ethnicity

• stop & search

  black people are 7x more likely to be stopped & searched by police in the UK

  *however, small amount of s&s lead to an arrest
• how many times more likely are black people to by stopped by police?

  7 x more likely
• what was the MacPherson report looking into?

  police failings & institutional racism
• what did the macpherson report look into?

  police failings & institutional racism
• outline the lord macpherson report

  • report into the stephen lawrence murder
  • used the term "institutional racism" when describing the actions of the police in that case
  • macpherson accused the police of incompetency - didn't follow up on important leads
• canteen culture

  *holdaway

  • claimed many officers held prejudicial thoughts about members of the african american community
  • many told negative stories & shared derogatory jokes at their expense
  • many new recruits felt under pressure to conform to this canteen culture
• what does holdaway mean by canteen culture?

  many officers hold prejudicial thoughts about black people, engaging in derogatory jokes & negative stories
• left realist ~ ethnicity & crime

  • lea & young believe that the racism in society leads to the "economic exclusion" of ethnic minority communities which leads them to commit crime
• right realist ~ ethnicity & crime

  • moynihan claims that the main cause behind ethnic minority crime is poor socialisation caused by ineffective family structure
  • cultural deprivation becomes a cycle in single parent families as the children are likely to fail in education
• cause of ethnic minority crime according to right realist?

  poor socialisation caused by ineffective family structures {single parent families}
• neo-marxist ~ ethnicity & crime

  • hall suggests the ruling class use racism as a tool to divide the proletariat & prevent a revolution
  • he refers to this as divide & rule
• what does hall mean by divide & rule?

  the ruling class use racism as a tool to divide the proletariat & prevent a revolution
• prison stats

  black people make up 3% of the population but 13.1% of the prison population

  asian people make up 6.5% of the population but 7.7% of the prison population
• gov.uk stats ~ stop & search {2019}

  • black people 9&1/2 time more likely to be stopped & searched than white people {2017/18}
  • 29 stop & searches for every 1000 black people - compared to 3 for every 1000 white people
  • black people had the highest stop & search rates in every police force area for which there was data
• the lammy review {2017}

  1. 227 ME women jailed for drug offences for every 100 white women
  2. 25% of the adult prison population - 20,000 - are ME
  3. 3% of the general population are black, but 12% of prisoners & 21% of children in custody are black
• police targeting - phillips & browning {2007}

  ME are "over-policed & underprotected"
• police targeting - gilroy {1982}

  "myth of black criminality" - stereotyping

  police focus on ethnic minorities & therefore they are more likely to be stopped & searched / arrested, compared to the white majority
• locality theory - waddington et al {2004}

  • certain areas are more densely populated with minorities which explains higher stop & search stats
  • minorities tend to live in the zones of transition where crime rates are much higher due to lack of social cohesion
• institutional racism - holdaway {1983)

  • "canteen culture"
  • minority of police officers are racist
  • in group settings they can reinforce stereotypes, jokes & negative experiences which are then acted on duty
• institutional racism - macpherson report {1999}

  • result of murder of stephen lawrence
  • highlighted racist policies within the police force
  • institutional racism within police force can lead to poor policing
• social & cultural theory - hirschi

  • young people, regardless of ethnicity, commit crime
  • lac of social controls of attachment, commitment, involvement & belief in their lives
  • asian families have stricter controls over young people - could explain lower rates of criminality amongst asian communities
• subcultures - lea & young

  • suggest ME suffer from marginalisation & relative deprivation
  • can lead to ME forming subcultures
  • these help to alleviate feelings of marginalisation
  • BUT can take deviant forms & lead to higher rates of criminality
• political protest - gilroy

  • black criminality = myth, no more criminal than any other group
  • crime stats = manifestation of racial stereotypes
  • ME, particularly black men, often feel alienated by everyday experiences of racism & what they perceive as racist police force
  • as such crimes become a form of protest
  • street crime are seen as forms of resistance against white oppression - ie crimes of the black panthers
• examples of political protest {gilroy}

  the black panthers

  response to police brutality & murder of black people {10 point programme}

  believed non-violent protests wouldn't help liberate them

  carrying loaded weapons
• triple quandary - sewell

  sewell identified 3 risk factors which could be responsible for the high levels of crime amongst black boys:

  1. lack of a father figure
  2. negative experience of white culture
  3. media
• triple quandary - sewell

  lack of father figure

  • large numbers of single mother families amongst black communities means that boys look to their community for role models
  • ie gang leaders - model their behaviour off of them
• triple quandary - sewell

  negative experiences of white culture

  • black boys are disaffected by their experiences of school, policing & employer racism
• triple quandary - sewell

  media

  • media influence of hip-hop & rap stars
  • black boys believe status can be achieved in 2 ways:

  1. acquisition of status symbol - designer clothing, jewellery etc
  2. construction of hyper masculinity - based on violence & sexual conquest
• police targeting - evaluation

  • targeting could be caused by moral panics {ie black muggers 70's} & therefore based on actual criminality
  • can cause a chicken & egg scenario - the targeting leads to higher ethnic minority criminality -> leads to more targeting
• locality theory - evaluation

  • might be the case for 1st gen immigrants
  • BUT many ME have moved out of the zone of transition after 1/2 generations
  • tend to assimilate into the majority culture
• institutional racism - evaluationsince the publication of the mcpherson report:

  • the police force has been actively changing policies to deal with institutional racism
  • employing more EM officers

  however - the crime rate amongst EM has not decreased
• social & cultural theory - evaluation

  • this is not limited to ethnic minorities
  • more an explanation for age differences in criminality than em
• subcultures - evaluation

  • not all ME join subcultures
  • not all subcultures are criminal in nature
• political protest - evaluation

  • this doesn't account for the fact that most crime is committed within ethnic minority groups - intra group crime
  • therefore the majority of victims of black crime are also black themselves which undermines gilroy's theory
• triple quandary - evaluation

  • the rise of positive role models {barack obama}
  • there is no causality established between single parenthood & criminality {he victim blames}
  • black crime tends to victimise black people
• demographic explanations of ethnicity & crime stats - morris

  • ME groups contain a disproportionate number of young people compared to the white ethnic majority
  • explains why there is higher ethnic minority criminality as young people are more likely to commit crimes
• demographics explanations of ethnicity & crime stats - evaluation

  • statistical illusion
  • it is impossible to determine if it is the age of the offenders that causes the higher rates OR their ethnicity