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

Official statistics on ethnicity & crime

• According to the Ministry of Justice (2025):

  • Black people make up 4% of the population of England and Wales but 12% of the prison population

  • Black prisoners served the greatest proportion of their original sentence in custody (62% in 2024), compared with 56% for White and 53% for Asian prisoners

• According to the Home Office (2026):

  • in the year ending March 2026, there were 26.4 stop and searches per 1,000 Black people and 6.4 per 1,000 White people, about four times higher

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

Victims of crime

• Data from the CSEW (2024/25) shows that the risk of being a victim of personal crime varies according to ethnicity

  • 12.1% of Black adults and 10.9% of White adults were victims of personal crime (including fraud and computer misuse), compared with 8.8% of Asian adults

• The CSEW also shows variations in the proportion of people from different ethnic groups who are confident in the CJS

  • Black adults (67%) were more likely than White adults (44%) to be confident that the CJS is effective (CSEW, 2024/25)

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), the report of the Stephen Lawrence 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

• In 2023, the Casey Review found institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia in the Met, suggesting that problems identified by Macpherson had not been fully addressed

• 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 et al. (1978) 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 make up only 19% of Metropolitan Police officers, compared with 46% of London’s population (Home Office, 2026)

Evaluation of the relationship between ethnicity and 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