Why are young black boys involved in more crime than young white boys?

Why are more young black boys involved in crime than young white boys?

Introduction

My coursework is based upon why more young black boys are involved in crime than young white boys? I will investigate the following questions: Is the media labeling boys from the black communities? How do different values affect young boy’s upbringings? How influential is TV and computer games? How are young black boys discriminated in our society, schools and environment? I have chosen to research these areas because the publicity in the news recently of the 3 killings of young black boys within the south London area: James Smartt-Ford, 16 who was shot dead in Streatham ice-skating rink on 3rd February. Michael Dosunmu, 15 who was shot dead in his home, Peckham on 6th February 07 and Billy Cox, 15 who was also shot dead in his home, Clapham on 14th February 07 . It leaves you to wonder, why young black boys are tied up in more crime than young white boys. Referring to sociology alive, in the early 1980s there were many racial outbursts within the Metropolitan police force leading people to believe that stereotyping and discrimination is acceptable. This links to the years of slavery which may have been abolished but is surely not over. There is still racism in society which has been shown by many researchers, slavery may have caused this because people think that it is still okay to treat certain individuals as dirt, discriminating against hem because of their skin colour. A study in the early 1980s in the Metropolitan police force revealed that racist comments were widely used, similarly racist language is quiet commonly used over the personal radio. Afro-Caribbean people are about seven times more likely than white and Asian people to be in prison. There may be many reasons for this but I can identify two, Afro-Caribbean people are seen to commit a lot more crime, and some people believe that the criminal justice system is racist and works against the black communities. Black people are known not to do as well at school as white people and suffer higher rates of unemployment, as a result of discrimination. Crime is then a way of surviving difficult circumstances. Relationships between Afro-Caribbean people and the police have been a concern for many years. Police have patrolled areas such as Brixton in London, sometimes in very heavy handed ways. Young black boys are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people, which is linked to the fact that there are very few black police officers. I believe that most young black boys feel victimized by the police force because they are much are vulnerable.

Methodology

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Methodology

To investigate if the media is labeling boys from the black communities, I have chosen to use the following research methods: newspaper articles, information from the internet, TV and radio. I will carry out a number of interviews and observations. These are appropriate methods for my investigation because I can look at the language used accuracy and how people act towards the media and its views. The short-comings of my chosen methods are that many newspaper articles can often be biased towards the given opinion, whereas using the internet is that you may not be able to find all of the necessary information needed to back up your statement. I will overcome these short-comings by carrying out different techniques such as triangulation which is ways of checking the validity of the research findings by carrying out the research in different ways. I would use two alternative methods such as interviews and observations maybe that would put me on a better road for success. I will carry out questionnaires, these are the appropriate methods for my investigation because questionnaires are very useful for reaching a widely spread group of people and are cheap. Sometimes people will reply to rather embarrassing questions contained in a questionnaire, which they would not answer if asked by an interviewer. It is important to get a representative sample because I would like o make my investigation fair and make it more reliable. I will select my sample using stratified random sampling because this way my investigation is unbiased which means I can get a fair amount of random boy to interview and observe. To ensure my investigation is ethical I will take time in creating my questionnaire, trying to avoid sensitive questions. I will use the appropriate language such as young black boys, rather than offensive language.

Observations

I’ve noticed that the majority ethnic group in the class I observed is white. This suggests that one of my aims was incorrect. This links to y coursework aims because it helps me to find out if young black boys are discriminated in schools. From my observation I can conclude that young black boys are treated with more respect in schools because they listen and show teachers respect. This may show that the media has more involvement in why young black boys are involved in more crime than young white boys. Problems with the data I collected were that there wasn’t a fair amount of black boys to make my observation ethical.

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Figure 1 shows that there were a majority of both white and black people who took part in questionnaires. This links to my aim because in my methodology I explained that I would collect a representative sample to make sure I can generalise based on my results.

Figure 2 shows that both black and white boys refer to the police forces in much similar ways. This links to my aims because in our society and environment people may refer to the police in specific ways which may lead to the crimes they commit.

Figure 3 shows that white people get in more trouble than black boys. This links to my aims because I wanted to know why young black boys are involved in more crime than young white boys.

Figure 4 shows that more young black boys don’t respect the police force. This links to my coursework aims because the way the police act towards young black boys will affect how the police force will be treated.

Figure 5 shows that more young white boys have been discriminated by the metropolitan police force. This links to my coursework aims because it seems like the police discriminate more against young white boys rather that young black boys.

Figure 6 shows that young black boys feel that police force prefer a certain race. This links to my aims because if police treat a particular race a certain way other races will feel offended.

Figure 7 shows that 16 – 17 year old are involved in more criminal activities. This links to my aims because police look for a certain age group in a certain ethnic group.

Figure 8 shows that white people are more likely to live in an area of mainly white people, whereas black people are equal likely to live in an area of either black or white people. This maybe because there is less black people living in the UK which means they are more likely to live in a majority area of white people.

My research has shown that the my hypothesis was incorrect, it has shown that young black boys are just blamed for the majority of crime but are actually

Chirayne Smallin Sociology Coursework Due: 20th