House of Commons - Home Affairs

Select Committee on Home Affairs Written Evidence

10. Memorandum submitted by Ben Bowling[21], Specialist Adviser to the Committee, and Coretta Phillips[22]

SUMMARY

Public perceptions of ethnicity and crime are shaped by many factors and are subject to distortion and stereotype. Research and statistics show that the overwhelming majority of offenders in England and Wales are white. Nonetheless, police statistics and victim surveys show that black people commit a disproportionate share of relatively rare crime (eg robbery and homicide). Research on victimisation, offending and socio-economic data suggests that this is a result of entrenched disadvantage and social exclusion. Discrimination in the criminal process has, over time, compounded this to yield much higher rates of criminalisation within black communities. The long-term result is a growing adult black prison population. The paper concludes with recommendations for action.

THE TERMS OF REFERENCE

1. The Committee's terms of reference cover: (i) public perceptions of criminality among young black people;[23] (ii) patterns of criminal behaviour amongst young people from different ethnic groups; and (iii) the causes of young black people's overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. Much of the information required to explain these three areas is unavailable and there is little research specifically on young black people's experiences of crime and the criminal justice system.

2. While black people are overrepresented as suspects, defendants and prisoners in the English criminal justice system, the overwhelming majority of defendants are from other ethnic backgrounds (85% of arrestees are white). The Committee's focus may mask the fact that many problems are common to all ethnic groups. Census groupings may mean little to the young people that they categorise.[24] The inquiry should be sensitive to the complexity of youth identities based on geography, religion and culture as well as skin colour. The committee's focus also risks missing the experiences of those whose background is not easily defined "black". For example, the "mixed" group has been identified as one that faces significant problems in the criminal process.[25]

3. The Committee's deliberation should also consider the context of the lives of young people. Social inequalities among Britain's minority ethnic groups are rooted in a history of discrimination and have been sustained over time.[26] Black communities are concentrated in urban neighbourhoods where social exclusion is greatest. This can be seen in education,[27] employment and income inequality,[28] housing,[29] social services and access to cultural resources.

4. Young black people suffer a comparatively greater risk of criminal victimisation[30] and yet are among the least likely to report their experiences of the police, to access the justice system or victim support.[31] This has wide-ranging implications for providing a safe environment for black young people.

PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF CRIMINALITY AMONG BLACK PEOPLE

5. Perceptions of black people as criminally inclined can be traced back to Elizabethan times. Shakespeare's Othello is replete with examples of the view that the "black-skinned should be black hearted",[32] a perception which may have contributed to Elizabeth I expelling black people from Britain in 1596 and again in 1601.[33] The idea of black people as inherently evil, bestial, inferior, unintelligent, ruled by desire and prone to violence has persisted ever since.[34]

6. In the 1950s, long before most British people had any contact with black people, surveys of public attitudes demonstrated widespread perceptions of black people as inherently inferior to Europeans and inclined towards crime and deviance.[35] Commentators have noted that this fits a historic pattern of the "criminal classes", the Irish, and then black people as a criminalised "other".[36]

7. The 1995 British Social Attitudes Survey found that 25% of the English population thought "immigrants" increased crime rates[37] rising to 39% in 2003.[38] Researchers attributed this rise partly to an increase in migration but also to media coverage and government statements on immigration issues that were "negative in tone and content".[39] Perception of a link between immigration and crime compounds xenophobic attitudes,[40] which in turn may affect the perception of settled ethnic minorities, regardless of their nationality.

8. Perceptions of black people as predisposed to crime are well documented in criminal justice professions including the police[41] and prison[42] services. Research based on interviews with youth justice practitioners found that perceived differences in offending patterns among young people were based partly on arrest patterns but also on stereotyped assumptions.[43]

PATTERNS OF CRIME

9. The first official attempt to assess the extent of ethnic differences in patterns of crime was the 1972 House of Commons Home Affairs Committee which concluded that

10. Today, 85% of the people arrested in England and Wales are white, 9% are black and 5% are Asian, although this differs by offence type. For example, 6% of people arrested for burglary are black, compared with 28% of people arrested for robbery.[45] Home Office research on robbery and mobile phone theft suggests arrest figures are fairly consistent with victims' descriptions of offenders.[46] There is marked geographical variation;[47] the majority of robbery suspects were black in six out of nine police areas, the exceptions being Stockport, Preston and Blackpool where 99% of the suspected offenders were white.[48]

