Race And Crime Debate

The ‘race and crime debate’ has been preoccupied until recently, by the question of whether people from ethnic minorities are more likely to commit criminal offences than those from the white majority population. This essay will firstly be aim to provide an introduction of race, such as the meaning and the original idea of ‘race’. Secondly, looking at how the British left realist perspective contributes on race and meaning of discrimination. Thirdly, the social construction of ethnicity and criminality with understanding of offending and victimisation, following by examining racist victimisation directed specifically against ethnic minority communities such as racist violence, and reviews the theoretical literature to explain these patterns, and the inquiry of Stephen Lawrence. Lastly, the understanding of the police with a range of issues which affect crime and minority ethnic communities, such as race equality and ‘stop and search’.

At first, the idea of race was built up with an ideas of racial difference, superiority and inferiority. The tradition definition of race and ethnicity is related to biological and sociological factors. ‘Race’ is refer to a person’s physical appearance such as skin color, eye color or hair color, whereas ‘ethnicity’, is related to a person’s cultural factors such as nationality, culture, language and beliefs. The histories of race and crime show that the idea of ‘the racial other’ has been central to European thinking in the modern period. From long ago, certain groups were describe as having a specific set of physiological and character logical attributes which attach to their skin. Those been given as ‘black’, have been attributed characteristics as stupid, lazy and violence; others given as ‘As...

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...ice system may worsen this problem through discrimination at all stage of process, as there are research still shows that African-Caribbean people are still be easily to attract attention from the police as suspects (Home Office. 2006), which somehow with reasons which leads to majority of minority ethnic group will still have big disadvantages compared to the ‘white’. However, there is no doubt that there have been improvements during the period, is that the understanding of race issues and the importance of preventing discrimination has become more familiar by the criminal justice system. (Bowling and Phillips 2002: 260) had conclude that ‘present trends in criminal justice practices will increasingly marginalise, criminalise and socially exclude ethnic minority communities in England,’ which they clearly highlighted the problems of inequality and discrimination.