The Relationship Between Ethnicity & Crime (WJEC Eduqas GCSE Sociology): Revision Note

Official statistics on ethnicity & crime

• According to the Ministry of Justice (2024):

  • some ethnic groups are over-represented in the prison population relative to their share of the UK population

  • black prisoners serve a greater proportion of their sentences (68%) than white (59%) or Asian (58%) prisoners

• According to the Home Office (2024):

  • in the year ending March 2023, there were 24.5 stop and searches per 1000 black people and 5.9 per 1000 white people

    • This suggests possible racial profiling and over-policing of ethnic minorities.

Victims of crime

• Data from the CSEW (2014/2015) shows that the risk of being a victim of personal crime varies according to ethnicity

  • 4% of white adults were victims of a personal crime once or more in the previous 12 months, compared to around 11% of adults of mixed heritage

• The CSEW also shows variations in the proportion of people from different ethnic groups who see the CJS as fair

  • A higher proportion of adults that are Asian or Asian British are confident the CJS is fair compared to white adults

Explanations for the link between ethnicity & crime

• There are several ways sociologists have explained the relationship between ethnicity and involvement in crime

Poverty and deprivation

• Some ethnic minorities are more likely to live in poverty or face unemployment, which increases the strain to achieve material success legally (Merton’s strain theory)

• Working-class subcultures may emerge as a response to blocked opportunities

• Crime may be seen as a rational response to economic marginalisation

Institutional racism and bias in the CJS

• Ethnic minorities, particularly black people, are more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested and imprisoned than white people

• The Macpherson Report (1999) — published after the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry (see below) — concluded that the Metropolitan Police were institutionally racist

  • It showed that racial prejudice was built into police practices and culture, not just individual attitudes

• Institutional racism can lead to over-policing of black communities and under-protection when they are victims

The Stephen Lawrence case

• Stephen Lawrence, a Black A-level student, was murdered by a group of white men in London

• Police failed to investigate properly, ignoring witnesses and evidence due to racist assumptions

• After years of campaigning by his family, the Macpherson Inquiry (1999) exposed institutional racism within the police

• The case led to major reforms in police recruitment, diversity training, and race relations law

The myth of black criminality

• Gilroy (1982) argued that the idea of higher black criminality is a myth created by racist media and policing

• He saw black crime as a form of political resistance against discrimination, inequality and colonial oppression

Scapegoats and moral panics

• Stuart Hall (1979) studied how media coverage of “muggings” in the 1970s created a moral panic

• The media exaggerated the threat of black youth crime, using it to divert attention from economic problems such as unemployment and strikes

• The state and media scapegoated black youth, reinforcing racist stereotypes and justifying tougher policing

• Modern parallels can be drawn with Islamophobia and the portrayal of Muslim communities after terrorist incidents

Policing styles and reform efforts

• Police forces have been criticised for disproportionately targeting ethnic minorities through stop-and-search practices

• Efforts to reform policing include:

  • recruiting more ethnic minority officers

  • improving training on cultural awareness

• However, ethnic minorities still make up only 12% of London’s police, compared with 40% of the city’s population

Evaluation of the relationship between ethnicity & crime

Strengths

• Poverty and deprivation are recognised as key social causes of crime among some ethnic groups, showing that inequality is an important factor

• Modern theories now consider how class, ethnicity and gender interact to shape people’s experiences of crime and justice

• Research has led to positive reforms, such as increasing police diversity, accountability and anti-racism training

Criticisms

• Critics argue that Gilroy romanticised black crime and ignored the fact that most victims of black offenders are also black

• Hall’s ideas may be outdated, as his 1970s “moral panic” theory doesn’t fully explain modern crime patterns

• Some theories overgeneralise ethnic groups, overlooking important cultural and social differences within minority communities