ethnicity and criminalisation

• Phillips and bowling - oppressive policing 


  since 1970s, there have been many allegations of oppressive policing of minority ethnic communities

  e.g mass stop and search
• macpherson report 1999 - police racism 


  • report that looked into the police's handling of the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation and identified institutional racism was evident throughout all aspects of policing
• bowling and Philips - CPS

  • crown prosecution service
  • body responsible for deciding whether a case brought by the police should be prosecuted in court
  • studies have shown CPS more likely to drop cases against minority ethnic groups
  • bowling and Phillips argue this is because evidence presented to CPS by police is often more weaker and based on stereotyping
  • e.g damilola Taylor
• Hudson and bramhall - pre-sentence reports

  • a risk assessment by probation offenders to assist magistrates in deciding appropriate sentence
  • argue that pre-sentence reports allow for discrimination
  • found reports on asian offenders were less comprehensive and less remorseful than whites
• intra-ethnic


  Within the same ethnic group; much crime happens within the same ethnic group
• 13% of prison population are black people
• 2008 ministry of justice 


  black people 7x more likely to be stop and searched than white
• victim surveys - crime survey England and Wales

  • gain information about ethnicity and offending from such surveys when they ask victims to identify the ethnicity of the person 
  • also shows how most crime is intra-ethnic - takes place within rather between ethnic groups
• criticisms of victim surveys

  • rely on victim memory
  • only cover personal crimes
  • exclude under 10s from taking the survey
  • excludes crime by and against organisations e.g white collar, corporate crimes
• self-report studies

  • ask individuals to disclose their own dishonest and violent behaviour
  • findings of self-report studies challenge the stereotype of Black people as more likely than White people to offend,
• graham and bowling - self-report studies

  • found white and black rates of offending were similar
  • white 44% black 43%
  • indian 30% pakistani 28%
• sources of statistics

  • official statistics
  • victim surveys - crime survey England and Wales
  • self-report studies - bowling and graham
• reasons for stop and search patterns

  • police racism
  • ethnic difference in offending
  • demographic factors
• ethnic differences in offending

  • disproportionate stop and searches reflect ethnic difference in levels of offending
  • low discretion stops - police act on relevant info about a specific offence e.g victims description of offender
  • high discretion stops - police act without specific intelligence - use stereotypes, leading to discrimination
• demographic factors

  • minority ethnic groups usually represented in population groups most likely to be searched e.g unemployed, underclass, poverty
• arrests and cautions

  • black people arrest rate 3x more than white
  • one reason why may be due to minority groups being more vocal and less conformist than whites, more likely to deny the offence
• criminal justice system

  • policing - Philips and bowling
  • stop and search - (macpherson report) police racism, ethnic differences, demographic factors
  • arrests and caution - black people 3x more likely arrest
  • prosecution and trial - Philips and bowling
  • sentencing - (hood) black men 5% more likely to receive custodial
  • pre-sentence reports - Hudson and bramhall
  • prison - black people 4x more likely to be in prison
• hood - sentencing

  • Black and Asian defendants are less likely to be found guilty - suggests discrimination in cjs
  • hood found black men 5% more likely to receive a custodial sentence, given sentences 3 months longer than white
• prison stats

  • 2021 - over 1/4 of prison population were from minority ethnic groups
  • black people 4x more likely to be in prison than white people
  • Black and Asian offenders are more likely than White offenders to be serving longer sentences (of four years or more).