Differences in ethnic experiences of criminal justice system

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Examine the reasons for ethnic differences in experiences of the criminal justice system.

Ethnic minorities, afro-Caribbean’s and, to a lesser extent, Asians, are vastly over represented in official statistics for criminal offending, and convictions, but these statistics are not necessarily representative of what is real. An example of these statistics is that black people make up 2.7% of the British population, and Asians 4.7%, but black people make up 11% of the prison population, and Asians 6%.

Experiences amongst different ethnic groups who interact with the criminal justice system are still very diverse. Whilst self-report studies show that whites are more likely to offend than blacks and Asians even less likely (Indians 30%, Pakistanis 28% and Bangladeshis 13% according to Graham and Bowling) this does not represent the experiences of said ethnic groups. The criminal justice system consists of a number of steps which include policing, stop and search, arrests/cautions, prosecutions, trials, convictions, sentencing and prison and at each stage it appears that blacks, and more recently Asians, are much more likely to face injustice, abuse or negativity within the criminal justice system. Phillips and Bowling note that since the 1970s many allegations of oppressive policing towards ethnic minorities have been put forward with “mass stop and search operations… excessive surveillance, armed raids, police violence”.

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With policies such as the Stop and Search and the Terrorism Act (2000), police officers may stop at any time or place, any vehicle or person and search them for any or no reasons, but the patterns of how these policies put to use are disproportionate towards ethnic minorities; black people are 7 times likely to be stopped than whites, and Asians 3 times as likely.

Police disproportionately using stop and search techniques against minority ethnic groups may be the result of police racism, which the Macpherson report of 1999 highlights. Institutional racism within the police force and its individual ...

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