Ethnicity

• Trends

  • Black individuals make up 13% of the prison population but 3% of the general population.
  • Black individuals 9x more likely to be stopped and searched.
  • Asian people 3x more likely to be stopped and searched
• Institutional Racism still present?

  Yes: stop and search show disparity, chief of met police stated it still exists, only 10% of officers are BAME

  No: anti-racism training, greater recruitment of BAME officers
• Patterns of Victimisation

  • 23% of homicide rates are BAME
  • 14x more likely to be victims of racially motivated crimes
  • Black people 5x more likely to be murder than white counterparts
  • 1 in 3 gun murders contain a black victim and black suspect (interracial crimes on the increase)
• Examples of Institutional Racism

  • Stephen Lawrence: murdered in 1993 in a racially motivated attack. Only two of his killers have been brought to justice whilst 4 others remain free. Macpherson Enquiry found the met to be institutionally racist due to their mishandling of this case.
  • CPS more likely to drop cases including black suspects suggesting police charge on no grounds
• Moral Panics

  Papers have fuelled fears over levels of migration through headlines like "Immigrants bring more crime" - daily express. Offending rates amongst Romanian, Bulgarian are in line with standard rates of offending
• Budd


  The profile of a typical judge is a white, middle class, middle aged man
• Lea and Young


  Argue there is convincing evidence that black males experience discrimination in the CJS but there is also lots of statistical information to state there may be high rates of criminality amongst them
• Nightingale


  Discusses 'paradox of inclusion' which is the desire to be part of mainstream (consumer) culture but poverty and racism leave criminal behaviour as the only way to achieve this
• Pitts


  Violent gangs are a response to marginalisation and those cut off from society
• Gilroy

  Argues that the 'Myth of Black Criminality' serves as a political agenda which is fuelled by media and racism in the police
• Hall

  Policing the Crisis: looked at aggressive policing tactics such as stop and search, media legitimate these actions by portraying black community as criminal