Ethnicity and crime Flashcards
(19 cards)
What do official statistics show about ethnicity and criminalisation?
-Black people make up 3% of the population but 13.1% of prison population
-Black people are 7x more likely to be stopped and searched and 4x more liekly to be in prison
What do victim surveys show about ethnicity and victimisation and what are the critcisms of using this method?
Black people are significantly over represented as perpetrators of muggings
-Shows a lot of crime is intra-specific
-Phillips and Bowling; white victims may overrepresent black perpetuators even when they are unsure of the race
-Focus on interpersonal crimes, do not tell us ethnicity of white collar and corporate criminals so may not be representative
What do self report studies tell us about ethnicity and offending?
Graham and Bowling found that black and white people had similar rates of offendinf, asian people had much lower
Sharp and Budd foind that mixed ethnicity were more likely to report having used cannabis than black white or asian males
-Challenge the stereotype of black people being more liekly to offend than whites, supports the view asains less likely to offend
What are the ethnic differences in policing?
Phillips and Bowling note that EM are more likely to feel they are over-policed and under-protected
-EM are often victims of mass stop and searches, excessive surveillance
What are the ethnic differences in stop and search patterns and how can this be explained?
-Black people 7x more likely to be stop and searches, asian people 3x more likely under Terrorism Act 2000
-Only a small proportion of these lead to arressts
Can be due to:
Police racism- Macpherson report on Stephen Lawrence case reports police are institutionally racist; police may hold negative stereotypes about Em as criminals due to ‘canteen culture’> targeting and stop and search
Ethnic differences in offending; some groups more likely to offend so more likely to be stopped
Demographic factors; EM overrepresented in groups that are more likely to be stopped e.g the young,unemployed urban dwellers that are more liekly to be stopped regardless of ethnicity
What are ethnic differences in arrests and cautions?
Black people 3x more likely to be arressted
-Black and asian are less likely to recieve a caution; may be due to the fact they deny the offence and so cannot be given a caution
What are the ethnic differences in prosecution and trial?
Crowns prosecution service (CPS) more likely to drop cases against ethnic minorities than white possibly due to weak evidence presented
Black and Asian less likely to be found guilty
EM more likely to elect for a crown court trial rather than magistrates although they can impose harsher sentences as they mistrust magistrates impartiality
What are the ethnic differences in sentencing and prison
Hood- black men were 5% more likely to be given a custodial sentence and were given on average 3 months longer than white men (asian men 9 months more) on the same seriousness of offence
-May be due to pre-sentencing reports
-EM less likely to be granted bail so higher prison population percentage
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How doe left realists explain ethnic differences in offending?
Lea and Young argue that ethnic differences in statistics represent real levels of offending
-Racism has led to the marginalisation and economic exclusion of EM>more likely to be unemployeed,poverty, poor housing
-Media emphasis on promotes relative deprivation by setting standards EM cannot reach legitimately due to discrimination> form delinquent subcultures>high levels of utlitarian crime e.g roberry to deal with relative dep
-As well as this, as they are marginalised they have no groups to represent their intrests>non utilitarian e.g riots and violence
what do Lea and Young argue about the view that the differences in statistics is due to discriminatory policing and police racism?
-Police may act in unjust ways but this cannot explain differences
-Police would have to be ‘selectively racist’ as blacks have a higehr rate than asians
-90% of crimes are reported by public, not discovered by police themselves
How can Lea and Youngs view be criticised?
Arrest rates for asians may be lower than blacks because they are stereotyped differently e.g asains as passive, blacks as aggressive>police use these sterotypes for arrests
What is the overral neo-Marxist view of ethnic differences in offending?
-Differences are due to the social construction of stereotypes that Em are more criminal than majority population (Gilroy and Hall)
What does Gilroy argue about ethnic diffrences in offending?
‘Myth of black criminality’ that is created by racist stereotypes
>CJS act off of these racist stereotype> greater number in stats for Em
-All EM crime is an act of political resistance against a racist society and this has roots in struggles against British imperialism
-Most blacks and asians came frome countries where tehy rioted against imperialism, when facing racism in UK they used same methods to defend themselves but were criminalised by British state
How can Gilroy be criticised?
Lea and Young argue that first gen immigrants were law abiding so unlikely they passed down tradition to children
-Most crime is intra-specific so not a struggle against racism
-Girloy romanticises EM crime
What is Halls view on ethnic differences in offending?
in 1970s capitalism has a crisis of high inflation and rising unemployemnet that created unrest
-There was also a media-driven moral panic about mugging that the media police and politicians associated with black youth although there was no sig increase
-The emergence of the ‘new crime’ of mugging and perception of a black mugger acted a scapegoat to distract attention from capitalist crisis and unemployement
-Served to divide the working class and weaken opposition to capitalism
-This also further marginalised the youth into unemployement, pushing them into a lifestyle of hustling and petty crime for survival
How can Halls view be criticised?
-No evidence that the public were blaming crime on blacks
-Downes and Rock argue hall is inconsistent in claiming black crime isnt rising, but then argues it was rising due to unemployment
What are more recent explanations for ethnic differences?
Fitzgerald-Found that rates of street robbery higher in poor areas where deprived young people were in contact with affluent groups. Young blacks more likely to live in these areas, however whites in these areas are also more lilely> ethnicity is not a cause it is neighbourhood
Sharp and Budd- some groups are more likely to get caught, hence why black offenders are more likely to be arressted
-They are more likely to commit crimes where thet can be identified e.g robbery, as well asbeing excluded from school/associating with known criminals that increases police visibility
What are the trends in ethnicity and victimisation?
-People from mixed ethnicities have higher risk of becoming victims than other groups
-Differences in victimisation may be due to factors other than ethnicity e.g being young ,male, unemployed are all likely to victimisation>ethnic groups with high proportions of this are thus more likely to be victims
What are responses to victimisation?
Situational crime prevention e.g fireproof doors, organised self defence to defend from racist attacks
-EM may chose to defend themselves due to under-protection by police who ignore EM victimisation e.g Stephen Lawrence
