Ethnicity in Sociology
Much greater levels of police stop and search on young black African-Caribbean males, than whites.
After attack on World Trade Center in 2001 and London Underground bombings in 2005, a new discourse has emerged regarding Muslim Youths.
The new image of them is of being dangerous- a threat to British culture.
Offending
There are 3 ways on gathering statistics on ethnicity and crime: official stats, victimization studies and self-report studies.
According to Home Office statistics, about 9.5% of people arrested were recorded as ‘Black’ and 5.3% ‘Asian’ (similar rating to white). This means that, relative to the population as a whole, black people are 3x more likely than whites to be arrested.
However, these stats could be seen as a comment on the actions of the police. – some sociologists argue there is institutional racism in police.
Offenders are most likely to be young males aged between 14 and 25. Any ethnic group with a high proportion of this age group within it will have relatively high arrest rates. The British black pop has high rates, and so it would be expected that they’d have high arrest rates too because of this.
Stats show that Black Youth are more likely to be unemployed or in low paid jobs.
Victimizing studies
Victim-based studies (British Crime Survey) 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 intraracial, with 88% of white victims stating that white criminals were involved, 3% claiming offenders were black, 1%Asian, 5% mixed.
About 42% of crimes against Black victims were identified as black offenders and 19% of crime against Asian were Asians.
The figure of white crimes AGAINST ethnic minorities are much higher – 50% (though 90% of pop is white)
However only 20% of survey-recorded crimes are ‘peronal’ such as theft, where the victim may actually be able to identify the offender.
Bowling and Phillips argue
After attack on World Trade Center in 2001 and London Underground bombings in 2005, a new discourse has emerged regarding Muslim Youths.
The new image of them is of being dangerous- a threat to British culture.
Offending
There are 3 ways on gathering statistics on ethnicity and crime: official stats, victimization studies and self-report studies.
According to Home Office statistics, about 9.5% of people arrested were recorded as ‘Black’ and 5.3% ‘Asian’ (similar rating to white). This means that, relative to the population as a whole, black people are 3x more likely than whites to be arrested.
However, these stats could be seen as a comment on the actions of the police. – some sociologists argue there is institutional racism in police.
Offenders are most likely to be young males aged between 14 and 25. Any ethnic group with a high proportion of this age group within it will have relatively high arrest rates. The British black pop has high rates, and so it would be expected that they’d have high arrest rates too because of this.
Stats show that Black Youth are more likely to be unemployed or in low paid jobs.
Victimizing studies
Victim-based studies (British Crime Survey) 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 intraracial, with 88% of white victims stating that white criminals were involved, 3% claiming offenders were black, 1%Asian, 5% mixed.
About 42% of crimes against Black victims were identified as black offenders and 19% of crime against Asian were Asians.
The figure of white crimes AGAINST ethnic minorities are much higher – 50% (though 90% of pop is white)
However only 20% of survey-recorded crimes are ‘peronal’ such as theft, where the victim may actually be able to identify the offender.
Bowling and Phillips argue