Over-Representation In Prisons

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The question to be discussed is ‘describe and examine the process from arrest to sentence to help explain the over-representation of black and minority ethnic populations in prison’. I will be looking at reasons why there might be an over-representation by looking at processes such as, police stop and searches, the court proceedings leading to prison and the stereotypes within the police towards black and minority ethnics. I believe that there is evidence of over-representation of black and ethnic minorities.
It is well known that black and ethnic minorities are overrepresented in the prison population. Figures show that the numbers are significantly higher for black people than other minority ethnic groups. “Black people made up 13.4 …show more content…

This means that they are more likely to be acquitted (Blake and Carne, 2010). This may be due police bringing weaker cases to court showing police racism/ discrimination. In the Scarman report about the Brixton riots, which is mentioned within the Mcphearson report (1999), it discusses and accepts how some officers do commit racist actions towards others, and discusses what is now described as canteen culture. Canteen culture is “an arena of action separate from the street, where in contrast to the latter officer’s act before an audience of their peers” (Waddington, 1999). This typically occurs in the lunch room at police stations, where police in there groups can discuss and criticise others, sometimes in a racist manner. In the UK we have an adversarial justice system, this is where “the defendant and prosecution each seek to assert the validity of their own case by destroying the arguments put forward by their opponents” (Joyce, 2013, p.206). The prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant is guilty. By black and minority ethnic cases being typically seen as weaker than a white defendant’s case, it shows that the evidence is not strong enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. This then leads to them being acquitted. Although it seems that black and minority ethnics are over-represented within the prison system, this shows that maybe there isn’t as much off an …show more content…

27). “Black prisoners are more likely to be serving a longer sentence than white or Asian prisoners” (Easton and Piper, 2012, p.p. 313). Linking back to them not pleading guilty and not being able to afford as good an attorney as a white defendants. This may be due to most minority ethnics being seen as marginalised from society, and feeling relatively deprived, and so may commit more crimes to try and gain what they don’t feel they have in society. There is evidence if this in the works of Merton (1968) and his idea of strain theory. He talks about how those who commit crime are those who cannot get the means of successes legitimately, so turn to crime to achieve

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