Ethnicity and Crime

Official Statistics Victimand

Patterns of ethnicity surveys
crime(CSEW)
Methodology for CSEW
Ask individuals what crimes they have been
victims of in last 12 months. Victims asked to
identify ethnicity of person who committed the
crime against them.
‘mugging’ (robberies and some thefts form the
person) – black people significantly over-
represented among those identified by victims as
offenders.
Much of crime is intra-ethnic
Phillips and Bowling - evidence suggests that
white victims may ‘over-identify’ blacks (even
when they weren’t)
Only cover personal crimes (1/5 all crimes)
Exclude under 10’s BME groups have higher
proportion of young people
Excludes crimes against businesses – so nothing
about ethnicity of white collar or corporate crime.
Self-report surveys
These ask individuals to disclose their own
dishonest and violent behaviour.
Graham and Bowling – blacks (43%) and whites
(44%) had very similar rates of offending. Indians
(30%), Pakistanis (28%) and Bangladeshis (13%)
had lower rates.
Sharp and Budd – whites and ‘mixed’ ethnic origin
most likely to admit to committing an offence
(40%), blacks (28%) and Asians (21%)
Findings of self-report studies challenge the
stereotype of black people being more likely to
offend then white people. They do support the
widely held view that Asian people are less likely
to offend

Evidence on ethnicity and offending is inconsistent, official stats and CSEW = higher rates of offending by black
people. However, self-report surveys don’t support this.

Economic/structural factors Police/institutional racism

Institutional racism = the policies/ procedures have a

negative effect on ethnic minority groups.

