Outline & evaluate sociological explanations of the relationship between crime & ethnicity

Marxists suggest that the state passes laws to benefit the ruling class and that the laws are not enforced equally in society. This often leaves lower classes and ethnic minorities in a worse-off financial state. Hall uses a moral panic theory to explain the panic over mugging in the 1970’s. The media focused their attention on street crimes in inner city areas and often linked them with black youths. This then had an effect on the police, where they would then start patrolling these inner city areas more regularly. Negative statistics soon increased and a moral panic developed. If the media hadn’t been so dramatic the problem wouldn’t have escalated. After all mugging was not a new crime and was also quite common throughout Britain. Gilroy suggests that blacks were targeted by police, thus creating a conscious sense of rebellion amongst the ethnic minority groups.

A strong defect with the Neo-Marxist perspective is that most crime is directed towards the working class and ethnic minority groups, so much so that it makes it difficult to see it as a form of rebellion or political protest. Also it is likely that more crime will be committed during a recession, it is used as a form of survival for poor citizens. The theory can also not be sure that the moral panic created over an increase in mugging was caused by a crisis in capitalism. Lea and Young argue that the Neo-Marxist perspective spends too much time romanticising the criminal and not focusing on the victims of street crime.    

Interactionists reject the use of official statistics when it comes to analysing crime.

Cicourel suggests that there is a negotiation of justice when on patrol. It is after all a police officers decision to stop and interrogate an individual based on the meanings of what is suspicious and strange. As the process is negotiable and based on appearance, an individual that withholds a stereotypical appearance of an offender is more likely to be arrested.  Even though the stereotype concludes someone of an ethnic nature, this still applies to white citizens. A working class individual is also just as likely to be labelled as a deviant character. The Macpherson report, a defining study in British race relations, has shown that the police force is institutionally racist. After Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death in 1993, the police officers in charge of the case did not act “by the book.” Steps that should be taken into finding the murderers were missed or not completed correctly. Holdaway states that the police force withhold a ‘canteen culture’ where their institutionally racist views will be passed and carried through to new arrivals and so on, making this a never ending cycle of corrupt policing. Other sociological theories would state that not all of the police force are prejudice against black people. A problem with the Interactionist perspective of crime is that it does not provide any form of casual explanation to why police see the typical delinquent as coming from a low income background.

New left realists argue that the increase in black crime in the United Kingdom is partially real. 92% of crimes are brought to attention by the public, so the high figure of ethnic minority based crime in the national crime statistics cannot all be related to police bias, unless most of the public were also racist. This has been accused of unintentionally promoting racist attitudes amongst the public. New left realists also argue black groups have become marginalised and pushed to the edges of society, where it is hard to allocate themselves a job and to maintain a financially stable life style.

This is due to limited educational opportunities, due to a lack of strong educational support in poorer areas. As relative deprivation will affect poorer groups in society, subcultures are likely to be formed as a result of a lower standard of living than the majority of the population.

On discussion of diversity within ethnic groups, it accounts of why Afro-Caribbean’s are over represented, which falls into doubt when British Asians are concerned.

If police discriminate against blacks they must discriminate in favour of Asians since fewer are arrested.  

To conclude, the relationship between crime and ethnicity is far from straight forward. An insight from all other social variables needs to be taken into consideration. Evidence suggests that relationships between poverty and ethnicity maybe important when studying explanations into crime and deviance. As it stands today, there is still a large over representation of black crime which will continue to happen until a solution to cut out racism from our society works correctly.