Theories of Ethnicity & Crime (AQA A Level Sociology): Revision Note

Explaining ethnic differences in offending

• Historical context:

  • 1950s: Migration from the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent began

  • 1970s: Tensions between African-Caribbean communities and police, with allegations of 'black criminality'

  • 1990s: Asian communities increasingly labelled as a 'problem' with media concern over 'Asian gangs'

  • 2001 onwards: Northern England clashes between Asian youths and police. Since 9/11, Muslims have been portrayed as an 'enemy within' threatening public safety

• Two main explanations for ethnic differences in crime statistics are:

  • Left realism

  • Neo-Marxism

Left realism

• Lea & Young (1993) argue that:

  • Ethnic differences in crime statistics represent real differences in offending, not just bias

  • Higher offending rates can be explained by:

    • relative deprivation

    • marginalisation

    • subcultures

  • Unemployed black youth may form delinquent subcultures due to blocked opportunities, producing higher levels of utilitarian crime (theft, robbery)

  • Marginalisation due to feelings of powerlessness also produces non-utilitarian crime (violence, rioting)

  • They acceptthat discriminatory policing exists, but argue it does not fully explain differences:

    • Over 90% of crimes are reported by the public, not 'discovered' by police

    • Black people have higher criminalisation rates than Asians; if police racism were selective, why would Asians appear less criminalised?

Neo-Marxism

• Neo-Marxists take a critical view of official statistics:

  • Statistics are a social construct reflecting racism within the CJS

  • Minority crime is often exaggerated to justify heavy policing and maintain ruling-class control

  • Crime among minorities can be seen as political resistance to racism and inequality

  • The media creates moral panics about minority crime, which divides the working class and distracts attention from capitalism

Gilroy: the myth of black criminality

• Gilroy (1982) argues that:

  • black criminality is a myth created by racist stereotypes of African Caribbeans and Asians

  • the police and CJS act on these racist stereotypes, so ethnic minorities appear over-represented in the official statistics

  • African-Caribbean crime should be understood as a form of resistance against colonial oppression and racism in Britain

  • offending is political rather than criminal – it is a challenge to state racism

• Criticisms of Gilroy (Lea and Young)

  • First-generation immigrants in the 1950s and 60s were very law-abiding, so unlikely to pass down anti-colonial struggle

  • Most crime is intra-ethnic (committed within the same group), not political resistance

Hall et al. (1979): policing the crisis

• During the 1970s, Britain faced economic and political crises (e.g. unemployment, inflation)

• The state used the media to create a moral panic about black 'muggers'

• This moral panic:

  • diverted attention from the crisis of capitalism

  • justified aggressive policing of minority groups

  • fractured working-class unity

• Mugging was simply a new label for street robbery – there was no real evidence of a crime increase

• Black youth were scapegoated as a symbol of social breakdown

  • Hall et al. argue that black crime was shaped by both media/police labelling and economic marginalisation

• Criticisms:

  • Downes & Rock (2011) argue that Hall et al. are inconsistent (claiming crime was both rising and not rising)

  • There is no clear evidence of public panic or that black youth were blamed

  • Left realists argue that inner-city residents’ fears about mugging were realistic, not exaggerated

More recent explanations for ethnic differences in crime rates

Getting caught

• Sharp & Budd (2005) found that black offenders are more likely to be caught because:

  • they live in urban areas with higher surveillance

  • crimes like robbery allow victims to identify offenders

  • they are more likely to associate with known offenders

Cultural explanations

• Family structures, peer groups, and material deprivation may explain higher offending

• FitzGerald et al. (2003) found that street robbery rates were highest in very poor areas where deprived youth mixed with affluent groups

• White youth in the same conditions were also more likely to offend, so ethnicity itself is not the cause

• But racial discrimination in housing and employment means black people are more likely to live in poor areas, reinforcing inequality

Ethnicity & victimisation

• Racist victimisation occurs when an individual is selected as a target because of their race, ethnicity or religion

• Our information on racist victimisation comes from:

  • victim surveys (e.g., CSEW)

  • police-recorded statistics, which cover:

    • racist incidents: any incident perceived as racist by the victim or another person

    • racially or religiously aggravated offences: assault, wounding, criminal damage, harassment where hostility towards a racial/religious group is involved

Extent of victimisation

• Victimisation includes racially motivated attacks, harassment, and police mistreatment

• Most incidents go unreported, but CSEW and police data show consistent ethnic differences in risk

  • CSEW (March 2023) found that mixed-ethnicity adults had the highest victimisation rate at 24%, compared to 16% of adults overall (Ethnicity facts and figures, GOV.UK, 2024)

  • Police recorded 140,561 hate crimes in the year ending March 2024 (Ethnicity facts and figures, GOV.UK, 2024)

    • 98,799 were race-related

    • 10,484 were religion-related

• Differences in victimisation are linked not only to ethnicity but also to factors such as age, gender, and employment status

  • Young, male, unemployed individuals face a higher risk

  • Ethnic groups with a high proportion of young males show higher rates of victimisation

• However, these risk factors (e.g., unemployment) may themselves be partly the result of discrimination

• Sampson & Phillips (1992) note that racist victimisation is often ongoing, with repeated harassment leading to long-term psychological and social harm

Responses to victimisation

• Minority communities often develop self-defence strategies, e.g.,

  • fitting fireproof doors or letterboxes.

  • organising neighbourhood patrols.

• These strategies reflect mistrust in the police’s ability to protect minorities, as police have often

  • ignored the racist dimensions of incidents

  • failed to record or properly investigate reports of racist victimisation