Ethnicity

• Stop and search:

  
  

  • The Terrorism Act 2000, allows police to stop and search, whether or not they have reasonable suspicion. With statistics showing Asians were 3 times more likely to be stopped in 2006/2007.
  • Black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched by a police officer in the UK.
  • However, a very small amount of stop and searches lead to an arrest.
• Phillip And Bowling:

  Argue that the criminal justice system is racist. E.G. - Case Of Stephen Lawrence.
• Ethnic minority cases are usually dropped, and White people are more likely to be found guilty than Black and Asian. Bowling and Phillips (2002) suggest that this occurs due to the lack of credible evidence, as the reported "crime" in question is often based entirely on racist stereotypes.
• Waddington: Demographic factors - Ethnic minorities are more likely to be unemployed, manual workers, live in city areas of high crime etc. So these make them targets for stop and search.
• Canteen culture:

  • Holdaway claimed that there was a ‘canteen culture’ that existed within the police force.
  • He claimed that many officers held prejudicial thoughts about members of the African Caribbean community and therefore told negative stories and shared derogatory jokes at their expense.
  • Holdaway argued that many new recruits felt under pressure to conform to this ‘canteen culture’.
• Lea and Young (Left realists):

  • Black people may be more likely to to be more likely to be involved with street crime than white people due to wider social factors.
  • 60% of young black males live with just 1 parent. Usually mothers. (Inadequate socialisation - Murrey, who states - Lone parents fail to adequately socialise their children and increase the risk of them offending).
  • Single parent families also tend to be poorer than nuclear families, hence the link could be related to poverty as well. (Link to Functionalists on family diversity/nuclear families).
• Self Report:

  • Graham and Bowling - Used a sample of 2500 people, finding that 43% of black people and 44% white people admitted to offending.
  • Whereas, 28% Indians, 28% Pakistanis and 13% Bangladeshi's admitted to offending.
  • Sharp and Budd - Sample of 12,000 found 40% white and mixed individuals admitted to offending. 28% = Black.

  21% = Asian.
• Victims Surveys:

  • Shows that Black men are overrepresented as suspects in crimes relating to mugging/robbery.
  • Show that crime is interethnic (Taking place eithin the same ethnic groups).
  • In 90% of crimes, where a victim was white, one of the offenders was also white.
• Official Statistics:

  • Black people and Asians are overrepresented in crime statistics.
  • People from BAME backgrounds constitute only 14% of population, but make up 25% in prison statistics
• Gilroy (Neo-Marxism):

  • When Ethnic crime does occur, it is a form of political resistance against a racist society.
  • Due to colonisation occurring Black people and Asians experienced oppression. They hence rioted against said oppression, this was not treated as criminal behaviour.
  • However, when Black people and Asians faced oppression, due to racism, after immigrating to Britain they responded in the same way (riots), but their behaviour was now criminalised.(Social construction of crime) - A label had been given, a moral panic created. Secondary deviance.