In this essay, I am going to outline and address the sociological explanations for patterns in ethnicity and crime. Crime has a negative impact in society. It refers to those activities that break the law of the land and are subject to official punishment. This essay will state why ethnic minority groups commit crime and why it is dramatically increasing throughout society. I will give detailed statistics and show why and how ethnic minorities commit crime in society.
According to home office statistics, about 9 percent of people arrested were recorded as black and 5 per cent as Asian. This means that relative to the arrest rates of the population as a whole, black people were over three times more likely to be arrested than white people where. Asian peoples rates were similar to those for white people. Official statistics tell us the numbers of arrests made by the police. However, they are not necessarily a reflection of offending rates, but can be seen just as much as comment on the actions of the police. However, Victim studies are gathered by asking victims of crime for their recollection of the ethnic identity of the offender. According to the British crime survey, the majority of crime is interracial, with 88 per cent of white victims stating that white offenders were involved, 3 per cent claiming the offenders were black, 1 per cent Asian and 5 percent mixed. Like official statistics, asking victims for a description of who committed the crimes is shot through with problems. For a start, only about 20 per cent of survey recorded crimes are personal crimes (such as theft from the person), where the victims might actually see the offender. Bowling and Philips argue that victims are influenced by (racial) stereotypes are culturally determined expectations as to who commits crime. Certainly, research by Bowling’s (1999) indicates that where offenders is not known, white people are more likely to ascribe the crime to those of African Caribbean origin study. Unquestionably, this will give unreliable statistical data and the victim surveys would not be straightforward. Additionally, Self report studies uses anonymous questionnaires to ask people what offences they have committed. Graham and Blowing study (1995) of 14-25 year olds for the home office that the self reported offending rates where more or less the same for the white, black and Asian respondents.
