Although 43 per cent of Asian victims of racial violence report their victimisation to the police, in only 18 per cent of cases of racial violence do the police arrest a suspect compared to a 100 per cent arrest rate when the victim was white. However, it is difficult to deduce the obvious conclusion of police racism, because too few whites reported racial incidents to the police. Generally whites were more satisfied than ethnic minority groups with how individual officers treated them, with a third of people from minority groups saying that they were dissatisfied and half that they were very dissatisfied with the way the police had dealt with the problem.
On the 22nd of April 1993 in Eltham, south-east London, a young black teenager named Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death in a brutal racist attack, however not one of the gang of white youths that killed him were brought to justice. The Stephen Lawrence inquiry was a highly publicised case concerning suspected police racism. Throughout the inquiry, police witnesses could not explain why standard procedures were interfered with by all levels of police staff. As well as a collective amnesia, practically every document linked to police conduct at essential times of the investigation had "disappeared". These included a log used to record the number of persons moving in and out of the murder scene; the record of all the policemen present; documents on meetings with an informant who named eyewitnesses; a policy file kept by senior police officers to prioritise or eliminate suspects and record conclusions over arrests. Due to the amount and kind of serious and fundamental unexplainable errors made by senior policemen, the Lawrence family barrister highlighted the suspicion of police corruption in the case. The disappearance of the evidence most definitely could not be accounted for on the basis of an accident or oversight; blatant attempts had been made to conceal essential evidence. One of the suspects; David Norris had a father in the police force. Throughout the inquiry references were made to the possible involvement of Norris’s father, who was conceivably trying to ensure that his son walked free. Another police officer was disciplined for misconduct involving secret meetings with suspects, and incorrect entries on his duty sheet. Also on the night that Stephen Lawrence was murdered, he was with his friend Duwayne Brooks who was also attacked but managed to escape. He returned shortly after the stabbing, to help his friend and call for an ambulance, but rather than regard him as a victim and a valuable witness, the first police officers on the scene treated Duwayne Brooks as a primary suspect. The Police constable in charge, did not ask him for a description of the criminals, or show any interest in the information Brooks gave about the direction in which the attackers fled. Instead he asked Brooks if he was carrying any weapons. The treatment by the police of Duwayne Brooks highlights how ignorant racism contributed to the failure to bring Stephen Lawrence's killers to justice.
As Berstein noted, since ethnic minority families tend settle in areas with high social deprivation, children are at a disadvantage when it comes to schooling, as many schools in working class areas are economically poor and therefore are lacking in resources, and are subsequently at a disadvantage. Results from the 2002 census showed that black children are more likely to drop out of school than white children. Bourdieu pointed out that that children born in the UK, with non native parents are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to schooling, as knowledge is passed down within families, and if a child’s parents are unfamiliar with the native language then it puts them at an obvious disadvantage. According to a investigation carried out in the US, on average, Blacks tend to score 15 points lower than whites in IQ tests. There are several links between IQ and the law. The earliest studies of the relationship between criminality and intelligence were conducted by Goddard in 1912, but are still going on to this day. IQ causes delinquency as it inhibits the ability to learn. It has been proven that children with parents of a low IQ are more likely to become delinquents as their parents are unable to teach the socialising process, and therefore are more likely to turn towards crime due to a lack of morals. Another study looked at the difference between black children brought up by their own parents and black children who had been adopted by white middle class families, and they found that the IQ of the adopted children was, on average, 20 points higher than the national average for black children. There are many reasons which contribute to a low level of intelligence for black people. People of ethnic minorities used to be discriminated against at school, particularly by the education system, therefore, they would of found it much harder to find work after schooling, due to a lack of qualifications. Consequently, they would turn to crime to get money and perhaps not put as much effort into their work as children born to white parents who would be pushed to do well at school, allowing them to move on to higher education, so they would be at an advantage when it comes to finding work.
In 2001, the arrests for black people and Asians rose by 12% and 7% respectively but fell for white people by 1%. According to the statistics carried out in by the home office in 2001, Black people were 5 times more likely to be arrested than white or other ethnic groups. As concerns punishment, in the case of violent offences (violence against the person and sexual offences) the use of custody was higher for black offenders (20%) than Asian (11%) and white offenders (14%). Black offenders were more likely to be sentenced to a community sentence and less likely to be fined or given a conditional discharge than white of Asian offenders.
After the events of September the 11th, there is a real concern today for the ethnic minority community, that the threat of terrorism in Britain and an association with Muslim identity and terrorism and disorder, will force police officers to make invalid generalisations of citizens, especially young people, of different races as having an inclination to violence, and that evidence will be found of high or growing levels of racist violence and other forms of slander of Islam. An example of this occurred on Monday, January the 20th, around 150 police officers wearing protective body armour and armed with weapons stormed a mosque in North London. The police occupied the mosque for four days. The police claimed that they found a stun gun and CS gas hidden in the building, that they believed belonged to terrorists, although worshippers accused the police of planting the evidence. During the seizure of the mosque, police had promised not to enter the prayer area. After they had left, however, their promise was shown to have been broken. Fuad Nahdi editor of the Muslim Q News magazine said: “If the police tell one lie, it raises questions about a lot of things and about what really was going on. It makes a bad situation even worse.” It is events like these that suppress ethnic minorities communities respect for the police force and perhaps even tempt them to behave how they are expected to, which inevitably furthers Britain’s racial divide.
For many years the police have been the subject of fierce allegations about their racially prejudiced and discriminatory treatment of Black and Asian people in Britain.From the statistics and examples looked at, it is clear that when it comes to ethnic minorities and the law, there is still an inequality. Although, there are some sociological factors such as education and the environment that contribute to their tendency to commit crimes, it is immoral to treat criminals from different races differently. But unless all British people begin to see the problem of inequality in criminal justice as their own, and unless we take responsible measures to respond to it, Britain’s crime problem and racial divide will only get worse.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
John Hagan and Ruth D Perterson “Crime and inequality” Stanford Uni Press
John Solomos (1992)“Race and Racism in Britain” The Macmillan Press
Michael Keith (1993) “Race, Riots and policing – Lore and Disorder in a
Multi- racist Society” UCL Press
Tariq Modood (1992) “Not Easy Being British: Colour, Culture and Citizenship”
Runnymede Trust and Trentham Books.
Christine Stewart Page of
