How can ethnic differences in criminalisation be explained?

From www.precookedsociology.com

Reasons for criminality

There are two main strands of thought as to why ethnic minorities are more likely to be seen as criminals and be victims of crime.

They are:

Structuralist views: believe that ethnic groups are more involved in criminal acts
Social Constructionist views: who see that the the justice system is unfair


Reasons for High criminality of Afro-Caribbean (Structural)

Lea & Young (left realists) were the first criminologists to acknowledge that black people were not simply victims of a racist police force and criminal justice system but are more likely to be involved with street crime than whites.

Why is that?

They argue that three underlying reasons can explain the link between ethnicity and crime:

• Marginalisation
• Relative Deprivation
• Sub cultural response

Their explanation of crime is based on the concepts of relative deprivation, marginalisation and subculture.

• Minorities suffer relative deprivation not only in areas shared with sections of the white working class (high unemployment and poor environment), but also racial discrimination and racially motivated attacks.
• Young unemployed black people are marginalised in that they are unorganised and have few pressure groups to lobby on their behalf, so their frustrations are more likely to be expressed in illegal activity.
• Subcultural responses include the hustling subculture described by Ken Pryce in his ethnographic study of St Paul’s in Bristol ‘Endless Pressure’ (1979) with young black men involved in petty street crime, drug dealing and prostitution, getting by from day to day and their experience of sub-standard housing and racial antagonism.