#15032 - Race - Criminology

• Lombroso (1876): directly linked race with crime

  • Concluded that the coloured races and even “other” Whites (since the idea of race was centred around White northern Europe) shared many characteristics with “habitual delinquents”

• After WW2, there was an attempt to separate racial ideology from social/physical sciences

  • Montagu (1943): race is a fallacy based on ideology

• Increasing focus on ethnicity

  • Based on self-defined collectives rather than strictly biology

• 1960s Britain: anti-immigrant and racist

  • As a result of significant immigration from the former colonies

  • Major political parties were committed to reducing and stopping immigration

• 1970s: media images of “black criminality” led to entrenched views (Gilroy)

  • General population began to associate black people or ethnic minorities with violence and disorder

• In 2001, 8% of the general population was made up of ethnic minorities

  • Because immigrants mostly settled where there were jobs which the indigenous community did not want, they are not evenly spread

  • Most are in deprived neighbourhoods and have educational under-achievement as well as higher unemployment

• Heaven and Hudson (2005): absurd that ethnicity matters for crimes involving blacks and Asians but not when whites are the offenders

High profile racial killing in 1993

• 5 suspects arrested but not convicted

• Accusations of corruption and race considerations in the investigation

• 2 suspects retried and sentenced in 2012

Public Inquiry commissioned by Home Secretary, carried out by Macpherson

• Found evidence of institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police and other institutions

• Found that the original investigation had been incompetent and corrupt, although the evidence was not as compelling as that showing racism

“Minority ethnic people remain over-surveilled and underprotected within all stages of our criminal justice system”

• Black people more likely to be stopped and searched, listed in the DNA database and make up the prison population

• Media portrays Black culture as being inherently criminogenic, resulting in racist stereotypes

• Institutional Racism is not entirely eradicated

  • Trever Phillips (2009): Institutional racism no longer relevant to police practice

  • BUT some policies and practices still “systematically target and disadvantage ethnic minorities”, especially those that give officers discretion (Bowling)

    • E.g. stop and search, especially under CJPOA 1994 s60 (can stop and search without reasonable suspicion)

• Minorities are also at a socio-economic disadvantage

  • Webster: Many studies fail to control for socio-demographic factors when making comparisons to guide practice and decisions

  • African Caribbean men more likely to be young offender prisoners than University undergraduates

Lack of attention to the problem

• No clear government steering on the matter

• Voluntary sector faces funding problems and cannot act

Prison

• Runnymede Trust: Black people make up 15% of the prison population

• MoJ (2009): 35% of male prisoners and 27% of female prisoners were from ethnic minorities

  • Increases in prison populations are greater for Black and Asian populations

  • Increases in prison population have been greater for black and Asian populations than white

  • Black: 6.8 incarcerated per 1000 nationals, White: 1.3 per 1000

Offending

• According to self-report studies, White and Black patterns of offending are very similar

• Webster: Self-reported statistics show that even where young White males reported higher drug use than young Black males, Whites were underrepresented for drugs offences while Blacks were “substantially overrepresented”

Victimisation

• MoJ (2009): Black people 5 times as likely to get murdered, Asians 2 times as likely

  • NOTE (Bowling and Phillips, 2002): Most homicide is intra-ethnic

Stop and Search

• Black: 7 times more likely

• Asian: 2 times more likely

• Webster: Might be related to class and geography, not just ethnicity

  • Black suspects less likely to admit offences because more likely to be arrested when innocent, or have less faith in CJS fairness

• Phillips and Brown (1998): Black and Asian people were more likely than White people to be arrested and charged without sufficient evidence (more likely for CPS to terminate cases)

• Heaven and Hudson (2005): Ethnicity tends to only be a consideration when dealing with BME offenders but not White offenders, which is absurd

• Administrative categories used are NOT CONSISTENT

  • Categories in the CSEW are a mix of race, colour, nationality and geographic origin

  • Bowling and Phillips (2002): Categories fail to take into account “internal heterogeneity” of the groups

