Introducing Gender, Ethnicity and Crime
Transcript of Introducing Gender, Ethnicity and Crime
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Introducing Gender, Ethnicity and
Crime
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Session Contents
-An Introduction to the module
- Ethnicity- Clarifying the concepts of race and ethnicity
- A brief history of race and racism
- Gender
- Clarifying the concepts of sex and gender
- Exploring hegemonic masculinity and patriarchy
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Session Aims
1) To trace the development of racism in the West.
2) To understand the concepts of race and ethnicity
3) To understand the concepts of sex and gender
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An Introduction to the Module
Learning Outcomes
1) Critically analyse the contribution of different theories on gender, race and ethnicity
towards a criminological understanding of victimisation, offending and criminal justice.
2) Critically examine research evidence documenting different patterns of victimisation andoffending according to race, class and gender.
3) Critically analyse the role that different factors such as ethnicity, age, gender and class
might play in the processes of criminalisation and vicitmisation.
Assessment for this module will be in the form of an exam
[LO 1] (50%) and an essay [LO 2 & 3] (50%).
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Race and Ethnicity
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Clarifying the concepts of race and ethnicity
Race
Race is fundamentally a biological concept and is often thought of as a signifier
of genetic difference. (Kleg, 1993)
Ethnicity
The term is intended to describe differences in groups without resorting to
racist notions of superiority and inferiority. (Kleg, 1993)
What is the difference between race and ethnicity?
Read the passage and define the terms.
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A Brief History of Race and Racism
- The idea of race and racism originated in the philosophies of theEnlightenment.
- The Enlightenment was built on the assumption that reason
could only be properly mature in Europe.
- Anyone outside of Europe, who were considered to be of non-
European racial and cultural origins, were thought of as inferior with
less rational, moral and evolutionary potential.
(Eze, 1997, quoted in Bowling and Phillips, 2002)
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A Brief History of Race and Racism
- These ideas of white racial superiority rose in popularity in line with the
increasing prevalence of the slave trade (mid 1700s).
- The consumption of sugar increased 20-fold
between 1663 and 1775, the demand for which
could not be met without the use of slave labour
on West Indian Plantations (Fryer, 1984: 14).
- At the end of slavery in 1833, thinking about
race shifted from a justification for slavery to a
central ingredient in British imperial theory.
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A Brief History of Race and Racism
- Afterwards, ideas about racial difference and hierarchy justified the
extermination of the inferior peoples that the Europeans encountered during
the period of colonial expansion.
- Drawing on these ideas of superiority over the lesser breeds in foreign lands,
those in the West saw new ways for understanding and ruling the lower orders
of the cities at home...
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A Brief History of Race and Racism
- Just after WW2 migration to Britain from former colonies increased due to:
- Ease and relatively low cost of global travel
- Labour shortages within the UK at a time of economic collapse.
-The Royal Commission on Population reported in 1949 that immigration could be
welcomed
without reserveonly if the migrants were of good human stock and were not
prevented by their religion or race from intermarrying with the host population
and becoming merged into it(Holmes, 1988: 210)
- However, this shifted to being far more exclusionary in the 1960s
following rejectionism and the announcement of a white Britain
policy with the Commonwealth Immigration Act of 1962.
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A Brief History of Race and Racism
-Following this, race and immigration became a key
area within politics.
- This, ultimately, subjected ethnic minority communities to more attention
from the agents of the state: the police and other practitioners within the
criminal justice system.
- The police were already guilty of criminalising black people on the basis of pre-
existing beliefs about their supposed criminality.
-Black young men, in particular, became defined as an inherently criminal class.
- They were subjected to harsher punishments and increased levels of
policing while being portrayed by the media as a social problem.
(Bowling and Phillips, 2002)
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Group Task:
What factors contribute to public
(and institutional) perceptions ofethnicity and crime?
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Questions?