Trends with regard to ethnicity

Question 1

What are the prison disparities with regards to ethnic minority groups?

Answer 1

Blacks: 2.8% of UK population but 11% of prison population
Asians: 4.7% of UK population and 6% of prison population

Question 2

Give 2 reasons why sociologists must be careful when analysing ethnic minority relation to crime

Answer 2

Racist overtones in the police, the fact that big cities have both higher crime rates and greater ethnic diversity than towns

Question 3

What is the difference between low discretion and high discretion police stops?

Answer 3

low discretion stops is where the police conduct a stop and search with relevant information, high discretion is one conducted without relevant information: these lead to the disproportionality in stop searches between blacks and whites

Question 4

What are the ethnic differences with regards to convictions?

Answer 4

60% of whites convicted compared to 52% of Blacks and 44% of Asians, suggests that discrimination is bringing weak cases to court

Question 5

What are the disparities in relation to custodial sentences?

Answer 5

68% of blacks given custodial sentences compared with 59% of Asians and 55% of whites