• Types of ethnicity

  • Ascribed ethnicity: based on perceptions of another party

    • Might be affected by mutable characteristics (e.g. dressing)

    • Even immutable characteristics (physical appearance) can be misleading, especially for those of mixed origin

    • Relevant in provoking racial crimes and when victims identify offenders

  • Asserted ethnicity: based on self-identification

    • Relevant in determining whether they view themselves as victims of racially-motivated crimes

• Other factors

  • Language: can affect communication with the local population

    • Ascribed: causes differential treatment of a non-local speaker

  • Nationality

    • Ascribed: immigration policy

    • Asserted: which community the person identifies with

  • Religion

    • Ascribed: social connotations (e.g. terrorists – Catholics or Muslims)

    • Asserted: influence of prescribed beliefs on personal identity

• BCS Categorisation

  • Previously, respondents were ascribed a race (same as offenders)

    • White, Black, Asian, Chinese, Others

  • Now, “respondent-asserted” ethnicity is relevant instead (same categories as that used in the 2001 UK Census)

    • Wider range of categories (including sub-categories)

    • But doesn’t take into account language, immigration status and religion

  • ISSUE: categories are misleading

    • Mix of race, national origin and regional origin

    • Forces respondents to choose a specific category which may not be accurate

      • E.g. no pure Black-British

    • Subcategories are not consistent

      • Can only make comparisons within one general ethnic group

• Official statistics show overrepresentation, but self-report statistics show similar offending rates between Whites and Blacks (and lower rates for Asians)

• Racial discrimination?

• Webster (2012): Black suspects less likely to admit offences because more likely to be arrested when innocent, or have less faith in CJS fairness

• Black population is generally younger than White population (48% vs 31% below 24 years)

  • Young people more likely to offend?

• Media over-sensationalising of certain crimes (e.g. mugging) creates stereotypes which affect reporting and arrests

• Much higher stop and search likelihood for BME

  • Webster: Might be related to class and geography, not just ethnicity

    • Black suspects less likely to admit offences because more likely to be arrested when innocent, or have less faith in CJS fairness

  • Waddington (2004): Might be due to demographic factors (e.g. being at places or out at times where searches are carried out)

• Hood (1992): Study of 5 Crown Courts in West Midlands found evidence of discrimination in sentencing

  • Black people 5% more likely to be sentenced to custody even after controlling for all legally relevant case characteristics

  • Black and Asian defendants received longer sentences in guilty plea cases

• Phillips and Brown (1998): Black and Asian people were more likely than White people to be arrested and charged without sufficient evidence (more likely for CPS to terminate cases)

• Formal Investigation by Commission for Racial Equality (2003): Evidence of direct racial discrimination in prisons

  • Failure to protect, meet religious/cultural needs and discriminatory allocation of jobs/privileges

• Newburn (2004): Black people twice as likely to be strip-searched at police stations

• Bowling and Phillips (2007): Even prominent Black people have been stopped without justification (suggesting racist targeting by the police)

• NOMS Study (2008): Black prisoners 30% more likely to have no privileges and 60% more likely to have force used against them

• Holdaway and Murji (2012): Government reduced the requirements for police officers to record information about people stopped/searched

  • This makes it much more difficult to monitor police discrimination

• Minorities likely to fall within demographic categories where remand in custody more likely

  • E.g. “dangerous” neighbourhoods, lack of community ties

  • Housing inequalities: higher risk of absconding.

• Phillips (1998): Minorities less likely to opt for legal advice or admit offences

  • Do not receive the benefits of cooperation

  • Even where legal advice is relied on, it may not be of the same quality

• European Social Survey: Trust in fairness of the system plays a significant role in encouraging cooperation with authorities

• Baker (2013): Minorities likely to lack knowledge/confidence about the local system

• Williams (2006): BME offenders require specially arranged programmes in prison to be more effective at reducing reoffending

• Dorling (2012): Jurors more likely to be White

• Clancy (2001): Ethnic minorities less likely to think that the police acted politely and fairly...