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Summary AQA A-level Sociology Student Guide 3: Crime and deviance with theory and methods, ISBN: 9781510472440 Crime and Deviance £7.49
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Summary AQA A-level Sociology Student Guide 3: Crime and deviance with theory and methods, ISBN: 9781510472440 Crime and Deviance
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Detailed textbook notes for Ethnicity, Crime and Justice for AQA ALevel Sociology, crime and deviance Detailed but concise and tailored to exam prep and questions

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  • Ethnicity, crime and justice
  • June 30, 2021
  • 5
  • 2019/2020
  • Summary

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Topic 6 – Ethnicity, Crime and Justice:
Ethnicity and Criminalisation:
 According to official stats, black people are over-represented in the system
 They make up 3% of the population but 13.1% of the prison population
 Asians make up 6% of the population but 7.7% of the prison population
 In contrast, white people are under-represented at all stage of the criminal justice
system
 The ministry of Justice notes that black people are 7x more likely to be stopped and
searched, 3 ½x to be arrested and 5x to be in prison
Alternative Sources of Statistics:
Victim Surveys:
 The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) asks individuals to say what
crimes they have been victims of – can gain information about ethnicity and
offending from this
 They also show that a great deal of crime is intra-ethnic – takes place within rather
than between ethnic groups
 But victim surveys have several limitations;
 Rely on victim’s memories of events, only cover personal crimes (which are only
about 1/5 of all crimes), exclude crimes by and against organisations, so tell us
nothing about white collar crime
Self-Report Studies:
 Ask individuals to disclose their own dishonest and violent behaviour, Graham and
Bowling found that blacks (43%) and whites (44%) had very similar rates of
offending, while other ethnic minorities had much lower rates
 The findings of self-report studies challenge the stereotype of black people as being
more likely than whites to offend, but do support the view that Asians are less likely
to offend
 Overall, the evidence on ethnicity and offending is inconsistent – while official stats
and victim reports argue blacks are more likely to commit crime, this generally isn’t
shown by self-report studies

Ethnicity, Racism and the Criminal Justice System:
Stop and Search:
 Members of minority ethnic groups are more likely to be stopped and searched by
the police – police use this power if they have ‘reasonable suspicion’ of wrongdoing
 Under the Terrorism Act 2000, police can stop and search persons or vehicles
whether or not they have ‘reasonable suspicion’ – Asians are more likely to stopped
under this
 Philips and Bowling argue that members of minority ethnic groups are more likely
to think they are ‘over-policed and under-protected’ and to have little faith in the
police
Explaining Stop and Search Patterns:
 3 possible reasons for disproportionate use of stop and search against members of
minority ethnic groups

, o Police Racism; the MacPherson report, that investigated the murder of
Stephen Lawrence, argued that institutional racism was to blame, as well as
racism in individual officers
o Ethnic Differences in Offending; the disproportionality simply mirrors ethnic
differences in levels of offending but should distinguish between low
discretion and high discretion stops
 Low discretion – police acting on a specific offence; e.g. a victim’s
description of the offender
 High discretion – police acting without specific intelligence; this is
when police stereotypes are more likely
o Demographic Factors; ethnic minorities are over-represented in population
groups most likely to be stopped – the young, unemployed, manual workers
and urban dwellers
Prosecution and Trial:
 The Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for deciding whether a case should be
prosecuted in court – have to decide whether there is a realistic prospect of
conviction and if prosecution is in public interest
 Studies suggest that the CPS is more likely to drop cases against ethnic minorities –
because the evidence presented to them is often weaker and based on stereotypes
 For cases that do go to trial, minority ethnic groups are more likely to elect for a trial
before a jury in Crown Court rather than a magistrates court, perhaps because of a
mistrust in the magistrate
Prison:
 In 2014, blacks were 4x more likely to be in prison than whites and black and Asians
offenders were more likely to be serving longer sentences (4 years+)
 In the whole prison population, all minority groups have a higher than average
population of prisoners on remand, because they are less likely to be granted bail
while awaiting trial
 Similar in other countries - in the US, 2 in 5 prisoners held in local jails are black,
while 1 in 5 is Hispanic




Explaining the Differences in Offending:
 Large-scale migration from the Caribbean and India started in the 1950s and until
the 1970s, there was general consensus that ethnic minorities had a lower offence
rate than the white population
 In the 1970s, conflict between the police and African-Caribbean’s, and high street
crime rates, meant that ‘black criminality’ started to be seen as a problem
 In the 1990s, the Asian population also began to be seen as a problem – the events of
9/11 led to widespread clashes between the police and Asian youth and helped to
crystallise the idea that Asians were an ‘enemy’
 2 main explanations for the differences
o Left realist; the stats represent real differences in rates of offending

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