CRIME AND DEVIANCE
Ethnicity, Crime and Justice
RECAP

You have one minute to write on the board one
word which sums up what you remember from
gender, crime and justice.
YOU WILL BE ABLE TO....
1.
2.
3.
4.
Identify the patterns of ethnicity and
criminalisation as shown by different sources of
data,
Understand the relationship between the
criminal justice process and ethnicity,
Evaluate sociological explanations of the
relationship between ethnicity, offending and
criminalisation,
Understand the relationship between ethnicity,
racism and victimisation
YOUR THOUGHTS ...
Are some ethnic
groups more
likely to commit
crime more
than others ?
Why?
Is the criminal justice
system biased and racist
towards ethnic
minorities ?
1.
2.
3.
There are definite ethnic differences in
criminalisation,
Some ethnic group are more likely to be victims
of a crime than others,
Considerable evidence of the scale of racially
motivated offences against minority groups
A CRUCIAL EXAMPLE ....

Rodney King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROn_9302UHg
ETHNICITY AND CRIMINALISATION

Significant ethnic differences in the likelihood of
being involved in the CJS
1.
2.
3.
Black people make up 2.8% of the population but
11% of prison population,
Asians make up 4.7% of the population but 6% of
the prison population,
White people on the other hand are underrepresented at all stages of the CJS (see Ministry of
Justice statement, 2008)
HOWEVER...
Statistics fails to tell us whether one ethnic group
is more likely to commit crime more than another
as they focus on the CJS involvement ,
 e.g.
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ALTERNATIVES SOURCES
OF STATISTICS
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Victim surveys
1.
2.
3.
Asks individuals what they have been victims
of and the ethnicity of the perpetrators,
Provides us with information with regards to
ethnicity and offending,
Mugging for example over represents black
people as perpetrators.
CRITICISM
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WOULD YOU ....
Share or tell
others if you had
previously
committed a
violent crime ?
SELF REPORT STUDIES
Asks participants to disclose their own dishonest
and violent behaviour,
 Graham and Bowling (1995),
 Sharp and Budd (2005),

ETHNICITY, RACISM AND THE CJS
There are ethnic differences at each stages of the
CJS.
 How can we explain them ?
 How far are they the result of racism within the
criminal justice system?
 10 stages to the CJS stages.

POLICING

Phillip and Bowling (2007)
STOP AND SEARCH
British Crime Survey (BCS),
 Terrorism Act (2000)
 Phillips and Bowling (2007)
 Asians more likely to be stopped and search
under the terrorism act,
 Black people more likely to be stopped and search
than white.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzzDSW7UY-g
EXPLAINING STOP AND SEARCH PATTERNS

3 possible factors:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Police Racism: McPherson Report (1999) – Stephen
Lawrence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-kVCTbuRMg
Ethnic Differences in offending – Low and high
discretion
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Demographic
Factors:.........................................................................
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ARREST AND CAUTIONS
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PROSECUTION AND TRIAL
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CONVICTION AND SENTENCING
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PRE-SENTENCES REPORTS
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PRISONS
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EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENCES IN
OFFENDING
Large upscale migration from the Caribbean and
the Indian subcontinent(1950s),
 General agreement in the 1970s that ethnic
minorities had a lower rate of offending,
 Mid 1970s increased conflict between AfroCaribbean communities and the police (black
criminality),
 1990’s growth of “Asian gangs” which leads to
Asian people to be viewed as a problem and an
enemy within:

1.
2.
Riots in Bradford (2001),
Islamic Terrorist 9/11
EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENCES IN
OFFENDING

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kte0T-nPAT4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhjy9TV4wuo

Statistics on the CJS
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2 EXPLANATIONS FOR THE ETHNIC
DIFFERENCES IN STATISTICS – LEFT REALISM
AND NEO-MARXISM


Using the handout “explanations for ethnic
minority crime” and your handout put together a
spider diagram which sums up the standpoint of
Lea and Young (Left realism), Gilroy (NeoMarxism) and Hall (Neo Marxism)
You have 10 minutes to complete this task be
ready to feedback.
LEFT REALISM
NEO-MARISM
HALL ET AL
ETHNICITY AND VICTIMISATION



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zumq0iUyMQ
&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFO1b9I-u5Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqbQWxHIn4
U
ETHNICITY AND VICTIMISATION
Focus of the ethnicity and crime debate focused
on the over representation of black people,
 New focus on racist victimisation,
 Stephen Lawrence (1993) & the McPherson
inquiry (1999)
 2 sources:

1.
2.
British Crime Survey (BCS),
Police recorded statistics
What is one of the issues
with the use of police
recorded statistics as
reliable and valid
sources of data ?
E AND V CONTINUED ....

Racist incidents
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Racially or religious aggravated assault
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 Add video

EXTENT AND RISK OF VICTIMISATION

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Police recorded 61,000 racist incidents in
England and Wales in 2006/2007 (property
offences and verbal harassment),
However most crimes go unreported, BCS
counted 184,000 racially motivated incidents in
2006/2007,
Police recorded 42,600 racially or religiously
aggravated offences in 2006/2007 only 10,600
people were cautioned or prosecuted for racially
aggravated offences.
METHODS LINK

Read through the small passage and evaluate the
strengths and weaknesses of using interview in
order to gather data in the context of ethnicity
and crime ?
Chances of being a victim of crime varies by
ethnic groups.
 What sort of crime would each ethnic minority
you can think of be a victim of?
 Various factors can explain the differences such
as unemployment.
 Statistics fail to capture the victim’s experiences
of crime,
 Sampson and Phillips (1992)

RESPONSES TO VICTIMISATION
Ethnic minorities are very responsive to
victimisation,
 Wide range of responses put in place to protect
ethnic minorities,
 Police tends to ignore the racist dimension of
victimisation and fail to report or investigate
properly,
 Macpherson Inquiry (1999) concluded that the
police investigation into the death of the black
teenager.

PLENARY

Pub Quiz