Ethnicity & crime - neo-marxism
- Created by: rebeccamellors
- Created on: 27-11-16 13:18
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- Ethnicity & Crime: Neo-Marxism
- Gilroy: the myth of black criminality
- Argues idea of black criminality is a myth, created by racist stereotypes
- As a result of police & criminal justice system acting on these racist stereotypes, ethnic minorities come to be criminalised & therefore appear in great numbers in official stats
- Ethnic minority crime can be seen as form of political resistance against a racist society
- This resistance has its roots in earlier struggles against British Imperialism
- When they found themselves facing racism in Britain they adopted same forms of struggle to defend themselves but their political struggle was criminalised by British State
- Lea & Young Criticise Gilroy:
- First generation immigrants in 1950/60s were very law-abiding so its unlikely that they passed down a tradition of anti-colonial struggle to their children
- Most crime is intra-ethnic so it can't be seen as anti-colonial struggle against racism
- Asian crime rate are similar to or lower than whites, if Gilroy was right then police are only racist towards black & not Asians
- Hall et al: policing the crisis
- Argue the ruling class are normally bale to rule the subordinate classes through consent however in times of crisis it becomes more difficult
- 1970s saw emergence of a media driven moral panic about supposed growth of 'new' crime
- Hall et al note there was no evidence of a significant increase in this crime at the time
- This crime was soon associated by the media, police & politicians with black youth
- Myth of the black mugger served as a scapegoat to distract attention from true cause of the problem such as unemployment
- Have been criticised on several grounds
- Downes & Rock (2011) argue they're inconsistent in claiming black street crime was not rising but also that it was rising due to unemployment
- They don't show how the capitalist crisis led to moral panic & they don't provide evidence that the public were panicking or blaming crime on blacks
- Left realists argue that inner-city residents' fears about mugging aren't panicky but realistic
- Gilroy: the myth of black criminality
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