Ethnicity and Crime

When looking at ethnicity and crime it is important to note the

differences between different ethnic groups

Statistics – Home Office 2002

Ethnic Group

Population

(age 10+)

Arrests Prison Population

White 94.5% 86.3% 81.9%

Black 1.8% 7.7% 12.1%

Asian 2.7% 4.4% 2.8%

Explaining Ethnicity and Crime

Two main approaches:-

• Black people are disproportionately criminal

• The criminal justice system is racist and discriminates against black people.

Black People are Disproportionately Criminal

• Left Realists argue that the main cause of crime is relative deprivation.

• The lower working-class and certain ethnic minorities feel deprived and the push towards crime among them is greater.

• Also argue that British society is racist and young ethnic-minority males are economically and socially marginalised.

• They have lesser chances of success than the majority population.

• The result is the creation of subcultures.

• This can lead to higher levels of personal crime as a way of coping with marginalisation and relative deprivation.

Mayhew, Aye Maung and Mirrless-Black (1993)

• Argue that most crime is performed by young males who come from poorer backgrounds.

• Thus there would be an over-representation of offenders from the ethnic minorities because there is a higher proportion of young males in the ethnic minority population than in the population as a whole.

• Also ethnic minorities overall are likely to have lower incomes and poorer housing conditions.

• These sociologists accept that there is evidence of racist practices by certain police officers but that the arrest rates largely reflect the true patterns of crime.

The Criminal Justice System is Racist

• Gilroy (1982) and Hall (1978) writing for the Neo-Marxist Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University suggest that higher levels of criminality amongst the British black population are mythical and the result of distorted media attention and inadequate official stastics.

Policing the Crisis

• In this piece of work they criticise the exaggerated and at times racist reporting of black criminality in the British popular press.

• Hall et all looked at the increase in mugging in the 1970s.

• They suggest that the official crime figures can be used as a political weapon at times of economic crisis to justify a failing capitalist economy.

• A myth of black crime is created to act as a scapegoat to draw the public’s attention away from the real social problems of the time ie unemployment, inflation etc.

• Moral panic created around the crime of mugging.

• Led to a stricter style of policing in the Brixton area where most of the mugging was reputed to take place.

• The blame was placed on black youths.

• ‘Stop and Search’ operations introduced.

• The ruling elite’s capitalist economic policies are preserved.

• They do not suggest that this antagonism amongst the white working-classes against the black working-class is deliberately created.

• However it does serve the purpose of the ruling economic elite at this time of crisis.

Colonial Struggle

• A second position connected with Gilroy goes further to suggest that crime by blacks, especially antagonism to police authority, is a legacy of colonial struggle.

• From this perspective, although blacks do not commit more crime, they do commit crime of a revolutionary and political nature.

• He also suggests that the over-representation of ethnic groups in the official figures is a result of selective police practices arising from police racism.

Cultures of Resistance

• This approach overlaps with the Marxist approach.

• Scraton (1987) and Gordon (1988) argue that ethnic minorities have been on the receiving end of discrimination since the first migrants arrived.

• This has left them in a poor socio-economic position.

• In response ‘cultures of resistance’ have emerged which has its origins in the anti-colonial struggles.

• Young ethnic minorities committing crime are doing so as a political act rather than a criminal act.

• However Lea and Young point out that the majority of crimes are intra-racial so cannot reflect a political struggle against white majority.

Racist Police Practices

• Left Idealism suggest that crime is caused by inequality and greed.

• Also suggest that increasing crime rates are a reflection of police bias against black people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_GWy82olhw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVP7xObmbPc

• The increase is a side-effect of more police.

• The increased police presence causes moral panics.

• Police stereotypes reinforce this.

• The police call out for more funding and resources to deal with the crime ‘problem’ they have helped to create.

• The amount of crime is exaggerated to draw attention away from poverty and exploitation.

Reflection of Society Approach

• This approach, often adopted by the police, suggests that there are some individuals in the police force who are racist.

• This approach was suggested by Lord Scarman (1981).

Canteen Culture

• This approach suggests police officers have developed distinctive working values as a result of their job.

• The culture included values such as a thirst for action, cynicism, conservatism, suspicion, isolation from the public, macho values and racism.

• Studies by Smith and Gray (1985) and Holdaway (1983) all demonstrated racist views on the criminality of African-Caribbean origin youths.

• Led to these groups being ‘stopped and searched’ more than other groups.

• This group are 6 times more likely than whites to be stopped and searched.

Institutional Racism

• After the Stephen Lawrence murder the Macpherson Report concluded that the police were institutionally racist.

• The police have procedures and practices which may disadvantage non-white people.

• The police make assumptions about young black males and their likelihood of offending.

Exclusion and Alternative Economies

• This approach relates quite closely to the work of Cloward and Ohlin.

• Bourgois (1995) studied a deprived area in New York.

• He argues that the economic exclusion of these ethnic-minority groups, combined with negative social attitudes towards them, has forced them to develop an ‘alternative economy’.

Alternative Economy

Involves:-

• Kerbside car-repair business

• Selling drugs

A culture of resistance had developed.

• A spontaneous set of rebellious practices have emerged as an oppositional style.

• Causes great damage because it involves dangerous lifestyles eg violence, drug abuse.

• Families and communities are destroyed.