1. Ethnicity
1.1. Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) are over-represented in the official crime statistics and in prison population.
1.2. police stopped and searched Black Britons 4.3 times more than White Britons in 2014
1.3. in 2015, 25% of prisoners belonged to BAME groups despite only 12% of the population being BAME
2. Ethnicity and crime explanations
2.1. Indirect and Direct discrimination
2.1.1. INDIRECT
2.1.1.1. mistrust in the police - minority ethnic suspects are less likely to cooperate with police officers than white suspects
2.1.1.2. Social position
2.1.2. DIRECT
2.1.2.1. Stop and search
2.1.2.2. Institutional racism
2.1.2.3. Arrests, charges and court proceedings
2.1.2.4. Discrimination in sentencing
2.1.3. Over representation in prison - the combined effects of indirect and direct discrimination leads to a disproportionate rate of imprisonment for people of minority ethnic groups. minority ethnic groups make up 12% of the general population but 25% of prisons. Black people are the most over-represented making up 13% of prison population but only 3% of general population
2.1.3.1. Asian prisoners are more likely to be labelled as an 'islamic terrorist' or a 'security risk'
3. Social Policy
3.1. In 1999 there was a drive to increase the number of police officers recruited from ethnic minorities. This followed the racist murder of a black London teenager, Stephen Lawrence in April 1993 and the subsequent Macpherson's report. This concluded that the polices handling of the murder investigation had been marred by institutional racism and called fro targets to be set to increase the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority officers.
4. Social class
4.1. different crimes are committed by different classes
4.1.1. middle class commit white collar and corporate crimes where as working class commit street crimes
4.1.2. the powerful have grater opportunities to commit crime and cover it up
4.2. most people in prison are working class
4.2.1. left realists like Lea and Young suggest the W/C are more likely to suffer relative deprivation and marginalisation which leads to more crime and the formation of subcultural responses.
4.3. crime is a rational response to capitalism, capitalism is criminogenic
4.3.1. David Gordon argues that the w/c is driven to crime to survive as a consequence of capitalism; they are alienated in a capitalist society and commit non-utilitarian crimes to vent their fustration
5. Gender
5.1. official crime statistics show that women commit more crime than men - 80% of serious crimes are committed by men & at least 1/3 of men are likely to be convicted for criminal offences during their lifetime, compared to only 8% of women.
5.1.1. Sex role theory tries to explain why women commit less crime compared to men - women take on the expressive role and are responsible for socialising the children and therefore they normally display characteristics of tenderness, gentleness and emotion which are not usually compatible characteristics of committing crime.
5.1.2. patriarchal control also tries to explain why women commit more crime than men - women are conformists, controlled by a patriarchal society. this control occurs in the home, in the workplace and out in public spaces.