CD9 Ethnicity and Crime Flashcards
Trends in Ethnicity and Crime can be found in three types of statistics. What are these three types?
Prison statistics
Police statistics
Court Statistics
Prison Statistics
Black people make up 3% of the population but 13.1% of the prison population.
Asian people make up 6.5% of the population but 7.7% of prison population.
Police Statistics - stop and search
Ethnic minorities are 3 times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police.
Court Statistics - custodial sentences
Ethnic minorities are more likely to be given a custodial sentence then those of the ethnic majority.
Demographic explanations of ethnicity crime statistics
Who says that:
BAME groups contain a —————- number of —— people compared to the white ethnic majority, explain why there is —— ethnic minority criminality as young people are more likely to commit crimes.
Evaluation
Statistical illusion (explain it further)
Morris
BAME groups contain a disproportionate number of young people compared to the white ethnic majority, explain why there is higher ethnic minority criminality as young people are more likely to commit crimes.
Evaluation
Statistical Illusion –It is impossible to determine if it is the age of the offenders that causes the higher rates or their ethnicity.
7 Reasons for ethnic minority criminality
Police Targeting
Locality Theory
Institutional Racism
Social and Cultural Theory
Subcultures
Political Protest
Triple Quandary
Police Targeting
Who says that ethnic minorities are “over-policed and under protected”?
Whose is the “Myth of Black Criminality” theory?
What does it entail?
Evaluation
Targeting could be caused by ——- —— such as the Black Muggers in the 1970’s and therefore based on —— criminality.
Can cause a —— and — scenario where the targeting leads to higher ethnic minority criminality which leads to more targeting.
Phillips and Browning argue that ethnic minorities are “over-policed and under protected”
Gilroy - “Myth of Black Criminality”
Stereotyping Police focus on ethnic minorities and therefore they are more likely to be stopped and searched or arrested compared to the white majority.
Evaluation
Targeting could be caused by moral panics such as the Black Muggers in the 1970’s and therefore based on actual criminality.
Can cause a chicken and egg scenario where the targeting leads to higher ethnic minority criminality which leads to more targeting.
Locality Theory - Certain areas are more densely populated with immigrant ethnic minorities which explains higher stop and search statistics.
Additionally, ethnic minorities tend to live in the zones of ———- where crime rates are much higher due to the lack of social ———.
Whose is the theory above?
Evaluation
You do it fam
Waddington et al
Evaluation
This maybe the case for first generation immigrants but many ethnic minorities have moved out of the zone of transition after 1 or 2 generations and tend to assimilate into the majority culture.
Evidences for Institutional Racism
1. Police Officers in themselves are not racists but when together they can reinforce stereotypes which are then acted on duty.
Whose theory is that and what is the theory’s name?
Evaluation
Since the publication of the ———- Report the police force has been actively ——- policies to deal with institutional racism, and recruiting more officers from —— minorities. However, the crime rate amongst ethnic minorities has not ———.
Holdaway –Canteen Culture
Police Officers in themselves are not racists but when together they can reinforce stereotypes which are then acted on duty.
McPherson Report –result of the Stephan Lawrence murder which highlighted racists policies within the police force.
Evaluation
Since the publication of the McPherson Report the police force has been actively changing policies to deal with institutional racism, and recruiting more officers from ethnic minorities. However, the crime rate amongst ethnic minorities has not decreased.
Social and Cultural Theory
—– people regardless of their ethnicity commit crime due to lack of social ——– of attachment, commitment, involvement and belief, in their lives. Asian families have ——- controls over young people which could explain the —– rates of criminality amongst Asian communities.
Evaluation
you do it fam
Hirschi –
Young people regardless of their ethnicity commit crime due to lack of social controls of attachment, commitment, involvement and belief, in their lives. Asian families have stricter controls over young people which could explain the lower rates of criminality amongst Asian communities.
Evaluation
This is not limited to ethnic minorities and is more of an explanation for age differences in criminality than ethnic minority.
Subcultures + Evaluation
Left Realism (Lea and Young) –suggest that ethnic minorities suffer from marginalisation and relative deprivation, This can lead to ethnic minorities forming sub cultures which help to alleviate feelings of marginalisation but these can take deviant forms and lead to higher rates of criminality.
Evaluation
Not all ethnic minorities join a sub-cultures and not all sub-cultures are criminal in nature.
Political Protest + Evaluation
Gilroy –
Ethnic Minorities, particularly Black men, often feel alienated by everyday experiences of racism and what they perceive as a racist police force, and as such crime becomes a form of protest, Street Crime are seen as forms of resistance against white oppression. For example the crimes of the Black Panthers
Evaluation
This doesn’t account for the fact that most crime is commit within ethnic minority groups, therefore the majority of victims of black crime are black themselves which undermines Gilroy’s theory
Triple Quandary + Evaluation
Sewell –identifies three risk factors which could be responsible for the relatively high levels of crime amongst black boys:
1)Lack of a father figure –Large numbers of single mother families amongst black families mean that boys look to their community for role models such as gang leaders.
2)Negative experiences of white culture –Black boys are disaffected by their experiences of school, policing and employer racism.
3)Media –Media influence of hip-hop and rap stars believe that status can be achieved in two ways:
a)Acquisition of status symbol designer clothing and jewellery. b)Construction of hyper masculinity based on violence and sexual conquest.
Evaluation
