Why? Flashcards
Police culture
Bowling and Phillips 2008
• Before 1960s in Britain few people more ethnic minority communities represented in many sectors esp in police officers - none eth min officers whatsoever
• Slowly forming a more representative part of the criminal justice system
- Multi ethnic force?
- Eth min struggled to join forces in 70s and 80s
- Racism in the subculture of police served and still does in some places to alienate , marginalise and discriminate against minority ethnic officers
- Increasing the recruitment of minority ethnic police officers was on the agenda of the home officer - increase now in pop of officers from eth min
- But remain underrepresented
- Racist comments and jokes routinely part of officers conversations
- Unsurprisingly some black and asian officers marginalied from work and social networks because fail to collude with negative representations of ethnmin
- Ethmin less likely to be promoted
- With ethmin in force: higher successed rate for complaints, greater understanding, sympathy for those alleging discrimination, and more effective procedures
- Acc to the Commission for Racial Equality a police service that reflects the pop arguably increases the chances that the services provided will be appropriate, relevant and accesible to all members of the comm
As HMIC reported
‘there were still too many accounts of distressing behaviour, or at best, managerial
indifference towards minority ethnic staff’. Holdaway notes that the choice between
tolerating or challenging racist remarks affected working relations because
‘stereotypical thinking and team membership go hand in hand’ (1996: 158). Thus, it is
unsurprising that some black and Asian officers may find themselves marginalised
from work and social networks because they fail to collude with negative
representations of ethnic minorities, or where in the case of some Asian officers,
religious observance prevents socialising that revolves around drinking.
Knowledge and interpretation varies
Bowling and Phillips 2008
- Use of stop and search powers by the police most controversial issue on debates about policing and ethnmin comm
- Power to stop and search is primarily an investigative power used for the purposes of crime detection or prevention in relation to a specific indiv at a specific time
- But officers use stop and search powers for other things - e.g. gaining info on people ‘known to the police’ etc
- The concept of ‘reasonable suspicion’ is vague and police differ in their understanding of it
- It is of particular concern that research by FitzGerald (1999) and Quinton et al. (2000) suggests that many police officers are unclear about the concept of ‘reasonable suspicion’, and the extent and limitation of their powers. Being a member of a group who are stereotypically assumed to be more likely to be involved in crime cannot be used as grounds for suspicion.
Discretion
At the end of the day it is the police officer who carries out the enquiries, who takes the statements, who interacts with the victims and perpetrator – consequently it is the police officer who ultimately influences how a case is prosecuted.
Most stops in England and Wales require an officer to have “reasonable suspicion” that someone is involved in crime. Section 60 gives an officer maximum discretion and privately police fear its wide-ranging nature and the discretion it gives officers, plus the allegations it is being abused, may lead the courts to strike it down – as happened with section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which had to be reformed after the courts ruled its provision allowing stops without suspicion was too wide-ranging.
Delsol and Shinee 2006
• Police statistics and selfreport surveys clearly indicate that people from some minority ethnic groups are more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than whites, though the precise meaning of this familiar finding continues to be a matter of some controversy
• The use of these figures to support claims that minority groups are disproportionately policed has been challenged, however, with criticisms being levelled in three main areas: the reliability of stop and search records; the adequacy of the benchmark; and the impact of differential rates of offending.
• » Any differences between ethnic groups in this regard remain obscure, moreover, and the idea that recording rates are relatively high for minority groups has been challenged on the basis that police officers may under-record such incidents in order to conceal evidence of discriminatory practices