Self-Report and Victims' Descriptions

11. Self-report surveys—based on what young people will admit to survey interviewers—have found consistently that black and white youth have, in general, an equal likelihood of being involved in crime with Asian youth being much less likely.[49] Surveys of secondary schools in deprived areas found the highest rates of offending among the "mixed" group (61%), with white (55%) and black (50%) pupils having similar rates and those of Asian origin significantly lower (33%).[50]

12. The British Crime Survey found that four out of 10 victims could describe the person they knew or believed to be the offender. Where the victim could judge their ethnic origin, 85% described the offenders as white while 15% said that the offender was from a visible minority ethnic group.[51] This pattern varies for different offences; 3% of victims of burglary thought that the offender was black compared with 31% of victims of "mugging".[52]

Homicide and Gun Crime

13. Black people are five times more likely to be murdered than their white counterparts in England and Wales.[53] Where a suspect was identified, the majority of homicides were intra-ethnic; ie the victim was killed by someone from the same ethnic group.[54]

14. Black murder victims are much more likely to have been shot (31%) than white (6%) or Asian (12%) victims.[55] The black community makes up 2% of the population but one third of gun murder victims and suspects in England and Wales.[56] Gun homicide remains relatively rare: over the past decade an average of 25 black people have been victims of gun murder each year (cf 40 white persons and 7 Asians).[57] There is very limited research[58] and journalistic accounts of gun crime within black communities.[59]

Patterns of Crime: Key Points

15. Self-report surveys—broadly accepted as a valid and accurate measure of criminal involvement within the general population—indicate that black and white people have an equal likelihood of being involved in crime.

16. The overwhelming majority of offenders are white (85% of arrestees), but police data, victimisation surveys and witness descriptions indicate that black people are, in proportion to their population, substantially more likely to commit some specific but rare criminal offences.

17. More than one quarter of the people arrested for robbery in England and Wales are black, a figure consistent with victims' descriptions of offenders.

18. Police records indicate that in about one in three gun murders, both victims and suspects are black.[60]

Explaining the Patterns

19. There is little research on which to base a definitive explanation for patterns of crime specifically within the UK black population. There are significant gaps (such as evidence on violence against women in the home)[61] and few comparative studies. Attempts to explain crime within black communities tend to be speculative and based on US theories.[62]

20. The most commonly offered explanation focuses on social and economic inequality and poverty.[63] The social geography of robbery[64] and homicide[65] show these crimes are concentrated in poor communities. Fitzgerald et al found that the young people at greatest risk of involvement in "street crime" were young people living in a household with no adult earners in neighbourhoods where income inequality was greatest.[66]

21. Other dimensions of social exclusion may play a role such as school disaffection, truancy, exclusion, academic failure, survival stress arising from a lack of marketable skills, alcohol and drug abuse, lack of positive role models, family conflict and breakdown, child abuse, experiences of local authority care, homelessness, mental health problems, bereavement and exposure to violence.[67]

22. Research suggests that consumer culture, stimulated by fierce marketing, creates an intense desire for "name brand" consumer goods which leads, in turn, to offending where legitimate routes to obtaining ready cash needed to purchase the objects of desire (and trappings of success) are blocked.[68] The pursuit of excitement[69], status and power are additional attractions of crime.

23. Within socially excluded communities, the criminal economy—especially in illegal drugs—competes with legitimate labour markets.[70] In this context, "systemic violence" including robbery of drug dealers, internecine violence and the use of firearms can become prevalent.[71]

24. The links between social structure, culture, values and behaviour have been explored by researchers in the USA.[72] It is contended that relative deprivation, political powerlessness and the inability to overcome structural constraints to success, cause alienation, rage, frustration, lack of hope and pervasive nihilism.[73] Others contend that masculine cultural adaptations to social exclusion emphasize the display of toughness to protect against disrespect, loss of reputation or violations of autonomy.[74] An informal "code of the street"[75] requires young men to adopt a "cool pose"[76] or a reputation for "badness"[77] in order to survive. In the most extreme circumstances, young people begin to see life as meaningless and themselves as the "living dead".[78]

25. Socio-legal theorists contend that conformity stems from bonds between individual and society underpinned by "procedural justice" and a belief in the legitimacy of the state.[79] From this perspective, the experience of unfairness in policing and the administration of justice contribute to disaffection, the rejection of conventional values and to law breaking.[80]

26. Where disaffection is extreme and confidence in the criminal justice system collapses, young people feel vulnerable to victimisation[81] leading some to carry weapons for personal security. In this context, violence becomes accepted as a means of self-defence and retributive "street justice". This results in reprisals and an escalation of violence.[82]

CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROCESSES AND OUTCOMES

Policing

27. The history of the relationship between police and black communities has been one of "mistrust, resentment and suspicion".[83] The themes of mass stop and search, excessive surveillance, unjustified armed raids, police violence, deaths in custody and a failure to respond effectively to racist violence recur throughout the 1970s and 1980s.[84] The collective experience of the black community is of being "over-policed and under-protected".[85]

28. Of the people searched by the police in the year ending April 2004, 15% were black, 7% Asian and 1% of "other" ethnic origin.[86] Relative to the population as a whole, black people were six times as likely and Asians twice as likely to be stopped and searched in comparison with white people. Black people are more likely to be repeatedly[87] and intrusively searched.[88]

29. Stereotyping plays a role in stop and search targeting. Police officers associate black people with crime and sometimes act on unjustified assumptions rather than reasonable suspicion.[89] Direct racism is compounded by operations targeting the places and times when black youths are "available"; bringing them more frequently into contact with the criminal justice system.[90] Black people are twice as likely as white to enter the criminal justice system following stop and search.[91]

30. Once in police custody,[92] black suspects are more likely to opt for legal advice, to exercise their right to remain silent, and to deny the offence for which they have been arrested.[93] Such decisions can function to their disadvantage. Reprimands and final warnings (for example) can only be given if a suspect admits the offence. This partly explains the lower rates of cautioning among black arrestees.[94]

Prosecution and Sentencing

31. Black defendants are particularly likely to have their cases terminated by the Crown Prosecution Service due to weak evidence or because it is against the public interest to proceed.[95] This suggests that incorrect decisions were made by police officers to charge more frequently in cases involving black offenders in comparison with cases than white offenders.[96]

32. Allowing for geographical variation, young black people are overrepresented and young Asian people underrepresented in the caseloads of Young Offender Teams (YOTs).[97] Some differences in sentencing outcomes between ethnic groups cannot be explained by legal or social factors and are indicative of discrimination.[98] Black offenders are disadvantaged at the pre-sentence stages of the criminal justice process.[99]

33. Interviews with YOT staff reveal a perception that young people from ethnic minorities are not treated fairly in the youth court resulting in longer sentences for black and Asian youth.[100] In order to deliver equal justice, staff argued that young people should be treated appropriately on the basis of need rather than a "colour-blind" approach or assumptions based on stereotypes.[101]

Imprisonment, Probation and Aftercare

34. In September 2005, 19,279 people from minority ethnic groups were in custody in Prison Service establishments, in excess of one quarter of the total prison population. Black people accounted for 15% of the male and 19% of the female prison population.[102] Among 8,546 young offenders held in prison service custody in 2003, 16% were black, 3.5% Asian and 4.3% from "other" ethnic groups. There is a strikingly high incarceration rate for black Caribbeans of 1,704 and black Africans at 1,274 per 100,000.

35. The black prison population increased by 138% between 1993 and 2003 while the white and Asian prison population increased by 48% and 73% respectively. The rising general prison population and a marked increase in the rate of growth of the black prison population,[103] is resulting in a noticeable increase in the proportion of the black population serving a prison sentence.[104]

36. Studies of probation practice found some indications of racial prejudice with some officers assuming that black offenders were less likely to be rehabilitated.[105] However, black and Asian probation clients interviewed in 2004 reported that 86% felt they had been treated fairly by their supervisors, most of whom were white.[106] Black "empowerment" programmes implemented in a small number of probation areas are believed by practitioners to produce higher completion rates and lower re-offending rates.[107]

CONCLUSION: CRIME, JUSTICE AND PUNISHMENT

37. Social and economic exclusion are the principal causes of the overrepresentation of young black people in the criminal justice system. Exclusion, compounded by discrimination in the criminal justice process, has resulted in the disproportionate criminalisation of black people.

38. The outcomes of the punitive approach of the past decade—sharp rises in the numbers of people arrested by the police, going through the courts and into prison—have been magnified in relation to black communities. While overall crime has fallen, robbery, homicide and gun crime stubbornly remain high.

39. The criminal justice system has failed to solve a crisis of community safety, social exclusion and disaffection and has made matters worse. When deterrence fails (as it does routinely), the experience of the criminal process confirms the young person's self-identity as criminal, a process of labelling entrenched by imprisonment. Prison fails to rehabilitate,[108] but instead prizonises.[109] It separates families, precipitates the loss of home, obstructs future employment, nurtures delinquency and drains cultural capital from the community.[110] Stigmatisation is especially acute for young people of African and Caribbean origin because it appears to confirm the widespread perception of black people as potential criminals.