Left Realism – Lea and Young, Bourgois, Cashmore,
Neo-Marxist – Gilroy,
Neo-Marxist Hall et al – Policing the Crisis, Marxists –
Gordon
LEFT REALIST
Relative Deprivation. For a variety of reasons,
members of some minority‐ethnic groups are
Explanations
more likely to be working class or have
of ethnic differences
a low income.
Social Exclusion. Racial discrimination can lead to
social exclusion and marginalisation which, left realists
also argue, can lead to criminality. – Lea + Young
Young = bulimic society – A "bulimic society" is
characterised by massive cultural inclusion, but
systematic structural exclusion
Bourgois – Means of survival – drug dealing in east
harmlem due to high unemployment rate
-Most residents lacked social skills to attain the jobs
-Only jobs they can compete for led to inadequate
salaries for necessities
= reflect Merton’s strain theory + anomie
Cashmore – African Caribbean young men- their
opportunities are blocked by racism, poor schooling
and unemployment. They experience anomie and turn
to street crime (innovation) and justify this as their
opportunities were blocked by a mainly white society
= reflect Merton’s strain theory + anomie
Hall – Policing the Crisis:
Graham and Bowling, Jones and Singer, Reiner,
Phillips and Bowling,
Sharp and Budd, Macpherson Enquiry 1999
Philips + Bowling – Terrorism Act 2000
=officers can stop and search persons or vehicles
without any relevant/reasonably suspicions
-Led to Asians being searched 3x more than white
people in crime rates
-Ethnic minority groups felt “over-policed and under-
protected”
-Police could indulge in their negative stereotypes of
ethnic minorities as criminals = deliberate targeting,
exposes “canteen culture 2 of file and ranked officers
Reiner - Developed the theory of canteen culture.
He argues that in order to fit in with the police force,
new recruits had to hold politically conservative,
sexist and racist views
Philips + Bowling 2002
Argue that the UK criminal justice system is racist.
They point to:
a) The higher number of stop and searches of black
men (5-8 times higher than for whites).
b) Their higher number of arrests.
c) The over-policing of inner city areas.
d) The use of racially abusive language.
e) The higher imprisonment rate for black men
compared to whites.
Graham + Bowling – Self -report studies
Their study of 14-25 year olds found that the self-
reported offending rates were more or less the same
-He argued that both the mugging and the moral panic
could only be explained in the context of the problems
faced by British capitalism at the start of 1970s
-moral panic = ideological role in dividing the WC –
black vs white
-crisis of hegemony + economic crisis
-government could no longer rule by consent – used
force to control
-public was persuaded it was a problem of immigrants
as opposed to capitalism;
= street violence, mugging caused by black mugger,
violence = threat to stability of society
Gilroy- Crime committed by young African-Caribbeans
is political because it is frequently motivated by their
interpretation of their position in British society. Many
young Black people are angry at the way white society
has historically treated black people via slavery and
colonialism, and the institutional racism of everyday
life. Street crime is a conscious and deliberate political,
even revolutionary reaction to this racism. Gilroy
argues that it is not surprising that there have been
frequent riots or uprisings in areas with majority black
populations. He claims that such riots are often a
political response to the military-style repressive
policing of black people
Evaluations of Gilroy :
- most African-Caribbeans are law-abiding
citizens challenges the view that crime is
part of an anti-colonial or anti-racist
struggle. The first generation of
immigrants experienced both colonialism
and racism first-hand but did not turn to
crime to make their protest.
- left realists note that many victims of black
crime are black rather than white. There is
also no empirical evidence that black
youth have the political motives that
Gilroy identifies.
Cultural differences amongst ethnic minority groups
Triple quandary theory – Sewell, Bonds of attachment
– Hirschi
Young people, whether white or African-Caribbean,
commit crime because they lack the social controls of
attachment, commitment, involvement and belief in
their lives.
Sewell- Triple quandary theory:
There are three risk factors which mean that African-
Caribbean boys commit higher levels of crime.
1. Single parent families, lack positive male role
models.
2. Mainstream culture is racist, can’t relate to it
for the white, black and Asian respondents. It so
challenges the view that the rate of offending of
Black ethnic groups is higher than white ethnic
groups.
Jones + Singer - Found black people 2.5 x more
likely than white people to be stopped and asked to
account for their actions and behaviours and
presence in an area.
MacPherson Enquiry 1999- death of young black man
Stephen Lawrence by group of white youths whilst
waiting at a bus stop with his friends
- The Metropolitan Police was institutionally
racist in investigation of the murder of
Stephen Lawrence.
- The police assumed SL was a victim of black
on black crime and treated his friend as a
suspect rather than a witness.
- They ignored information given by the public
identifying the killers, causing a delay which
enabled the killers to get rid of evidence
Sharp + Budd - The 2003 Offending, Crime and
Justice survey of 12 000 people found whites and
those of ‘mixed’ ethnic origins were most likely to
say they had committed an offence. 27% of ‘mixed’
ethnic individuals said they had used drugs in the last
year. (Class A drug use was much higher among
whites).
= Self-report studies challenge the stereotypes of
black people as being more likely to offend than
white people.
Demographic factors (age/location)
FitzGerald, Waddington et al
Fitzgerald - Compared the rate of ethnic minority
street crime in London to a range of socio-economic-
generic data.
He concluded, ethnic minorities suffered 4 major
variables:
1.Lived in areas which lacked community cohesion.
2.Young males made up of a disproportionate
number of West Indians.
3.Overrepresentation /statistical link between crime
and single parent families.
 as it’s working against their interests. They
perceive teachers, police-officers, employers,
etc to be racist and to be working against their
interests. E.g. stop and search.
3. Media influence and emphasis on
‘conspicuous consumption’ – identity/status
dependent on designer labels and jewellery.
Hirschi Bonds of attachment:
-argues that as they get older and acquire such
controls, people are less inclined to commit crime
because they have too much to lose.
-Asian families = stricter = less likely to commit crime
Waddington et al –
He argues the police stop a proportionately higher
number of blacks compared to whites. However, he
argues that there are more ethnic minority youths
out at night in inner cities and that the police simply
target those in high risk areas. If the area is
disproportionately represented by young black males
they are more likely to be stopped and searched –
because of where they are rather than their
ethnicity. (Published in the British Journal of
Criminology).

Evaluations
 criticised for explaining crimes through blanket stereotypes.
There is a range of cultural differences and family structures
even within Black and Asian ethnic groups, and the official
statistics represent a very nuanced image.
 the theories negate other aspects associated with cultural
factors like unemployment and poverty.
 cultural explanations don’t consider the fact that
fundamental differences in offending could be an outcome
of a series of cases of structural and institutional racism in
broader society.
 Lastly, they do not consider that the statistical data is a
social construction and exaggerate the facts of Black and
Asian criminality. For example, critical criminologists claim
that the over or misrepresentation of ethnic minorities is
because they were more likely to be criminalised by agents
of social control.