Overview
This lecture reviews the relationship between ethnicity and crime in the UK, focusing on trends in offending, arrest, stop and search, and victimization rates among different ethnic groups.
Issues with Ethnicity and Crime Statistics
- Not all crimes are solved, making the ethnicity of many offenders unknown, especially for unsolved property crimes.
- Arrests and imprisonment rates are used to measure offending by ethnicity but can be influenced by institutional racism and police priorities.
- Quantitative data on ethnicity and offending may be skewed and open to interpretation.
Overrepresentation in the Criminal Justice System
- 16% of the UK population are from Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, but BAME individuals make up a higher proportion of arrests (23%), remand (24%-26%), prosecutions (23%), convictions (21%), sentencing (22%), and prison population (27%).
- BAME is a broad term, requiring more nuanced breakdowns by specific ethnic groups for accurate analysis.
Arrest Rate Trends
- Average arrest rate: 12 per 1,000 (2018-19).
- Black Other group has the highest arrest rate at 64 per 1,000 (5.5 times the average).
- Black Caribbean, Mixed White and Black Caribbean, and Black African groups also have higher rates than other groups.
- Black males have the highest arrest rate (60 per 1,000); Mixed males (31 per 1,000); Asian males average; White males lowest.
- Black and Mixed ethnicity women also have above-average arrest rates (6 and 5 per 1,000).
- Arrest rates for Black people declined 43% (57 to 34 per 1,000, 2007-2019); Mixed ethnicity down 47%; White arrest rates down 59% (24 to 10 per 1,000).
Stop and Search Disparities
- Police can stop and search under suspicion of drugs (section 1), terrorism (section 44), or weapons (section 60).
- Stop and search rate: White people—4 per 1,000; Black people—38 per 1,000 (9 times higher than White).
- London has the highest rates, with moral panics (e.g., knife crime) increasing stop and search among BAME.
- Over past decade, White stop and search rates remain below national average.
Victimization Rates by Ethnicity
- Little difference in victimization rates by ethnicity, per Crime Survey of England and Wales (2019).
- Asian, White, and Other groups: 15% reported being victims of crime; Black and Mixed ethnicity: 16%.
- Black victims saw a 1% increase from previous year; Mixed ethnicity saw a 28% decline in 6 years.
Key Terms & Definitions
- BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) — A collective term for non-White ethnic groups in the UK.
- Institutional Racism — Systemic discrimination within institutions, affecting outcomes for minority groups.
- Stop and Search — Police power to search individuals for drugs, weapons, or evidence of crime based on suspicion.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review Ministry of Justice crime statistics and Crime Survey of England and Wales for further detail.
- Prepare to discuss limitations of quantitative data in future lessons.