40. An alternative approach to dealing with the problems facing young people in trouble is required. The aim should be to include young people from all groups in society and to improve their life chances. They should be treated with respect for individuality and human dignity. Youth inclusion measures should be relevant, accessible and appropriately tailored to individual needs.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION

(i) Require agents of the criminal justice system—eg police, magistrates, judges, prison and probation officers—to act, and be seen to act, fairly and with respect for human dignity and individuality;

(ii) set a specific goal of reducing and then reversing the growth in the black prison population by investing in targeted prevention, social inclusion and diversion from court and custody;

(iii) restrict the police power to stop, search and arrest young people on suspicion of involvement in minor offences;

(iv) develop specialist youth work, mentoring, conflict resolution and social inclusion measures in schools and communities to meet the needs of the most disaffected young people and to reduce their involvement in offending;

(v) develop specialist community mental health services to respond to people exposed to violence;

(vi) fund community and voluntary sector organisations in their efforts to build coalitions against violence and to develop support for young people in trouble;

(vii) initiate a programme of action-research to (a) document the experiences of young black people (in comparison with those from other ethnic groups) going through the criminal process and the factors that protect others who manage to stay out of trouble and (b) evaluate the preventative work undertaken by statutory and voluntary agencies.

October 2006

21 School of Law, King's College, London. Back

22 Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics. This paper draws extensively on Phillips, C and Bowling, B (forthcoming) "Ethnicities, racism, crime and criminal justice" in M. Maguire, et al (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology Oxford: OUP (4th ed). (see also 3rd ed 2002). Back

23 Defined by the Home Affairs Committee as young people whose "cultural background is associated with the ONS Census ethnicity category `Black or Black British', which comprises `Caribbean', `African' and "Any other black background". Back

24 Sharp D (2005) & Protect? Black young people's experiences of policing in the community, in Wilson, D and Rees, G (eds) (2006) Justice: a study of young people's experiences of the youth justice system. n: The Children's Society; Ofutu, J (2006) "Acting strangely": young black people and the youth justice system, in Wilson and Rees, op cit, p39. Back

25 See paras 27-36 below. Back

26 Fryer, P (1985) Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain. London: Pluto, p10-12; Bowling, B (1999) Violent Racism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp27-57; Bowling, B & Phillips, C (2002) Racism, crime & justice. London: Longman, pp1-12, 36-51. Back

27 Black pupils on average attain lower grades and are more likely to be permanently excluded http://www.dfes.gov.uk/trends/. Secondary school attainment levels show some ethnic groups doing significantly better than others There is a high-attaining cluster (pupils of Chinese, Indian and Irish origin), a mid-range cluster (White British, Mixed Race, Bangladeshi, Irish Travellers, Pakistani and Black African) and the lowest attaining cluster of pupils of Black Caribbean and Gypsy/Roma origin: Department for Education and Skills (2005), Ethnicity and Education: The Evidence on Minority Ethnic Pupils. Research Topic Paper Rtpo1-05, London: Department for Education and Skills. See also Sewell, T (1997) Black masculinities and schooling: how black boys survive modern schooling. London; Trentham Books. Back

28 Studies of labour markets indicate higher levels of unemployment, and lower earnings for minority ethnic individuals Phillips, C (2005), "Ethnic Inequalities under New Labour: Progress or Entrenchment?" in J Hills and K Stewart (eds), A More Equal Society? New Labour, Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion, Bristol: Policy Press. Back

29 Housing conditions are poorest for those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, followed by black people of Caribbean and African origins, although communities of Indian origin have formed in suburban areas. See Lakey, J (1997), "Neighbourhoods and Housing" in T Modood, R Berthoud, J Lakey, J Nazroo, P Smith, S Virdee and S Beishon (eds), Ethnic Minorities in Britain: Diversity and Disadvantage, London: Policy Studies Institute. Back

30 Salisbury, H and Upson, A (2004), Ethnicity, Victimisation and Worry About Crime: Findings from the 2001-02 and 2002-03 British Crime Surveys. Findings 237, London: Home Office. Back

31 Yarrow, S (2005), The experiences of young black men as victims of crime. London: Home Office Criminal Justice System Race Unit and Victims & Confidence Unit. Back