Crime

• Black people are 4 times more likely to be in prison than whites, and Black and Asian prisoners, on average, serve 4 years longer in prison than white offenders.
• Official police stop and search statistics in 2011 showed that African-Caribbean males are eight times more likely to be stopped and searched than young white males.
• Statistics show that Black people are three times more likely to be prosecuted than their white counterparts for the same offences.
• Black minorities suffer from the Paradox of inclusion, which is the desire to be included in the fight for success, designer lifestyle and the ‘American dream’. This means they are socially excluded, which affects their chances of getting a well-paid job.
• Carl Nightingale studied young Black males in the USA and found they subscribed like everyone else to the goals of monetary success and materialism. However, they found their route to these goals blocked by racism and poverty, and turned to violent crime as an alternative route to material success.
• Cicourel’s observation of American police officers found that police officers were more likely to stereotype and label working-class youth as deviant but were more likely to negotiate with middle-class youth and their parents. Consequently middle-class young people who got into trouble with the police were less likely to be labelled and charged.
• Charles Murray, a New Right sociologist, argued that the Black underclass in the USA resulted from an overly generous welfare system discouraging work. According to him, this underclass, made up of never-married Black single mothers and fatherless young men, lacked positive role models, leading to an anti-work, dependent, criminal, and antisocial behaviour.