Explaining Crime » Explaining Crime: Ethnicity

Why is crime linked to ethnicity?

In the last two lessons you saw patterns in the crime figures, and then explanations for the pattern by age. This lesson looks at ethnicity. In some societies, people from some ethnic minority groups appear in crime figures more often than people from the majority group. Other minority groups appear less often. Sociologists ask why.

It is important to be careful. These are patterns in recorded crime. They are not facts about whole ethnic groups, and most people from every ethnic group never commit a crime. Sociologists mainly point to the way society and the criminal justice system work, not to anything about ethnicity itself.

Key terms:

• Prejudice: an opinion about a person or group formed without good evidence, often negative and unfair.
• Material deprivation: not having enough money or goods to meet basic needs, such as decent housing, food and clothing.
• Relative deprivation: feeling that you are worse off than other people you compare yourself with.

Prejudice, discrimination and institutional racism

Prejudice is about what people think. Discrimination is about what people do: treating a person worse because of a group they belong to. Remember, institutional racism is unfair treatment of ethnic groups that is built into the rules and habits of an organisation, even when nobody intends it.

Applied to crime, this means unfairness could happen at every stage of the criminal justice system:

• The police: who is stopped, questioned, arrested and charged.
• The courts: whether a person is given bail, found guilty or believed.
• The penal system: how long a sentence lasts and how a prisoner is treated.

In 1999 an official inquiry into the police investigation of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in London concluded that the Metropolitan Police was institutionally racist. If unfair treatment is built in, more people from minority groups will be caught and punished, even if they do not offend more.

Police targeting and stop and search

Remember, police targeting means the police focus more attention on some groups or places. Stop and search is the power to stop and search someone in public. Last lesson these helped explain the age pattern. They can also help explain an ethnic pattern.

In several countries, people from some minority groups are stopped and searched much more often than white people. Police may patrol areas where many minority families live, or stop people because of how they look. If you search more people from one group, you will find more offences among that group, and more of them will appear in the figures. This can become a circle: more stops lead to more arrests, which seems to prove the group offends more, which leads to more stops.

Stereotyping

Remember, a stereotype is a fixed, simple idea about a whole group. Stereotypes about minority ethnic groups, often spread by the media, may link a group with crime. Police, shop staff or employers who believe such an idea may watch members of that group more closely, suspect them more quickly and treat them more harshly. As you saw with age, this can push a person towards the behaviour that was expected.

Material deprivation and relative deprivation

In some societies, people from some minority groups are more likely to live in poverty, because of lower pay, higher unemployment and poorer housing (see the lesson on life chances and ethnicity). This is material deprivation. A person who cannot afford basic needs may turn to crime such as theft to get them.

Relative deprivation is different. A young person may have enough to live on, but sees others with far more, in shops, on screens or at school. The gap feels unfair, especially if they believe discrimination blocks them from getting good jobs. The sense of being left behind can lead to anger and offending, even without extreme poverty.

Poverty is not the whole story. Many deprived people never commit crime, and some minority groups do well in education and work.

Gang culture

Remember, gang culture is the shared rules and values of a group that sees itself as a gang. Some young people from minority groups may feel rejected by the wider society, because of racism and few opportunities. A gang can offer belonging, protection and respect. Members may be expected to prove themselves through crime. Be careful: media stories can link gangs with particular ethnic groups, which may feed stereotyping.

Status frustration

Remember, status frustration is the anger people feel when they cannot gain respect by approved routes. If a young person from a minority group feels that discrimination blocks success at school or at work, they may look for status another way, such as within a gang or through crime. This links to relative deprivation: the person wants what others have, cannot get it fairly, and is frustrated.

Exam-style question

(a) Define the term relative deprivation. [2 marks]

(b) Give two examples of agencies of the criminal justice system. [2 marks]

(c) Explain three reasons why people from some ethnic minority groups may appear more often in crime statistics. [6 marks]