ethnicity

• Merton (functionalist). Lack of goals or institutional means. Ethnic minority groups innovate due to racism they experience and anomie.
• Murray (new right) argues that crime occurs due to poor socialisation and being in lone parent families, some ethnic minorities are more likely to be part of an underclass and live of a life of crime.
• Phillips and Bowling (interactionist) ethnic minorities are more likely to be labelled by agents of social control and therefore appear disproportionately on crime statistics.
• Selective law enforcement(marxism) Ethnic minorities are more likely to be working class and commit crime targeted by agents of social control.
• Hall, moral panic, black youth portrayed as folk devils via the media. Gilroy, police labelling and institutional racism. The myth of black criminality, their crime is politically motivated and is a reaction to racism and roots from earlier struggles during the British imperialism.
• Neo marxism- Black youth was a scapegoat used to divert attention away from the problems with capitalism
• Lea and Young, OCS reflect real differences in ethnic minority offending, Structural opportunities for EM are blocked by racism, which leads to social exclusion. As a result EMs are more likely to feel poor and turn to crime, often with other like minded people.
• Lea and Young EM crime is caused by marginalisation, relative deprivation and subcultures.
• Murray ao3: ignores institutional racism in policing and CJS. Ignores wider structural causes such as poverty.