However, in the 1970’s there was a hike in arrests of African Caribbean immigrants for robberies and theft. As such, ‘Black Criminality’ emerged.
On the other hand, Asians in the 1970’s had a lower crime rate. They were close knit and maintained family ties. However, P&B argue that by the 1990’s, they were seen to be a problem resulting in the ‘Asian Gang’. (e.g. 1994, Bangladeshi men murdered a man in King’s Cross; Urban Riots involving Asians).
Paul Gilroy (1983) – ‘Black Criminality’ is a myth. They are just defending themselves from a society that is treating them unjustly. This myth is because of the stereotypes the police have towards these people – African Caribbean ‘wild and lawless’ & Asians are illegal immigrants.
Gilroy’s views were supported by a study done by the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. Argues that African Caribbean people were more likely to be labeled as criminals than whites. The police are racist towards them. They are accused of street crimes mostly such as mugging which, it has been said has led to moral panic.
Moral Panic – exaggerated outburst of public concern over the morality and behaviour of a group in society.
Gilroy also argues that the high crime rate for African Caribbeans and Asians might be as a result of their Anti- Colonial Struggles against Britain and also a political attack.
Hall et. al (1979) – the continued occurrences of a crime at the hands of a group in society (e.g. muggings by African Caribbeans) will lead to moral panic. However, they do not agree that this is inevitable. Mugging is not a legally defined crime. So how do you measure it? How do you point out when it has happened?
They used the statistics of the nearest example of mugging (robbery) which showed an annual rise of 14% between 1965 and 1972. They concluded that this was not sufficient to lead to moral panic. The crime rate had been increasing much slower in this time frame than it had been the last decade (rate then was 33.4%) yet the moral panic occurred in the period of 1965 to 1972. Media exaggeration is probably to blame coupled with the hard economic times that coincided with this panic.
John Lea & Jock Young (1984) – it is not totally a myth that certain ethnicities commit more crimes than others. They argue that Gilroy’s view of police racism is incorrect. 92% of crimes brought to police attention are reported by the people. As such, how can it be that the high rates of black criminals are due to police discrimination?
In the 1960’s, the crime rate for African Caribbean immigrants was lower than the national average. Moreover, even today, rates for offences such as burglary is lower for African Caribbeans than for whites. If the argument of police discrimination is still to be applied, in light of this evidence, it suggests that Positive Discrimination is used in favour of the African Caribbeans.
However, L&Y believe that there has been an increase in certain types of crime amongst African Caribbeans most likely due to unemployment and racial discrimination.
L&Y are also critical of Gilroy’s Anti- Colonial struggle theory arguing that these immigrants are 2nd generation, many of whom were born in Britain.
Many of the crimes committed by African Caribbeans are done onto African Caribbeans. Therefore, this is clearly not a political attack as Gilroy states.
by
dream_catcher_9 (student)
