Ethnicity + crime

• Lea and young (left realism)

  • Difference in statistics = differences in offending
  • Black people discriminated against in wider society.
  • Utilitarian crime = response to material deprivation
  • Non-utilitarian crime = due to frustrations of society
  • Police racism isn't main cause as 90% crimes reported by public
  • Police wouldn't be selectively racist against blacks but not Asians 
• Eval of Lea and young:

  • Things moved on - significant stereotyping of Asians since 9/11
  • Police have different stereotypes for black + Asians (eg. black =more violent)
• Gilroy (neomarxism) :

  • EM commit no more crime than others
  • Differences in stats=are a result of racist policing - as act on stereotypes
  • EM come from colonies where they resisted oppression through riots
  • When they resisted racism in the same way in Britain it became criminalised
• Eval Gilroy :

  • Lea and Young - first generation of immigrants= law abiding, so unlikely to pass down anti-colonial opinions
  • Most crime = intra-ethnic (victim + perpetrator are same ethnicity) so not seen as anti-colonial
  • Asian crime rates not high, so police were selectively racist against blacks
• Hall et al(neo Marxist) :

  • Moral panic in 1970s -black men + mugging
  • Due to capitalism being in crisis
  • The powerful used this story to distract public from issues of capitalism
  • Black people not more criminal - but victims of capitalism
  • Black men couldn't get jobs, so more likely to turn to crime
• Eval Hall et al :

  • Downes + Rock - point out that Hall et al claim black men are both more criminal and less criminal
  • Don't explain how moral panic created or give evidence that capitalism was behind it