Ethnicity*

• Smith and Gray (1985)

  • ethnic minorities are stopped and searched, arrested and charged, and sentenced to imprisonment most — black people stopped 7 times more and arrested 3 times more.
  • most likely victims of personal crime
  • 5 times more likely to be murdered
• Bowling and Phillips (2006)


  more likely to drop cases involving black suspects, links to racial profiling
• The secret policeman study

  • reporter went undercover in a police station
  • 125 recommendations for changes to policies with racism
  • 2 senior ethnic minority officers were suspended due to race row
  • those who speak out over race feel victimised by their own forces
  • 5 years on, finding were not improved

  pros - no change by police as the reporter was undercover

  cons - no 3rd party witness
• Nightingale (1993) - the paradox of inclusion

  by aiming to include marginalised groups, a divide is highlighted, causes more exclusion
• Phillips and Browning (2007)

  ethnic minorities are over-policed and under-protected
• Gilroy (1982) - "Myth of Black Criminality"

  police stereotype ethnic minorities, thus minorities are most likely to be stopped and searched
• Holdaway (1983) - canteen culture


  police officers are not individually racist but when together, they can reinforce stereotypes
• ethnicity in crime

  ethnic minorities are overrepresented in prison populations
• The McPherson Report

  • found institutional racism, in the police, after the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence
  • Unwitting prejudice (unknown prejudice)
  • Ignorance to race
  • Thoughtlessness
  • Racial stereotyping
• Hood

  courts are guilty of institutional racism, black people are more likely to be imprisoned than white people
• Asian people and crime

  Asian crime used to be lower in the past due to stricter family controls over young people
• The Scarman Report (1981)

  • investigated the Brixton riots
  • found that the riots were not a result of organised rebellion but rather a spontaneous outburst of anger and resentment against the police
  • found issues of unemployment and poverty
• Interracial conflict

  between different races
• Intraracial conflict

  within the same race