6.2 Explaining the Differences in Offending

• What did Fitzgerald et al study & find? (Explain)


  Studied areas where deprived youths came in contact with affluent groups

  More Black youth but white youth were more likely to commit crime

  Ethnicity isn't a cause of crime
• What did Fitzgerald et al say about neighbourhoods?


  Ethnicity isn't a cause of crime
• How did Downes & Rock criticise the idea of a moral panic?


  Don't show how the capitalist crisis lead to a moral panic
• What did they think were the origins of this moral panic?

  -Linked to the crisis of capitalism

  -Served as a scapegoat to distract from true problems (the crisis)
• What moral panic did the media create? (Hall et al)


  A panic about 'Black muggings'
• What did Lea & Young say to criticise the myth of Black criminality?


  First generation immigrants were very law-abiding, it's unlikely they passed this on to their children
• Myth of Black criminality (Gilroy)


  Ethnic minority crime is a form of political resistance against a racist society with roots in the response to British colonisation where oppression was met with riots and demonstrations
• Neo-marxist view

  Statistics are a social construct resulting from racist labelling and discrimination in the criminal justice system
• What do Lea & Young say about the link between police racism & criminalisation of MEGs?


  They acknowledge that police can act in racist ways but argue that this does not fully explain differences in statistics
• Left Realist view (Lea & Young)


  Racism has led to the marginalisation and exclusion of ethnic minorities, and turn to crime to achieve goals that they cannot complete legitimately