Race Issues - Criminology

Race and Criminal Justice

Institutional racism: “The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people.” (Macpherson Report 1999 para 34, Stephen Lawrence Inquiry)

Bridges, “The Lawrence Inquiry – Incompetence, Corruption, and Institutional Racism” 1999

Macpherson report’s finding that “institutional racism… exists both in the MPS and in other Police Services and other institutions countrywide” (para 6.39)

Present in four specific areas:

1. In the actual investigation into the murder – failure of many officers to recognise the murder as a purely “racially motivated crime”

2. Countrywide in the disparity in “stop and search figures”

3. Countrywide in the significant under-reporting of “racial incidents” occasioned largely by lack of confidence in the police and their perceived unwillingness to take such incidents seriously

4. Identified failure of police training – not a single officer questioned in 1998 had received any training of significance in racism awareness in their career

But problems:

• Echoed the earlier Scarman report that the MPS is not institutionally racist

• No recommendations re stop and search powers

• Provided virtually no details as to what elements of the wider CJS may constitute “institutional racism” or which criminal justice policies require to be examined

• Clear that the government and police’s commitment to “anti-racism” is far from wholehearted or holistic

  • Always likely to be displaced by concerns to “tackle crime” and “speed up criminal justice” which have wider populist appeal

The Lammy Review 2017

BAME proportion in measures of youth offending have risen significantly:

• BAME proportion of young people offending for the first time rose from 11% year ending March 2006 to 19% year ending March 2016

• BAME proportion of young people reoffending rose from 11% 2006 to 19% 2016

• BAME proportion of youth prisoners has risen from 25% to 41% in 2006-2016

Key principles: response to the disproportionate representation of BAME prisoners should be based around 3 core principles

1. Robust systems in place to ensure fair treatment in every part of the CJS

   1. Bringing decision-making out into the open and exposing it to scrutiny is the best way of delivering fair treatment

2. Trust in the CJS is essential

   1. Reason why so many BAME defendants plead not guilty, forgoing the opportunity to reduce sentences, is that they see the system in terms of “us and them”

3. CJS must have stronger analysis about where responsibility lies beyond its own boundaries

Crown Prosecution Service

• Arrest rates are generally higher across minority ethnic groups in comparison to the white group

  • Black men were more than three times more likely to be arrested than White men

• Policing affects how people view “the system” as a whole

  • Grievances over policing tactics, particularly the disproportionate use of Stop and Search, drain trust in the CJS in BAME communities

• Police and the CPS must respond to gang crime in a proportionate way

Plea Decisions

• BAME defendants are consistently more likely to plead not guilty than White defendants

  • Primary reason: lack of trust in the CJS among BAME communities

    • Makes BAME defendants less likely to cooperate with the police or trust the advice of legal aid solicitors, who can be seen as part of the “system”

• Alongside building trust, CJS should learn from innovations that place less emphasis on the role of plea decisions

  • “Operation Turning Point” in the West Midlands intervened before Ds are asked to enter a plea

  • Ds given the opportunity to go through structured intervention instead of facing criminal charges

  • Compliance with the intervention saw charges dropped; non-compliance saw the D prosecuted

Courts

• 20% of cases involve BAME Ds each year

• More subtle scrutiny is needed of sentencing decisions to ensure that many finely balanced judgements do not add up to disproportionate sentencing of BAME Ds over time

• To build trust and respect for the rule of law, there must be a step change in the diversity of the magistracy, and especially the judiciary

• Closer links must be built between courts and local communities to cut youth proven reoffending rates, which are higher for Black boys compared to their white counterparts

Prisons

• BAME adults represent around 25% of the prison population

  • If demographics of the prison population reflected that of England and Wales, could have over 9000 fewer BAME people in prison

• Youth custody population is smaller, but...