely to be stopped than others. Philips and Bowling notes that members of these communities are therefore more likely to think they are over-policed and under-protected and have limited faith in the police.
Officers hold negative stereotypes of ethnic mint irises which are endorsed and upheld by the ‘canteen culture’ among the rank and file. For example the Macpherson report on the murder of Stephen Lawrence found that there was institutional racism within the Metropolitan Police.
The crown prosecution service is more likely to drop cases against ethnic minorities, perhaps because the evidence is weaker and based on stereotypes.
Explanations of stop and search patterns
Police racism
Ethnic differences in offending- however there is low discretion and high discretion stops, the first where police act on relevant information and the second where officers can use stereotypes where discrimination is more likely.
Demographic factors- ethnics are over-represented in population groups who are more likely to be stopped, such as the young, the unemployed, manual workers and urban dwellers.
Arrests and cautions
Arrest rate for blacks is 3.6 times the rate for whites. Once arrested blacks and Asians are less likely than whites to receive a caution.
A reasons for this may be that ethnic minorities may be mor elite,y to deny the offence and exercise their right to legal advice, perhaps due to mistrust of the police. Not admitting the offence means they cannot be let off with a caution and are more likely to be charged instead.
Trial
Members of ethnic minorities are mor emily to elect for a trial before a jury in a crown court than a magistrates’ court, perhaps due to distrust of the magistrates’ impartiality. However crown courts can impose more severe sentences if convicted.
It is therefore interesting to note that while 60% of whites are found guilty only 52% of blacks and 44% of Asians are, suggesting discrimination in the police and the CPS in bringing weaker cases which are thrown out by courts.
Hood
Custodial sentences are given to a greater proportion of lack offenders than white or Asians, whereas whites and Asians were more likely than blacks to receive community sentences. This may be due to differences in seriousness of offences or previous convictions. However, Hood’s study of five Crown Courts found that even when such factors were taken into account black men were 5% more likely to receive custodial sentence and were given sentences on average three months longer than white men. Asian men had sentences nine months longer.
Hudson and Bramhall
Pre-sentence reports- risk assessments written by probation officers to assist magistrates in deciding on an appropriate sentence. These allow for unwitting discrimination- reports on Asians are less comprehensive and remorseful.
They place this bias in the context of the demonising of Muslims in the wake of 9/11.
Prison
Over a quarter of the male prison population are from minority groups. As such, blacks are 5 times more likely to be in prison than whites. Within the prison population all minorities are more likely to be remand (awaiting trial rather than serving a sentence). This is because minorities are less likely to be granted bail well awaiting a trial.
In the USA two out of five prisoners in local jails are black, and one in five are Hispanic.
How differences in offending have been seen
Until the 1970s there was general agreement that ethnics had lower rates of offending than the white population. Conflict between the police and African Caribbean communities in the mid-70s and higher arrests for street crime led to black criminality being seen as a problem.
In the 1990s Asian crime began to be seen as a problem, with media concerns about Asian gangs. The events of 2001- 9/11 and clashes between the police and youths in northern England crystallised the idea of Asians/Muslims as an enemy within.
Lea and Young
Left realist view- ethnic differences in stats represent real differences in offending. See crime as a result of relative deprivation, subculture and marginalisation. Racism has led to marginalisation/economic exclusion of minorities who face higher levels of unemployment, poverty and poor housing. The media’s emphasis on consumerism promotes a sense of relative deprivation by setting materialistic goals minorities are unable to achieve by legitimate means.
One response is delinquent subcultures producing utilitarian crime to cope with relative dep. Their frustration at marginalisation also produced non-utilitarian crime.
The police are racist but this does not fully explain the difference in stats. 90% of crimes are reported by the public, and as blacks have a higher level of offending than Asians police would have to be very selective in their racism.
Criticise Gilroy- First generation immigrants in the 50s and 60s were very law abiding and so are unlikely to have passed down a tradition of anti-colonial struggle to their children. Most crime in intra-ethnic and so cannot be a struggle against racism.
Gilroy
Neo-Marxist view- black criminality is a myth based on racist stereotyping. Ethnic minority crime can be seen as a form of political resistance against a racist society which as its roots in earlier struggles against British imperialism.
Hall et al
Neo-Marxist perspective- capitalist crisis of the 1970s led to a media-driven moral panic over black muggers which distracted attention from the true cause of problems such as unemployment. The black mugger came to symbolise the disintegration of British society serving to divide the working class on racial grounds, weakening opposition to capitalism. The capitalist crisis also marginalised black youth through unemployment, driving some into a lifestyle of petty crime to survive.
Downes and Rock
Hall et al are inconsistent in claiming that black street crime is not rising but also that it was rising because of unemployment.
Victimisation statistics
The police recorded 61,000 racist incidents in England/Wales in 2006/7- mostly damage to property or verbal harassment.
However most incidents go unreported- the British Crime Survey estimates around 184,000 racially motivated incidents in 2006/7.
The police recorded 42,600 racially or religiously aggravated offences in 2006/7, mostly harassment. 10,600 people were prosecuted or cautioned for racially aggravated offences in 2006.
The British Crime Survey shows people from mixed ethnic backgrounds have a higher risk of becoming victims than blacks, Asians and whites.
This could be because the young, male and unemployed are more likely to be victims of violent crime, for example, and there are a higher proportion of these groups in ethnic minorities.
