Crime and Deviance: Distributions of Crime

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  • Created by: GhostRat
  • Created on: 25-02-19 18:25

Ethnic Distributions of Crime…

  1. Patterns of Ethnicity & Crime...

  • ‘Appears to be’ higher levels of criminality amongst the Afro-Caribbean population → Ministry of Justice 2013 - compared to white people

    • 2x as likely to be cautioned

    • 3x more likely to be arrested

    • If arrested → more likely to be charged

    • 5x more likely to be in prison → receive a longer sentence

  • Asian population vs white:

    • More likely to be charged & face court proceedings vs a caution

    • More likely to receive a prison sentence/longer term

    • 2x as likely to be stopped and searched for drugs

  • UK Population:

    • 91% white vs 5% Asian & 2% AC → UK males in prison: 80,000 ( 74% white, 15% AC) → UK females in prison: (7,000 (70% white, 21% AC)

2) Gilroy (Neo-Marxist): myth of black criminality (NO)

  • Crime by black people is a form of political action → it represents a culture of resistance to oppressors & inequality in the form of police racism & harassment → there isn’t a greater criminality, this is a myth created by negative stereotyping by police + media → saw MEGs as untrustworthy, AC males labelled as potential muggers & Asians as potential illegal immigrants

    • Black crime is a different kind of crime (political/revolutionary) → it is a struggle against racism which is criminalised

  • Most blacks/Asians in the UK originated in former British colonies → anti imperialist struggles = learned how to resist oppression (demonstrations/protests) → racism in Britain = using similar means to defend themselves/ voice their struggle → this behaviour was then criminalised by the British state (mostly media) → leads to over rep on stats → just targeted/criminalised more

  • Examples: UK Race Riots → AC areas = created by hostile police interactions (including brutality, severe stop and search and wider social factors such as poverty, poor housing & unemployment); 2000s riots in Asian areas (Leeds etc) initiated by BNP visiting and rallying up Islamophobia amongst poor white WC communities; 2011 Youth Riots → shooting of Mark Duggan by police

  • Evaluation: :) useful in recognising that riots are an attempt to rid society of institutional racism and should be considered as an active attack against the white establishment → links to functionalism: adaption & change (riots = warning device) → black people are trying to achieve the removal of institutional racism (comparison to suffragettes) → BUT: Gilroy ignores intra-ethnic crime which is the majority → how can this be an expression of anti-colonial struggle? Gilroy romanticises street crime as an act of revolution

3) Hall: Crisis in Hegemony & the Black Mugger (NO)

  • 1970s UK was facing an economic/political crisis which threatened the dominance of RC ideology = inflation, 3 day working weeks, national debt → unrest between police and AC community? Creation of a moral panic about a new crime = mugging (just a new name for robbery with violence) → there was no significant increase but there was an increased reporting! Black mugger = a scapegoat → myth was created as a

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