Ethnicity and Crime Flashcards
(28 cards)
What do police statistics show about stop and search rates?
Ethnic minorities are 3 times more likely to be stopped and searched.
What do court statistics show about sentencing?
Ethnic minorities are more likely to receive custodial sentences compared to white offenders.
What do these statistics suggest about ethnicity and criminal justice?
There is a disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities, especially Black people, in the criminal justice system.
What is meant by police targeting?
Ethnic minorities are policed more heavily and are more likely to be stopped, searched, and arrested.
Who described ethnic minorities as “over-policed and under-protected”?
Phillips and Browning (2007
What is Gilroy’s ‘Myth of Black Criminality’ argument?
Black criminality is a stereotype created by racist policing and media moral panics (e.g., “Black muggers” in the 70s).
What is a criticism of the police targeting theory?
It may be a result of actual higher crime rates in some communities, leading to more targeting (chicken-and-egg problem).
What does the Locality Theory argue?
Higher stop and search rates are due to ethnic minorities living in high-crime areas (e.g., zones of transition).
Who proposed the Locality Theory?
→ Waddington et al. (2004).
Criticism of Locality Theory?
Many ethnic minorities now live outside those zones and have assimilated, so this doesn’t explain all ethnic patterns.
What is Institutional Racism in policing?
Systemic bias within police structures, culture, and practices that lead to racial discrimination.
What is ‘Canteen Culture’ (Holdaway, 1983)?
Informal culture among police officers that reinforces racist attitudes and influences behaviour.
What was the McPherson Report (1999)?
Investigated the Stephen Lawrence case and concluded the police were institutionally racist.
Criticism of Institutional Racism as an explanation?
Police reforms have been implemented, but crime rates among ethnic minorities remain high.
What is the Social and Cultural Theory?
Crime is due to weak social controls; Asian families have stricter control, which might explain lower crime rates.
Who proposed the Social Control Theory?
Hirschi.
Criticism of social control theory?
Applies to young people of all ethnicities, not just ethnic minorities.
What is the Left Realist view on ethnicity and crime?
Ethnic minorities face marginalisation and relative deprivation, which can lead to the formation of deviant subcultures.
Criticism of Left Realism?
→ Not all ethnic minorities join deviant subcultures, and not all subcultures are criminal.
What is Gilroy’s ‘Political Protest’ theory?
Some Black crime is a political response to racism and oppression, e.g., crime as resistance.
Criticism of Gilroy’s Political Protest theory?
Most crimes by Black individuals are intra-ethnic (against other Black individuals), undermining this theory.
What is Sewell’s ‘Triple Quandary’?
Three risk factors increase Black boys’ criminality:
Lack of father figures
Racism in institutions
Media promoting hyper-masculinity and materialism.
Criticism of Sewell’s Triple Quandary?
Many successful Black men exist; not all boys from single-parent homes offend. No direct causation established.
What is the ‘Demographic Explanation’ of ethnic minority crime?
BAME groups have more young people, and youth are more likely to commit crime (Morris).
