Ethnicity and crime

Statistics

Members of the black community are 7x more likely than white people to be stopped and searched

Black people are 3.5x more likely to be arrested than white people

Black people are 5x more likely to be in prison than white people

Criminal justice system is institutionally racist

Stuart Hall

Crisis of hegemony

Economic crisis

1978 - winter of discontent

Media created a moral panic / deviancy amplification

Myth of the black mugger

Scapegoat for failing economy

Media selectively published crime statistics

Police target more to deal with issue

AO2

Becker - labelling theory

'Social groups create deviancy by creating rules... and by applying rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders'

Target certain social groups

Racist moral entrepreneurs choose certain social groups to be targeted more

AO2

Cicourel - typifications

Typically find to be delinquent (EM, W/C, young males)

Police have stereotypes and these are reinforced through their environment

Results in police adopting strategies that are class and ethnicity based


Gilroy

Most black and Asians in the UK originate from former British colonies, where anti-colonial struggles taught them how to resist oppression

Eg. Windrush generation

60/70s resent EM in the UK being treated negatively

AO2

London riots

Response to police murdering Mark Duggan

Holdaway

Found evidence of racist language and attitudes amongst police officers

Covert participant observations

Part of occupational culture of police officers

Philips and Bowing

CJS is institutionally racist

Found that black men are 5-8x more likely to be stopped and searched than white men

Black men had higher arrest rates

Overpolicing in city centres

Higher imprisonment rates

As a result, found that these communities that were targeted had the least amount of trust in the police

AO2

Murder of Stephen Laurence

Originally thought it was the result of a gang fight and not an unprovoked racism attack

Treated his friend, Dwayne Brooks, as a suspect and not a witness

1999, Macpherson report released that there is institutional racism in the police force

Reiner

Canteen culture - a distinct set of amongst police officers, which include a thirst for action, cynicism, suspicion, isolation from the public and racism

Talk about these things, creating a culture with institutional racism and violence

The secret policeman documenary

Treated like a slave to feel unwelcome

3/4 experienced racism working in policeforce

Wanted to see if there is still racism 5 years after and see if changes were made

AO2

Waddington - stop and search

Stop and search is not institutionally racist

Studied CCTVs for stop and search and interviews

Stop and search is not due to police racism

EM tend to be younger, like those who were stopped and searched

Stop and search in inner city areas tend to have high EM populations

Reflects population of inner city / young population

Analysis (AO3)

Fitzgerald and Hough

The policing for London survey

Dissatisfaction with the police was highest amongst young, black boys and those living in poor areas

Evaluation (AO3)

90% of crimes are reported by the public, not uncovered by the police

It is the public that is racism, not the police

Gilroy is inspiring his own interpretations of the meanings of black crime, as it is not always resistance

Ethnic minorities do commit more crime

Lea and Young

Even if the police are racist, it is unlikely for the statistical differences in crime and ethnciity

Left realist - OCS is a trustworthy source

EM commit more crimes as they are more likely to be in relative deprivation / marginalisation / criminal subcultures

EM face a desire to consume more than ever in our bulimic society

Media promotes consumption

Tony Sewell

Triple quandary theory

Acknowledges that African Caribbean boys commit a lot of crime within society

Blames this on black culture and their family structure (57% come from lone parent families), meaning that they struggle to develop masculinity, turning to their peers as role models

Theory

Black boys feel rejected by white society

Teachers, police officers, etc. directly target these individuals

Creating their own norms and values, which are criminal

Black peers are also rejected by society, leading to them to form criminal subcultures

Black boys' peers have also been rejected by society

Black peers are also rejected by society

Form criminal subcultures

Views on white society reinforced

Black boys use the media as a source of role models

Promotes MTV culture and bling lifestyle based on money, misogyny, drugs

Turn to crime to achieve bling lifestyle

Risk factors

For high levels of crime for African and Caribbean boys

Rejected from mainstream culture, school, society, work, CJS

Working against their image

Influence of media (phones, social media, celebrities)

Promotes illegal, sexist lifestyles

Evaluation (AO3)

Listening to music doesn't mean you will turn to crime

Dave promotes positive lifestyle

Family structure - 60% live with one parent

Lacking a male role model, leading to inadequate socialisation, more likely to experience poverty

Seek role models elsewhere

AO2

Statistics show EM leave with lowest qualifications

2020 - 40% of black boys achieved grade 5 or above in English and maths GCSE (49.9% was average)

AO2

Generating genius

25 black boys from failings schools

In 2006 to today, boys spent 3 or more weeks alongside scientists of top universities

Boys achieved amazing GCSE results and 3 got into Oxbridge (2006)

He may have picked high achieving students, not failing ones

No direct evidence that the programme led to Oxbridge

Nightingale

Paradox of inclusion

In society today, people have a huge focus on consumerism and want to keep up with the latest trends

Judged by how well they keep up with these

Black boys don't want to be rejected from society, so value consumerism as well

Don't have the same opportunities to consume, so innovate and find new ways of gaining money, so they can consume and be accepted by white society

Thus, more likely to be arrested and excluded from white society

AO2

Merton's strain theory

Innovation is a response to strain

Can be seen in contemporary society, with the American Dream

AO2

Sharp and Budd

Black people are more likely to be arrested by police (police racism)

Commit crimes where victims can identify them (public racism)

More likely to be excluded from school

Crime among other minority ethnic ethnic groups

Crime has risen for Asian people

Declining importance of religion among young Asian boys

Asian boys want to join white British culture

White British culture has less religious belief

Desai - young Asian men were taking a more aggressive stance to defend their community from outside threats, and cultivate a Bengali bad boy image

Hirschi - belief is a control to stop crime, which is gone

Evaluation (AO3)

Claire Alexander - the growing problem of Asian groups is a myth

Ignore structural causes of crime, such as unemployment, poverty, institutional racism

Labelling theory - canteen culture and typifications

Biases in CJS

Highlight black on black crime, so not institutionally racist

Statistics show EMs do commit more crime than white people