Crime and deviance - Topic 6: Ethnicity, crime and justice
Ethnicity and criminalisation-sociologist list
Key:
Heheh-Sociologist Heheh-Important information
Key information:
- Official statistics show significant differences in the likelihood of being
involved in the criminal justice system →
- Black people (and some Asian minorities) are overrepresented in the UK
- Black people → 3% of the total population, 13.1%the of the total prison
population
- Asians → 6.5% of the total population, 7.7% of the total prison population
● Ministry of Justice - MOJ (2008)
- Quote → 'Members of our Black communities are seven times more likely
than their White counterparts to be stopped and searched, three and a half
times more likely to be arrested, and five times more likely to be in prison.’
- Statistics hide certain factors:
1. Does not state what ethnic groups are more likely to offend in the first place
2. Differences in stop and search/arrest rates → might be due to discrimination
from the officer
3. Differences in rates of imprisonment → Courts may give harsher sentences
to ethnic minorities
Alternative sources of statistics
- Two other statistics that give a more direct view of ethnicity and offending:
1. Victim surveys
2. Self-report studies
Victim surveys
- Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) can be used to ask victims what
crimes they were involved/associated with (in the last 12 months)
1
, - Ask what ethnicity the offender was (e.g. ‘mugging’, where black people are
overrepresented as offenders of these crimes)
- Shows that most crime is intra-ethnic → most crime takes place with the
same ethnicity (victim and offender is the same ethnicity)
- Limitations of victim surveys:
- Phillips and Bowling (2012) → relies on the victim's memory of events;
evidence suggests white individuals people may ‘over-identify’ black people
even if it's not true
- Only covers personal crime (fifth of all crime)
- Excluded the under 10’s → BAME groups have a higher proportion of
young people
- Excludes crimes by/against organisations → does not talk about ethnicity
and the link to white-collar/corporate crime
- Only tells us about a small proportion of offenders, which may not be
representative
Self-report studies
- Asks individuals to disclose their own dishonest/violent behaviour
● Graham and Bowling (1995)
- Black and white people had similar rates of offending (43% - 44%)
- South-Asian people had lower rates of offending (Indians - 30%, Pakistani -
28%, and Bangladeshis - 13%)
● Sharp and Budd (2005)
- [Study 1]. 2003 Offending, Crime and Justice survey (12,000 people) →
Whites and ‘mixed-ethnic’ groups were most likely to admit to offending
(40%), black people (28%), and Asians (21%)
- [Study 2]. Findings from 9 self-report studies (by the Home Office) indicated
similar findings of drug use among males:
- Use of soft drugs → Mixed (27%), White & Black (16%), and Asians (5%)
- Use of class A drug → Whites (6%) Blacks (2%) and Asians (1%)
- Challenges the stereotypes of black people being more likely to offend than
white people,
- Holds the view that Asians are less likely to offend
2
Ethnicity and criminalisation-sociologist list
Key:
Heheh-Sociologist Heheh-Important information
Key information:
- Official statistics show significant differences in the likelihood of being
involved in the criminal justice system →
- Black people (and some Asian minorities) are overrepresented in the UK
- Black people → 3% of the total population, 13.1%the of the total prison
population
- Asians → 6.5% of the total population, 7.7% of the total prison population
● Ministry of Justice - MOJ (2008)
- Quote → 'Members of our Black communities are seven times more likely
than their White counterparts to be stopped and searched, three and a half
times more likely to be arrested, and five times more likely to be in prison.’
- Statistics hide certain factors:
1. Does not state what ethnic groups are more likely to offend in the first place
2. Differences in stop and search/arrest rates → might be due to discrimination
from the officer
3. Differences in rates of imprisonment → Courts may give harsher sentences
to ethnic minorities
Alternative sources of statistics
- Two other statistics that give a more direct view of ethnicity and offending:
1. Victim surveys
2. Self-report studies
Victim surveys
- Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) can be used to ask victims what
crimes they were involved/associated with (in the last 12 months)
1
, - Ask what ethnicity the offender was (e.g. ‘mugging’, where black people are
overrepresented as offenders of these crimes)
- Shows that most crime is intra-ethnic → most crime takes place with the
same ethnicity (victim and offender is the same ethnicity)
- Limitations of victim surveys:
- Phillips and Bowling (2012) → relies on the victim's memory of events;
evidence suggests white individuals people may ‘over-identify’ black people
even if it's not true
- Only covers personal crime (fifth of all crime)
- Excluded the under 10’s → BAME groups have a higher proportion of
young people
- Excludes crimes by/against organisations → does not talk about ethnicity
and the link to white-collar/corporate crime
- Only tells us about a small proportion of offenders, which may not be
representative
Self-report studies
- Asks individuals to disclose their own dishonest/violent behaviour
● Graham and Bowling (1995)
- Black and white people had similar rates of offending (43% - 44%)
- South-Asian people had lower rates of offending (Indians - 30%, Pakistani -
28%, and Bangladeshis - 13%)
● Sharp and Budd (2005)
- [Study 1]. 2003 Offending, Crime and Justice survey (12,000 people) →
Whites and ‘mixed-ethnic’ groups were most likely to admit to offending
(40%), black people (28%), and Asians (21%)
- [Study 2]. Findings from 9 self-report studies (by the Home Office) indicated
similar findings of drug use among males:
- Use of soft drugs → Mixed (27%), White & Black (16%), and Asians (5%)
- Use of class A drug → Whites (6%) Blacks (2%) and Asians (1%)
- Challenges the stereotypes of black people being more likely to offend than
white people,
- Holds the view that Asians are less likely to offend
2
