Why is the prison population not a reflection of the ethnicity of Britain, is because of society or the police or if it is ethnic group. To find out what is the cause, I will carry out research

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Crime and Ethnicity

INTRODUCTION

In Britain today there are 55 million people, of this 2% are Afro Caribbean, and 2% are Asian.  This would mean that the prison population should be 2% Asian, and 2 % Afro Caribbean, but it is not, the actual figures are 10% Afro Caribbean, and 9% Asian.  Why is the prison population not a reflection of the ethnicity of Britain, is because of society or the police or if it is ethnic group.  To find out what is the cause, I will carry out research of my own and use previously obtained figures.  The difficulties that I will run into while carrying out my research are that figures that I collect May not all be up to date.  Other difficulties that I will run into are that people will not be answer truthfully as they do not want to be seen as the odd one out so they go along with the majority answers. An other major problem that I will have is that the government figures that I have are also grouped in the following ways, Asian, White, Afro Caribbean, and Other.  This means that I will have to work using those categories to group people.

Secondary research

Home office figures

The Home Office figures show me that of the 55 million people in the country 2% are Asian, and 5% are Afro Caribbean.  Of the 2 million people arrested 16% are Afro Caribbean, and 7% are Asian.  Also the figures show me that more then half (58%) of all Afro Caribbean arrests come from the metropolitan police area.  A reason for this could be that when people emigrate from a foreign country they do not speak the language, or any qualifications.  When they arrive then normally settle around there own people near a port or river in the center, in this case London.  This creates an ethnic ghetto, which often has high crime, unemployment, and low educational qualifications.  As the white population has gone through this they are no longer in ethnic ghettos so they have lower unemployment, crime, and higher educational qualifications.  The people in the centre of the ethnic ghetto normally live in the worse housing, and areas.  This may drive them to crime.  The Home Office figures also show that of the 2 million people arrested, 7% are Afro Caribbean, but the prison population is 10%.  There is a much higher chance of an Afro Caribbean person being stopped and searched (five times higher) then a person from any other ethnic group.  This means that they are subjected to stereotypes of society (and the police are part of society), so as they are being stopped more then there is more chance of them being arrested.  This would mean that in police force they are not very well represented.  As every one will have the stereotype Afro Caribbean or Asians commit crime all the time, the people in that ethnic group will do what they think is expected of them.  Also as they are already in high crime areas the young people will do what they see as the norm, which may be to commit crime.


Does Borough and Ethnicity

Brent crime and disorder audit

In the audit of crime it shows that of all of the London boroughs per thousand people.  The six highest are:

1) Westminster

2) Camden

3) Southwark

4) Chelsea

5) Camden

6) Hackney

The six boroughs with lowest crime rate per thousand in London are:

1) Barnet

2) Havering

3) Bexley

4) Sutton

5) Richmond upon Thames

6) Bromley

The areas that have the highest crime rates per thousand people are predominately Asian and Afro Caribbean areas.  Also the crime hot spots for the whole of London, mark places where there are large numbers of people form different ethnic minorities.  The figures also show that there is very high crime among the poorest areas that have large numbers of people from different ethnic minorities.  Is it that ethnic minorities are driven to crime because of poverty?  As ethnic minorities settle in a country they like to settle in and around there own ethnic group.  This has a very big effect on the people in the area.  If there is already a high crime in that area, people will see that is the norm for that area, so to be allowed to belong to that area’s culture they will have to do what people in that culture see as the norm, commit crime.

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Is there a link Between Working Class and Ethnicity?

Sociology alive

In Britain the Afro Caribbean and Asian population do the largest percentage of manual work.  They are also more likely to suffer long-term unemployment.  It could be that when people from an ethnic minority are unemployed they may be have no choice but to turn to crime due to stereotypes.  This could be why there is such a high crime rate among ethnic minorities.  A factor that could account high crime rates in ethnic minorities is the lack of confidence in the police.  Class also plays a major role in ...

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