Ethnicity, crime and justice

• Main sources of statistics on ethnicity and criminalisation

  • Official statistics
  • Victim surveys
  • Self-report studies
• Official statistics


  Show ethnic differences in the likelihood of being involved in the criminal justice system (CIS)
• Official statistics


  • Black people are seven times more likely than White people to be stopped and searched, and almost four times more likely to be in prison
• Victim surveys


  Ask individuals to say what crimes they have been victims of and identify the ethnicity of the offender
• Victim surveys


  • In the case of 'mugging', Black people are significantly more likely to be identified as offenders
• Self-report studies


  Ask individuals to disclose crimes they have committed
• Self-report studies


  • Graham and Bowling (1995) found that Black people and White people had almost identical rates of offending, while Asian people had much lower rates
• The evidence on ethnicity and offending is inconsistent. Official statistics and victim surveys indicate higher rates of offending by Black people, but self-report studies do not
• Stages of the criminal justice process that an individual may go through

  • Policing
  • Stop and search
  • Arrests and cautions
  • Prosecution and trial
  • Sentencing and prison
• Policing of minority ethnic communities

  • Allegations of oppressive policing including mass stop and search operations, paramilitary tactics, excessive surveillance, unjustified police violence and deaths in custody, and a failure to respond effectively to racist violence
  • Minority ethnic groups are more likely to think they are over policed and under-protected
• Stop and search


  • Black people are nine times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people
  • Asian people are over three times more likely to be stopped and searched than other people under the Terrorism Act 2000
  • Only a small proportion of stops result in arrest
• Explanations for ethnic differences in stop and search

  • Ethnic differences in offending
  • Police racism
  • Demographic factors
• Arrests and cautions


  • The arrest rate for Black people is over three times the rate for White people
  • Black and Asian people are less likely than White people to receive a caution once arrested
• Prosecution and trial


  • The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is more likely to drop cases against members of minority ethnic groups than against White people
  • Black and Asian defendants are less likely to be found guilty than White defendants
  • Members of minority ethnic groups are more likely to elect for a Crown Court trial by jury, perhaps due to mistrust of magistrates' impartiality
• Sentencing and prison


  • Harsher sentences are given to a greater proportion of Black offenders than White or Asian offenders
  • Black people are almost four times more likely to be in prison than White people
  • Black and Asian people are more likely to be serving longer sentences
  • Minority ethnic groups are less likely to be granted bail when awaiting trial
• Explanations for ethnic differences in offending

  • Left realism
  • Neo-Marxism: Black crime as a construct
• Left realism


  • Ethnic differences in the statistics reflect real differences in the levels of offending
  • Crime is the product of relative deprivation, subculture and marginalisation
  • Racism has led to the marginalisation and economic exclusion of minority ethnic groups
  • Media emphasis on consumerism promotes relative deprivation
  • Police racism cannot fully explain the ethnic differences in the statistics
• Neo-Marxism: Black crime as a construct

  • The statistics do not reflect reality, but are the outcome of a social construction process that stereotypes minority ethnic groups as more criminal than White people
  • Minority ethnic group crime is a form of political resistance against a racist society, but this resistance has been criminalised by the British state
  • The myth of the young Black mugger served as a scapegoat to distract attention from the true cause of society's problems, such as unemployment and the capitalist crisis
• Sociologists have examined two other explanations for ethnic differences in crime rates: neighbourhood factors and getting caught
• Neighbourhood factors


  Street robberies were highest in very poor areas but where the people had contact with richer groups. Young Black people were more likely to live in these areas and to be poor, but poor White people in these areas were also more likely to commit street crime. Thus, ethnicity as such was not a cause.
• Getting caught


  Black offenders were more likely than White people to have been arrested because they committed crimes where victims could identify them (e.g. robbery), and had been excluded from school or associated with known criminals - factors that raised their visibility to police.
• Risk of being a victim varies with ethnic group. Differences may be due to racism and to factors such as being young, male and unemployed.
• Repeated instances of harassment and violence can cause psychological harm as well as physical injury and damage to property for minority ethnic communities.
• Minority ethnic communities are often over-policed and under-protected, with institutional and individual racism in the police and failure to investigate offences. In some instances, this has led communities to organise their own defence.