ethnicity on crime

• crime statistics (AO2)

  -2022: per 1,000 people, 25.5 black people were stopped & searched compared to 5 white people

  -2023: 73.8% of prison population = white compared to 12% BUT, in 2022, the British population consisted of 82% white & 18% other ethnicities, 4% being black, meaning that ethnic minorities are criminalised more than the majority

  -black people are 3x more likely to be imprisoned compared to their % in the population

  -police workforce by ethnicity: white = 91.9%; black = 1.3%

  -90% of court judges = white
• why are ethnic minorities criminalised more?

  -police targets: are more likely to be stopped & searched - typifications

  -police = more likely to monitor deprived areas

  -ethnic minorities make up a large proportion of the underclass - strain theory

  -institutional racism

  -social action theory

  -subcultures

  -media & moral panic
• Reiner (1989)


  -police racism can be individual, cultural or structural

  -individual: officers discriminate against ethnic minorities

  -cultural: 'police culture' - may see certain groups as troublesome & suspicious

  -structural: content of police activity e.g., the areas police monitor more often
• Stephen Lawrence case (1993) - linking to the role of the police

  -murdered at a bus stop

  -left to die

  -police assumed it was a gang violence, did not properly investigate the offence

  -took 18 years to convict offenders

  -institutionally racist

  -then developed the McPherson report 2000
• Damilola Taylor case (2001) - linking to the role of the police (AO3)

  -murdered at 10

  -police did not properly investigate

  -shows how the police remain institutionally racist despite the Stephen Lawrence case & the McPherson report, strategies they put in did not work
• the policy studies institute

  -blacks = 100% more likely to be stopped and searched but only 3% have means for arrest
• Landau & Nathan


  -police favour whites, they are less likely to be cautioned etc
• Blom-Cooper


  -blacks in brixton = more likely to be charged or serious offences when there are many options
• Holdaway


  -qualitative research into occupational culture of the police, found that racist language & attitudes were present

  -1983: non-participant overt observations, found that attitudes of the police involved racist language & jokes - this is their institutional culture, known as canteen culture
• AO2/AO3


  -Casey's report (2023): the police is still a majority white force, it is homophobic and misogynistic. The police force is still racist & there is still a canteen culture

  -learn though differential association (Sutherland)

  -examples: Wayne Couzens - murdered Sarah Everard; David Carrick - serial rapist
• explanations of ethnic minorities and criminality

  -opportunity structure: class & age demographies suggest that ethnic minorities cannot access white collar crime but can access street crime, which is criminalised more. This is why they are seen as more criminal. Link to Cloward & Olin.

  
  

  -social control: decreased levels of female Asian offending as they have more social control.

  
  

  -black youths are more likely to grow up in single-parent households & have less male role models, so turn to MTV rappers, influences them to commit crime. Link to Murray.
• Clancy et al 2001 - targeting of ethnic minorities

  -male; black & young are more likely to be stopped & searched
• Home Office 2004 - prosecution

  -black people are 3x more likely to be arrested than white people
• Phillips & Bowlings 2007

  -secondary research

  -police stereotype & classify people based on ethnicity

  -black people are seen as more violent, they are hard to handle & suspicious

  -all ranks within the police are racist, not just officers

  -there is overt targeting of ethnic minorities

  -after the Stephen Lawrence murder, explicit racist language became less but the institution is still racist, just implicit
• Hall


  -there is an over-representation of black criminality

  -black criminality is a myth

  -black people are no more criminal than others, there is a distorted media representation of black people
• Gilroy


  -black criminality is a myth

  -the difference in recorded levels of criminality is due to stereotypes and labels, they appear to commit more crime but are not committing more crime

  -initially, ethnic minorities that arrived in the UK faced hostility from the police & others so did not trust them

  -black criminality is political & part of general resistance to white rule
• Gilroy - AO3


  -Lea & Young (1984): riots are a protest against marginalisation

  -Lea & Young: first generation immigrants were law-abiding

  -most crime committed by ethnic minorities is against ethnic minorities, not the majority white population

  -most crime is reported to the police, not uncovered by the police so the institution itself is not racist

  -romanticises the criminals

  -Asian crime rates are similar to that of white people/lower, this theory suggests that the police are only racist towards black people

  -left realists disagree
• Sewell - triple quandary

  -there are 3 risk factors responsible for higher crime levels in African-Caribbean boys

  1. cannot relate to mainstream culture

  2. are influenced by the medias emphasis on conspicuous consumption

  3. brought up in single parent families

  
  

  AO3:

  -says that society needs to take responsibility for racism but says that black people need to take responsibility for their actions
• Waddington et al (2004)

  -some areas are more populated with ethnic minorities, which explains higher stop and search rates in the area. They live in more deprived areas that already have a presence of criminality

  
  

  AO3:

  -3rd/4th generations may have moved out of these zones & assimilated into mainstream culture
• Lea & Young


  -official statistics are generally an accurate representation of crimes in society

  -they say that black men are committing more crime than other people
• victimisation


  -the experiences of the victim are considered, who the victims are & why they are the victims

  -case study: Christopher Kapessa - pushed into a river & died. Family faced racism before this. The CPS did not prosecute the case as they said it was not in the public interest to do so. Mother had a bad relationship with the police, no trust, had no prior help when they previously had crime committed against them