Ethnicity and Crime (Research Paper Sample)

Ethnicity and crime
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Introduction
The standard definition of crime is any action that is prohibited, prosecutable, and punishable by the criminal law. Crimes happen when a person violates a set law or disobeys the requirement of the state or federal law. Crime ranges from petty crimes known in a legal term as misdemeanors to more serious crimes called as felonies.
Historical Background of Crime & Criminals
Crimes and criminals are a menace to any society. Crime in America dates back to the ancient times. However, after the American civil war, a new form of crime emerged. After the American troops lay open the American West, refugees from the west (defeated alliances) migrated to the United States and began a livelihood characterized with lawlessness. Cases of the wealthy being robbed increased, criminals began to upset the criminal justice and would frequently lock horns with the government. Names of criminals in that era that are still common to us today includes; Dalton Gang, Jesse James, and Billy the Kid among others (Glenn, 45).
Those historical criminal figures inspired a new wave of crime referred as the second generation crime. Children started to idolize the crime figures and started to improvise an outlawed criminal heritage for themselves. The criminals that are renown who sprouted in that era includes Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillenger and Pretty Boy Floyd. These are criminal figures that were beloved by the American people as much as they were feared. Clyde and Parker especially captured the public eye where poetry and songs would be composed for their honor
(Crime and Criminology, 2010).
Crime took yet another approach from the 1940s, the time during and after the Second World War. The criminals that emerged during this period were figures who possessed political and economic powers. Most of them led groups that protected their associates from being attacked by the Axis forces. Examples of these groups include the Justice Society of America (JSA) and the Freedom Fighters (Glenn, 46). After the war ended around 1945, some of the groups continued to be active and began to indulge in crime. By 1950, stories would appear in the newspaper about battles that were taking place between bizarre characters such as the fiddler, the Icicle, and the Sportsmaster.
A turn of events took place in 1951 when House Un-American Affairs Committee (HUAC) began investigations on the possible affiliations between Justice Society of America and suspected criminal groups or individuals and communists. This marked the last resolution of such battles because this consequently led to JSA being disbanded.   At the same time, other characters had started re-emerging who formed yet another generation of super-villains who established a new elements in America’s criminal history (Glenn, 45).
Crime in America in the 21st Century
Crime in 21st century is rampant and its existence is evident all over ranging from the prestigious big city streets to the worst neighborhood slums in countries around the world. Crimes comes in all forms and they have varied effects on the individuals and society. In his book Criminal Justice in America, Cole recognizes that the highest percentage of people who engage in crime are the young people (Cole, 2007). Statistics show that young people of ages between 18 and 25 years are the one mostly arrested and implicated because of engaging in crimes.
Crime has resulted to there being many people behind bars in America than any other country in the world. America population is 5% of the world population, but the country has 25% of the overall criminals behind bars in the world (Andersen & Taylor, 2009). There has also been an over representation of how people of color such as the Black-America, Latinos or the Native Americans are impacted by crime and by the criminal justice system. For example according to recent statistics, where 1 in 36 Latino men are behind bars, 1 in 87 whites, and 1 in 12 African American live behind bars. This shows the huge dis proportionality in conviction and incarnation in the American Criminal Justice System (Schulam, 2010).
The primary cause of crime among the youths and older people is poverty and poor living conditions. The parents fail to get along well with their teenage kids or have little concerns for their welfare in terms of providing basic needs such as education. This result to young people resorting to criminal activities for livelihood. According to Cole, this is the main reason why the rate of crime is high among the youths and high among those who come from the slums
(Glenn, 45).
Types of Crimes
Many different types of crimes exists but generally, crimes can be categorized into four major types namely, property crimes, personal crimes, inchoate crimes, and Statutory Crimes. Personal Crimes are offenses committed against a Person. They are often crimes that cause physical or mental harm to the other person. They include; Assault, kidnapping and rape among others. Anti-social behavior such as drunkenness and being rowdy, excessive noise also falls in this category. Property crimes are offenses that cause damage to property and involve interference with person’s right to enjoy their properties. Examples is robbery, arson, false pretense and burglary among others. Inchoate crimes refers to crimes that were begun, but not accomplished. Examples is conspiracy, or attempted murder among others. Statutory crimes refers to the violation of laws of the government or even state statute. Examples is drunken driving or selling alcohol to minors among others.
Crimes can also be categorized to victimization crimes (that causes harm or affect others) or be a victimless crime. According to Schaefer, in the textbook Sociology: A brief Introduction, acts individuals engage in that are illegal but does not apparently violate other people’s rights or threaten their security. They may be consensual actions where a party agrees to commit a crime without involving a third party (Schaefer, 2012). They include moral crimes such as sodomy, public drunkenness, prostitution, drug abuse, and gambling among others.
Analysis of Particular Ethnic Groups Committing Same Crimes
The issue between ethnicity and crime has been looked into by sociologists from the 1980s. Shortly after the post war migrations there was assumptions that minority groups were unlikely to engage in crime more than the majority white population. A research done in 1972 showed that black population abound by the law more than the general population
(Layton-Henry 1992). However, things started to take a turn around over the next 10 years that followed. The relationship between the police and black population worsened and evidence against this people group increased. The media also advocated that specific ethnic groups were likely to commit crime in the UK more than the general population. This claims are supported by statistics from a research that was conducted in the year 2000 indicating certain people groups having high arrest and incarceration rates than others.
In the United Kingdom for example, white population in 2000 was 94 % of the total population. The prison population for the majority whites was 82%. The black population constituted 1.8 % of the total population while their corresponding prison population was 12.1 %. The Asian represented 2.5 % of the total population while their prison population was o2.6 %. Debates exists of the credibility of such statistics with critics arguing that black minority are not more likely to engage in crime more than the other general population but that such statistics are flawed and that the blacks are over-represented in those statistics. However, the same trend exists and is repeated in other countries also.
Recent statistics on race by the US criminal justice system in 2010 as per Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act of 1991 that requires the statistical data be published by the government in order to assess if there exists any discrimination in how CJS treats citizens based on their race. The statistical information includes data that brings together all minority groups leaving in the United States including Blacks Hispanic, Asians, Latino and minority group’s suspects, victims and offenders that interacted with the criminal Justice System. The ministry with very effort to ensure that it presents the accurate and complete information indicated its findings as follows. The graphs below reflects these statistics.
Graph 1.
Sources: (Crime and Criminology, 2010).
While the blacks are the minorities, multiple statistics from the justices system on crime or incarceration is consistently indicating certain groups with higher prevalence of being indicted with crime than others. In 2008, the Ministry of Criminal Justice System reported that, in comparison to the white population, the blacks were:
* Three times more likely to be cautioned or arrested by police especially for crimes related to robbery
* Five times more likely, to be convicted and found guilty and incarcerated
Asians people compared to the whites were:
* Receive custodial sentence at a higher rate if found guilty
* More likely to be arrested on forgery and fraud crimes
The graph 2 below reflects those claims
Sources: (Crime and Criminology, 2010).
Explanations
Criminological literatures have shown based on prolonged decade researches that socio-economic factors as well as disorganized communities are the main determining factors why some race are associated with crime more than others. Being socio economically disadvantaged and having a disordered community contribute significantly to a neighborhood or city’s involvement with crime. The literature also points to immigrants from source countries have been in being involved with ...