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Ethnicity, crime and justice - Coggle Diagram
Ethnicity, crime and justice
ethnicity and criminalisation
Black people are overrepresented in crime
Black people make up to 3% of the population bi8t 13% of the prison population
Black people are 7xs more likely than white people to be stopped and searched
3 and a half times more likely to be arrested
5xs more likely to go to prison
In contrast white people are underrepresented at all stages of the criminal justice process
victim surveys
crime survey for England and Wales (CSEW)- say what crimes they have been victims of. We can gain information about ethnicity and offending from sy h surveys when they ask victims to identify the ethnicity if the person who committed the crime against them
Limitation of victim surveys-
Rely on victims memory of events (Phillips and Bowling 2012 found that white people tend to over identify black suspects, saying they are black even when they are not)
Only cover person crimes (only make up a 5th of crime)
Exclude under 10s (minority ethnic groups contain higher proportions of young people)
Exclude crimes up and against organisations
Self-report studies
ask individuals to disclose their own dishonest and violent behaviour
Graham and Bowling (1995) found that white and black rates of offending were very similar but indian and pakistani and bangladeshi rates were much lower
The findings of self report studies challenge the stereotype of black people as more likely than white pope to offend, support that asian people are less likely to offend
Ethnicity, racism and the criminal justice system
policing- Phillips and Bowling (2012) note that since the 1970s there have been many allegations of oppressive policing of minority ethnic communities. This includes mass stop and search operations, paramilitary tactics, armed raids, police violence and deaths in custody as a failure to respond to racist violence
stop and search- members of minority ethnic groups are more likely to be stopped and searched by the police. Police can use this power if they have reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing
Black people were 9xs more likely to be stopped and searched than white people and asian people 2xs more likely.
Pilips and Bowling (2007) note that members of minority ethnic groups are more likely to think they are over policed and under protected, have limited faith in the police
explaining stop and search patterns
Police racism- the Macpherson Report (1999) on the police investigation of the racist murder of the black teenager concluded that there was institutional racism within the Metropolitan Police,
Phillips and Bowling (2012) point out that many officers hold negative stereotypes about minority ethnic groups as criminals
Ethnic differences in offending- disproportionality in stop and searches simply reflect ethnic differences in levels of offending
Demographic factors- minority ethnic groups are overrepresented in the population groups who are most likely to be stopped (young, unemployed, manual workers). These groups are more likely to be stopped regardless of their ethnicity but they are also groups who have a higher proportion of ethnic minorities in them so minorities get stopped
arrests and cautions- Figures for England and Wales show that in 2018/19 the arrest rate for black people's 3xs the rate for white people. Black and asian arrestees were less likely than white arrestees to receive a caution
Prosecution and trial- The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decides whether a case should be prosecuted in court.studies suggest that the CPS is more likely to drop cases against minority ethnic groups.
Bowling and Phillips (2002) argue that this may be because the evidence presented to the CPS by the police is often weaker and based on stereotypes of ethnic minorities as criminals
When a case goes ahead members of minority ethnic groups are more likely to elect for trial before a jury in the Crown Court rather than magistrates courts, due to mistrust of magistrates' impartiality.
Convictions and sentencing
Black and Asian defendants are less likely to be found guilty. This suggests that the police and CPS may be bringing weaker or less serious cases against members of minority groups that are thrown out by the courts.
Black and Asian defendants are less likely to be found guilty. This suggests that the police and CPS may be bringing weaker or less serious cases against members of minority groups that are thrown out by the courts.
prison
In 2021 just over a ¼ of prisons population was minority ethnic groups
Black people were almost 4xs more likely to be in prison than white people and also more likely to serve longer sentences than white people.
Explaining the differences in offending
left realism-
Lea and Young (1993) argue that ethnic differences in statistics reflect real differences in the levels of offending by different ethnic groups.
