Crime and Deviance: Ethnicity

Ethnicity

Official Crime Statistics:

• Black people make up 2.8% of the population, but 11% of the prison population. They are 6x more likely to be stopped and searched and 3x more likely to be arrested than the white population.
• Asian people are 2x more likely to be stopped and searched than the white population.

Explanations:

1. The police are institutionally racist.

2. Ethnic minorities commit more crime.

Lord MacPherson: (Stephen Lawrence). Found that institutional racism has taken place as the police assumed that Stephen's black friend had stabbed him, rather than collecting vital evidence from the crime scene. During his enquiry, many witnesses came forward to claim that they believed it was a notorious white gang that had stabbed Stephen. New evidence found Stephen's DNA on their clothing, police officers were found to have taken bribes from the gang in order to dispose of evidence.

Simon Holdaway: 'Canteen culture'. An ex police officer who carried out covert participant observation on the police force. He argued that not all police officers are racist. When new recruits join the force they have good intentions, they are encouraged to respect and gain respect from senior officers. Junior officers would sit with senior officers who told racist jokes, they would internalise these jokes and believe that what they are told is true.

Bowling and Phillips: Argue that in African Caribbean communities there is hostility towards the police and as a result they feel 'over policed and under protected'.

Cicourel: Argues that the criminal justice system operates under typifications and as a result of stereotypes they are more likely to be punished by the courts.

Waddington: Argues that there is a problem with institutional racism. He used triangulation to research this. He argues that it is not due to racism, it is due to location. Ethnic minorities live in the areas that are more heavily patrolled, resulting in them being stopped and searched more by the police.

Morris: Argues that ethnic minority populations are younger whereas the white British population is ageing and young people commit crime, not old people.

→ If this was true then the Islamic population would have higher stop and search rates then the African Caribbean population as they have a higher percentage of young people.

Cashmore: Argues that African Caribbeans feel rejected by society and marginalised from the community. Their response to this is to rebel against white society and commit crime.

Tony Sewell: 'Triple Quandry Theory'. He acknowledges that African Caribbean boys commit a lot of crime within society. He blames this on 'black' culture and their family structures. 57% come from single-parent families and therefore struggle to develop masculinity, resulting from them turning to their peers as role models. He argues that as a result working class African Caribbean males:

1. Feel rejected by society. (Cashmore).

2. Turn to peers who have also been rejected by society - they create their own subcultures with anti-white values, they use these gang leaders as a father figure as they are the only people they feel accepted by so they shape their masculinity on them.

3. Media as a role model - He refers to this as MTV culture where women are viewed as objects that need to be owned by men. He argues that it values consumerism as it convinces these individuals that they need to own 'bling' and will turn to crime in order to achieve the success that they seek.

However, some members of the African Caribbean community are conformists to white society and want to succeed. They are deemed by their peers as 'acting white'.

Nightingale: 'Paradox of Inclusion'. African Caribbean males want to be included in the mainstream, in order to do this they must value consumerism but African Caribbean males lack the means to get the consumerist goods. They then try to innovate through crime to get the goods and be like everyone else. However, when they get caught this results in them being isolated further from the rest of society.

Stuart Hall: Argues that the Bourgeoisie use crime as a tool to segregate the Proletariat and keep them fighting against each other it will prevent them from banding together and starting a revolution. He argues that racism is created by the Bourgeoisie to make people fear ethnic minorities and not want to revolt against the Bourgeoisie.

Paul Gilroy: 'Myth of black criminality'. Argues that black crime is political, it is a protest against the oppression of white society.

→ If this was true black people wouldn't commit crime against other black people.

Lea and Young: Argues that the African Caribbeans feel relatively deprived because they lack job opportunities, and receive poor education and therefore go out and commit crime as a result.

Control Theory: Argue that due to coming from single parent families they suffer from cultural deprivation. 

Hirshi: Believed that individuals commit crime if they lack one or more of these social bonds (ACIB).

Attachment - Will their crime impact others?

Commitment - Do they care about the community that could be affected?

Inovolvement - Are they in employment? If so they have less time to become involved in deviant behaviour.

Beliefs - Do they have norms and values in society, are they properly socialised (nuclear family) or are they part of a religion.

Dennis and Erdos: Argue that the increase in single parent families with a lack of patriarchal influence leads to an increase in crime due to the lack of discipline. 25% of all UK family structures are lone parent ones.