Is Britain racist?

What did we learn from the documentary?

Are the police racist?

Why do you think this?
What evidence are you basing it on?

True or False?
Black people are 3.3 times more likely to be arrested than a white
person
Mixed ethnicity people are 2.3 times more likely to be arrested than
white people
In 2009/10 there were 1,386,030 arrests in England and Wales
In 2011, Black people made up 13.4% of the prison population
In 2011, 74.3% of the prison population were white.
In America, black people make up 50% of the prison population

Ethnicity and Crime

% of prison population by ethnicity.

Ministry of Justice (2008)

Afro Caribbeans were 3 times more likely to be cautioned
by the police, 3.5 more likely to be arrested. More likely
to be charged and face court proceedings rather than
receiving a caution. If found guilty, 5 times more likely to
be in prison.
Asians were twice as likely to be stopped and searched
(mainly for drugs), more likely to be charged and face
court proceedings than to receive a caution. More likely to
receive a sentence.

Are these reliable?

What other research method
could you use?
Would it be more reliable?

Statistics criticism
Statistics do not tell us whether members of one group
are more likely than members of another to commit an
offences in the first place. They just talk about any
dealings with the police / CJS.
Differences in stop and searches may simply be due to
policing strategies or discrimination by officers.
Differences in imprisonment may be a result of courts
handing harsher sentences to minorities.

Sociological Explanations - Demographic (where you are).

Morris argues that most crime is committed by young
people and that ethnic minority groups include a higher
proportion of young people who have committed crimes
than the white population.
The majority of asians within Britain are below 30, but
they are not as highly represented in the crime figures as
black people.

Sociological Explanations - Interpretivist critiques

Crime statistics dont tell us much about black or asian
criminality. The statistics simply reflect the level of
discrimination within the system.
Coretta and Bowling (2007) - in the 1970s the black
community was subjected to oppressive policing which
resulted in over policing of the communities. In 2010,
black British are 6x more likely to be stopped than a
White British person.

Sociological Explanations - Interpretivist critiques

Observational studies of the police show that the decision
to stop and search a person is generally due to racial
profiling or stereotypes.
Simon Holdaway - police canteen culture involved racist
jokes, banter and often underpins decisions made when
working.

Who is this?

Read the article and highlight the

important parts.

Stephen Lawrence
MacPherson report, 2008

The police were found to have institutional racism.

Waddington et al (2004)
Watched CCTV footage of police officers and interviewed officers about
their stop and search activities.
Although a disproportionate amount of ethnic minority people were stopped
and searched it was a proportionate amount of people who were on the
streets at the time.
Police stop and search is not shaped by racial prejudice but rather a
reflection of the local population.

Sharp and Budd (2005)

Young black Britons have lower offence levels compared
to white youth but are more likely to be arrested, taken
to court and convicted. Compared to white Britons, Black
and Asian offenders are more likely to be charged rather
than cautioned or remanded in custody rather than bailed.

Phillips and Bowling

Negative treatment by the criminal justice system may
lead to some members of black communities to feel
hostile towards the police. Young black Britons commit
more street robbery than other ethnic groups and
suggested this is a product of negative labelling.
Police labelling produces a self fulfilling prophecy as young
black Britons live up to the stereotype of potential
criminals.

Earnst Cashmore
Uses the ideas of Merton by saying that young black
Britons are encouraged to pursue material success but
their opportunities are blocked by racism, failing schools
and unemployment. Therefore young black Britons are
facing anomie - they are aware that their situation arises
from being black in a mainly white society. They turn to
street crime (innovation) and reject the rest of society.
Criticism - why do only a small proportion turn to crime?

Write a PEEEL (half a page) paragraph to answer this

question:
Is the CJS racist?
Point
Evidence
Explain
Evaluate
Link to the question

Explaining the differences

in offending
Based on what you already know about Left Realism and
Neo Marxism,
in one sentence, describe what do you think their
explanations are for the statistics on ethnicity and crime.

Explanations for ethnic differences in statistics

Left realism: statistics represent real differences in
rates of offending
Neo-Marxism: statistics are a social construct which
results from racist labelling and a discriminating CJS.

Left Realism Lea and Young (1993) They are the first criminologists to acknowledge that
black people were not simply victims of a racist police and
the CJS but rather that they are more likely to be
involved in street crime.
Official statistics are generally really accurate. Young
black men are committing more offences than other
groups.

Relative Deprivation
The medias emphasis on
consumerism promotes a
sense of relative deprivation
by setting materialistic goals
that most members of the
minority groups are unable to
reach.

Reasons

Marginalisation
Racism has led to
marginalisation and
economic exclusion of
ethnic minorities who
face high levels of
unemployment, poverty
and poor housing.

Subcultural Response (subcultures)

Young unemployed black males turn to delinquent subcultures which
produces higher levels of utilitarian crimes (e.g. theft and robbery).
Because these groups have no organisations to represent their
interests, their frustration can lead to non utilitarian crime eg violence
and rioting.

Lea and Young

They recognise that racist policing often leads to the
unjustified criminalisation of some members of minority
groups.
Lea and Young state that even if the police act in racist ways,
it is unlikely to account for the ethnic differences in the
statistics - (90% of crimes known to the police are reported
by members of the public).
Racism cannot explain the much higher conviction rate of
blacks over Asians. The CJS would have to be selectively
racist.

Other explanations of a proportionate

difference in white offenders and black
offenders

Neo Marxist - black crime is a construct

Gilroy (1982) and Hall et al (1979) reject the view that
the statistics reflect reality. They believe that they are
the outcome of a social construction process that
stereotypes minorities as more criminal than the majority
population.
What other theory does this link to? How?

Gilroy - the myth of black criminality

Gilroy argues that the idea of black criminality is a myth
created by racist stereotypes of African Caribbeans and
Asians. In reality these groups are no more criminal than
any other group.
As the CJS acts on these racist stereotypes, minorities
are criminalised and therefore appear in greater numbers
in the official crime statistics.

Lea and Young vs Gilroy

L&Y believe that first generation immigrants were law
abiding. Its unlikely they passed on a tradition of anticolonial struggle.
Most of the crime that is committed is intra-ethnic
(where both the criminal and the victim have the same
ethnicity).
Gilroy romanticises street crime as a form of revolution

Hall et al - Policing the Crisis

Read the article and pick out the main points.

How could you use Hall et al

in an essay?

What are at least four reasons why blacks are five times
more likely to be in prison than whites.
What is a moral panic? Suggest two other examples you
have learned about.

Read through the section on ethnicity

and crime and answer the quick check
questions on p.117