Left realists see crime as the product of relative deprivation, subculture and marginalisation
-the statistics represent real differences in rates of offending
They argue that racism has led to the marginalisation and economic exclusion of minority ethnic groups (they face higher levels of unemployment, poverty, poor housing)
Media creates relative deprivation by showing unrealistic materialistic goals that many minority groups are unable to reach
Lea and Young believe crime like robbery and theft is people who are in minority groups way of coping with relative deprivation
Because these groups are marginalised and have no organisation to represent their interests their frustration is liable to produce non-utilitarian crime like violence and rioting
Lea and Young acknowledge that police actions are racist eyes that result in the unjustified criminalization of some members of minority groups, however they don't believe this fully explains the statistics. The note that over 90% of crimes known to the police are reported by the public rather than discovered by the police themselves meaning discriminatory policing can not fully account for the ethnic differences in the statistics.
They conclude that the statistics represent real differences in levels of offending between ethnic groups and that these are caused by real differences in levels of relative deprivation and marginalisation
Criticisms- arrests rates for Asian people may be lower than Black people not because they are less likely to offend but because police stereotype the 2 groups differently, asian people seen as less dangerous
Neo-Marxism
-The statistics are a social construction resulting from racist labelling and discrimination in the criminal justice system
Agree that the differences in statistics do not reflect reality, these differences are the outcome of a process of social construction that stereotypes minority ethnic groups as inherently more criminal than the majority population
Gilroy: the myth of Black criminality
Gilroy argues that the idea of black criminality is a myth created by racist stereotypes and in reality these groups are no more criminal than any other. However as result of the police and criminal justice system acting on these racist stereotypes, minority ethnic groups come to be criminalised and appear to have greater numbers on the official statistics
He views that minority ethnic group crime can be seen as form of political resistance against a racist society
He believes that the idea of riots and demonstrations in the former british colonies have been adopted to defend themself but they were criminalised
Criticised- Lea and Young criticises Gilroy as first generation immigrants in the 1950s were very law abiding so it is unlikely they passed down a tradition of anti colonial struggle to their children, they also critique as Asai crime rates are similar or lower than whites, if Gilroy was right then the police are only racist towards black people not asians that is not true.
Hall et al: policing the crisis
They argue that the 1970s saw a moral panic over black ‘muggers’ that served the interests of capitalism. The 1970s British capitalism faced criticism as high inflation and rising unemployment were provoking widespread industrial unrest and strikes.
The mugging was only a new name for the old street crime as there was no real evidence for an increase of crime at this time, soon when the media got hold of the story it was associated with black youth. Haul argues that the mugging was created as a distraction from the real threats of the capitalism criss, drawing attention away from the unemployment
However hall et al did not argue that black youth crime was solely a product of media and police labelling but the employment that black youth were experiencing and increasing marginalisation drove to lifestyle of crimes for survival
Criticism- they do not show how the capitalist crisis led to a moral panic or provide evidence that the public were panicking and blaming crime on black youths. Left realists argue that inner city residents fear about mugging are not panicky but realistic
ethnicity and victimisation
Recently sociologists have taken an interest in issues such as the racist victimisation of ethnic minority groups.
Racist victimisation occurs when an individual is selected as a target of their race, ethnicity or religion. Information on racist victimisation comes from 2 main sources such as CSEW and police recorded statistics, covering racist incidents and racially or religiously aggravated offences.
Extent and risk of victimisation
The risk of being a victim of any sort of crime varies by ethnic group. The 2019/2020 CSEW estimates that there were around 104,000 racially motivated incidents and 42,000 religiously motivated incidents. It shows that people of mixed ethnic backgrounds had a higher risk of becoming a victim of crime than black , white or asian
The difference may be a result of factors other than ethnicity like being young,male and unemployment are also strongly linked.
Response to victimisation
Members of minority ethnic communities have often been active in responding to victimisation, responses have ranged from situational crime prevention measures to organised self defence campaigns
This shows the under protection of the police and how they often ignored the racist dimensions of victimisation and failed to record or investigate reported incident properly