Ethnicity That Bounded with Crime and Justice - Essay Example

RACE, ETHNI CRIME AND JUSTICE Introduction For along time in the history of our country, the fight against crime has been cemented on some segmented of the society and the application of criminal justice has been always under fierce criticism from many people even the political class of this country. This is because the administration of criminal justice has targeted some section of the population unlike the others. There has been increases victimization and jailing of the black and Asian community which has been associated with crimes. Several scholars have at the same time expressed their desires in trying to understand the bottom cause of this associated and therefore have tried to come up with several theories that try to relate crime with race, migration and ethnicity. Let us look at some of these theories in order to understand the issue of crime in association to race and ethnicity. Theory of crimes and race A theory can be defined as an explanation of a phenomena or a creation that tries to explain something that has to be proved through research. It is a set of interconnected statements or proposition which tries to explain how tow or more variables or factors relates to one another and the result of their interaction. Theories are logical and empirically testable. Theories help to expand our knowledge on subjects of our concern. Let us look at different paradigms with-n the criminological theory The biology, race and crime theory was advanced in 1957 by Reid in Europe. This theory tried to postulate believe of a born criminal. Earlier postulation of the theory in the work by Lombroso in 1876 had made important relationship between crime and race. In his explanation, he mentioned that some tribes in India and Italy reported high rate of crimes due to the ethical issue. He argued that the frequency of homicide in Calabrian, Sicily and Sardina were due to the Asian and African elements in the area. In his work, Lamboroso was mainly focused on ideas the inferior people in the society were polluting the same society. He attacked farina American by called the Negro in his book in 1900 where he argued that Africans Americans were not human but akin to apes and at the same time portrayed the superiority of white race to black race. The main discussion of this early theory was that immigrant to foreign lands had undergone a lot of stress and were highly likely to engage in crime. But on the contrary the high rate of crime that was evidenced among the immigrant at this time in America and in other parts of the world was due to the living conditions that they were exposed to. It is due to the high rate of crime committed by the African American and Asian immigrates at this time that led to the advance of this theory which saw them as born criminals. In 1939, Hooton published two books which mainly focused on relationship between physiology and criminality and he gave same council of race and crime as has been given earlier by Lombroso. However it was criticized on bases of racism and ethnocentrism. His work showed shed biologic inferiority and retarded culture of people who were living in primitive societies who were mainly Africans and some Asians. But in 1943, Bonger gave a different perspective on the issue of crime and race. He asserted that criminality cannot be taken as a characteristics meaning that it is neither physical quality nor a spiritual one. He showed that no one is born with certain qualities of a crime and it is something that is developed as one grows. (Oliver 2003, p. 34) This finding gave a turn on the view of crime as prominent to blacks and Asians alone. It postulated that crime occurs in all races and by nature of things but its committed is due to some factors which can be termed as predisposing factors. This theory showed that it is due to living conditions of people that predispose them to crime. Although it has been shown that there are some people who commit crime out of will, there are others who are forced by living conditions to commit crimes. Data from criminal records showed that people of white race are also involved in crime same as people of other races but in different numbers. Hence it is this difference in number that can explain the fact that it is the living condition of a person that predisposes one to crimes. However the recent work that has been done on biological aspects in relation to crime by Ames Wilson and Richard Herrnstein has supported the earlier work by Lambroso. In their work, they postulate that there are some constitutional factors in races that make some prone to crime than others. They tried to show that black males are more muscular that while males because they have more of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory that while males which shows that they are less normal. They also showed constitutional factors low IQ, inadequate socialization, and sub cultural deviance than while makes which makes them more prone to commit crimes. But this has been crictsized on the ground that it was focused more on crimes that are mostly committed by blacks rather than those which are committed by the whites who occupy upper class. In this regard, white collar crimes gives an opposite statistical figure which shows that whites commit more crimes than blacks. The theory of intelligence, race and crime has added another dimension in the study of crime and race. Earlier observation revealed that different families produce3d different characters of humans with some families producing criminals. This theory tries to relate the IQ of a person and the probability of commitment of crime and many other studies have linked IQ with delinquency within race categories. They have tried to postulate that students with low intelligence faces difficulty in school and as a result are likely to engage in delinquency. Given that blacks have been found to have low IQ, they are likely to engage in crime more than other races. But this can be contested on the ground that there are many other factors that makes one to commit a crime. Further study by Knepper 2001 revealed that blacks and Latinos reproduced faster that the whites and Jews and hence they face a lot of pressure and social problems which increases their chance of committing crimes. This has been supported by the collected data which shows that blacks, Asians and Latinos from well up areas are less likely to commit crime that those from the low income areas. This means the issue of intelligence cannot be tied entirely to the rate of commitment of crimes. This is because the studies that have been carried out on IQ test in relations to race and crime have been marked by biasness based on race and culture. Relating intelligence with crime also brings the issue of white collar crimes. Studies have failed to prove why people with high IQ commits white collar crimes and political crimes more than those with low IQ. Further more from the biological understanding, it is clear that the expression of the IQ as a component of the genetic make up of an individual has is determined by the environment. Hence can it be that a person with a low IQ and one with high IQ brought up under the same condition will show differing patterns proneness to crime Rushton summed up the race theory by conducting a study showing that aggression, impulsive behaviour, lower-self control, low intelligence and lack of character to follow law are all associated with criminals and full under the r-strategy who are the black people. However most of these biological theories give not any conclusive answer to crime and race. Other theories have tried to force the cultural conflict theory to crime which has tried to postulate that some practice become culturally acceptable within the society. With time they are adopted by the society and become part of their practice. This has tried to show that the immigrants adopted some culture which with time became their practices due to the oppression they were undergoing at the time. This has been reinforced by sub-cultural theory which shows the some section for the society which can be termed as a subculture of the society may be result to some form of delinquency in order to achieve what they have not achieve. This has been observed in the juvenile for all races. This again detests the notion that there are some races which are prone to crime than others. This theory shows that a certain segment of the society may resulted to crime in order to gain what the society has not provided to it. The deprivation of basic human needs to minority and the black race in many parts of the world can be explained as one cause of trying to get what they have been denied. These theories and others that have dictated the understanding of crime nod race have played a role in the way the police deal with minority and other races. The UK having been a colonizer of the world has been faced by influx of black and Asian people of origin who came to settle during colonization or after colonization. This segment of the UK society has been pushed to the periphery and live in low income areas where some of them rely on menial jobs to make the ends meet. Their relationship with the white community has been constrained by many factors. This relationship has been somehow constructed on the view of crime theories. (Miller 2001, p. 150) On the side of the blacks, they sometimes view whites as colonialist and some have been shown to commit crime due to anger that comes from within. This has been found mostly in new immigrants to UK who gets a slim chance of travelling to the master colonial country. Some of those immigrants will try to compare the stat e of their home country and that of the UK and imagine the colonial construct of stealing of resources from colonized countries and using them to build the colonial countries. Hence they feel dejected by the state to their country and that to the UK and they cannot avoid the anger boiling within them. Most of these people will engage in crime not because of their races base on their IQ or their biological or social construct but due to anger that they feel insides. They want to revenge what was done to their countries. Unfortunately these construct of colonialisms has dominated the mind of the policemen in the UK. Some of the police see Africans and Asian as an inferior race only fit for colonialism. Hence, the two races are subjected to dehumanizing conditions by the police especially. The relationship between the two is sour not only in the UK but also in other countries of the world with majority of black person. Some policemen have expressed their fear every time they meet with a black youth in the street and the same has been expressed by black youth every time they meet with a policeman on the street. This relationship has resulted to what can be termed as racial victimization and criminalisation of the black and Asian race by the UK police. These two races becomes suspects of any crime that is committed since theories of crimes have constructed them as been born criminals. This affects the way police compile criminal profile since they have an already constructed mind about a criminal in any crime that has been committed. African and Asians have been shown to be victims of crimes that they have not committed but they are suspected due of victimization and criminalisation. These constructs have also affected the criminal justice system of the country. The way the Asians and Africans are apprehended and taken through the court legal system has been shown to be affected the perception of the two races. Judge sometimes have been shown to make judgment based on the perception that they have about the races. This is affected by the way the police collect their evidence and the way it is presented in court. The perception of the Asians and African as prone to crime affects the way the police compile evidence on the tow especially on some of the crimes that are committed more by the Africans and the Asians. Police plays a crucial role in the way the prosecution process takes and with such a constrained relationship between the two, there is probability of making some assumptions on the prosecution. Crime statistics have revealed a rising trend of crimes that are committed by the African and Asian since 1958. This has been contributed by changing crime patterns and the increase immigration of these two races to the UK. Coupled with changing financial trends, these two races have been found to be disadvantaged in the way they access employment and other basic needs. With time most of them land in the UK and find it difficult to construct their life they engage in crime. Although there is evidence that the two races have been engaged in majority of the crimes in UK, there is a highly probability that most of the crimes that they are accused of are sometimes fabricated or are convicted as a result of bad investigation based on pre conceived perception of the two races. Most of the data has also created more emphases on petty crimes that are likely to be committed by minority races in low income areas while they fail to take into consideration other high profile crimes that re committed by white in other areas and which have a highly economic and political effect in the country. (Mcintosh 2002, p. 56) The mere perception that the blacks and Asian live in low income areas does make them prime suspects for majority of the crimes that are committed in the country. The perception in the criminal justice system about the two races has continuously made them victims of crimes that they have not committed. Conclusion Most of the crimes theories that try to explain crime in relation to race have little to portray about the relationship between different races and the way they engage in crimes. They are based on preconceived ideas about the races and they make several assumptions. This has been proved wrong by the evidence that is being constructed from crime statistics that are being collected in many countries in the world. These statistics reveal that crimes are committed more in areas that are economically deprived while white collar crimes are committed in high income areas. The construct about races and crimes ahs made many coloured people in the UK to continue suffering of crimes that they have not committed. Hence there is need to change to carry out more studies that will help us to understand the relationship between crimes and races in order to understand the patterns of crime in the society and the come up with working strategies that can help to reduce these crimes. Reference Knepper, P 2001, Explaining criminal conduct: Theories and systems in criminology, Carolina Academic Press, Durham Mcintosh, P 2002, White privilege, colour and crime, Roxbury, Los Angels. Miller, J 2001, Breaking the individual back in. Punishment and Society, Issue 3, pp. 120-234 Oliver, W 2003, The structural-cultural perspective - Black male violence. Cambridge University, Cambridge Read More