Racial bias in the Criminal Justice System

1. Racial bias in the Criminal Justice System BTEG Annual Lecture 11th November 2016

2. Context 25 years later… • ‘The Secretary of State shall in each year publish such information as he considers expedient for the purpose...of facilitating the performance of those engaged in the administration of justice to avoid discriminating against any persons on the ground of race or sex or any other improper ground...’ [MOJ 2015:10 emphasis added] • “If you’re black, you’re more likely to be in a prison cell than studying at a top university. And if you’re black, it seems you’re more likely to be sentenced to custody for a crime than if you’re white. We should investigate why this is and how we can end this possible discrimination.” [Cameron, 31 January 2016]

4. Contemporary explanations for the race-crime nexus within the CJS.

5. The collective memory ‘Endless Pressure: A study of West Indian Life-styles in Bristol’ (1979). • ‘[T[here is a penchant for violence in the West Indian culture, possibly stemming from the days of slavery…Whatever the source of the proclivity there can be no denying its existence: black youth do have a certain fascination with violence’. (The Sociologist) • “[I]n the Jamaicans you have people who are constitutionally disorderly, disposed to be anti-authority.” (The Police Chief) • “…the spate of knife crimes in London was not being caused by poverty, but a distinctive black culture.” (The Prime Minister) • “particular sort of violent, nihilistic gangster culture.” (The Historian)

6. Resituating our ‘collective memory’. “St. Pauls” = ‘Gangs’, ‘Crime’, ‘Easton’ and ‘Carnival’. Source: google search results, 10th November 2016

8. Race and Gang nexus Gang members, associates or ‘at risk’.

9. Dangerous Associations Serious Youth Violence by Ethnicity

10. Dangerous Associations Invoking the racialised gang

11. Dangerous Associations Contesting the ‘gang’ label. • ‘I have never been in a gang. I was a family man who had a good job.’ • ‘No, I have never been in a gang and I have no previous convictions of being in a gang and there is no proof that I am in a gang. It’s all made up.’ • ‘Do not agree. I was the only female, I was a mother studying to be a midwife. My partner was an electrician, we had a life, we did not ‘’hang around’’ with anyone.’ • ‘I was not a gang member. The offence was not preplanned, it was spontaneous. I know both of the intended victims and I had and do not have any conflict with them.’ • ‘We are a group of young lads who smoke weed and fuck around, and we get labelled a gang!’ • ‘We were just friends, normal working teenagers.’ ‘The prosecution and the judge said me and my [co-defendant] (principle) offend together.’ • ‘I was brought up with the same group of people through school to holidays with family, we were very close and always together so the prosecution found it easy to call us gang members.’ • ‘One of my [co-defendants] was an active ‘gang member’ but I was not. I was a friend of a gang member so I was also judged to be a gang member.’

12. Dangerous Associations Strategies to imply gang involvement. ‘Just because we are from the same area and are of a certain colour does not make us a gang’. • ‘I didn’t even know the alleged shooter before my arrest. No link to him whatsoever.’ • ‘We knew each other from school and two of my [co-defendants] I’d never met.’ Strategies • Social media (Videos/Rap lyrics). • Gang insignia (tattoos, colours). • Cellsite (telephone calls/texts). • Relationships (family/friends). • Police intelligence. • ‘Names’ and ‘place’. • ‘The Johnson Crew’. • ‘They said we was Gooch, but I ain’t no Gooch member and I wasn’t even there.’ • ‘Burger Bar Boys’. • ‘St Anns where we are from has this reputation. The term ‘St Anns’ was used to group us together’. • ‘Gang speak’ • ‘Kray Twins’. • ‘A group of young hoodlums’. • ‘Telling the jury, I sent out my soldiers for revenge’.

13. What’s driving racial bias • Criminal Justice Policy • The ascendency and predominance of ‘risk’ as the driver of criminal justice practice and policy. • ‘Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.’ • In a CJ world of reducing resources, marketization and privatisation. ‘Resources follow risks.’ • “Hardwired discrimination” into the algorithms of assessment tools and CJ practice. • Smithson et al (2013) ‘Used and Abused: The Problematic Usage of Gang Terminology in the United Kingdom and Its Implications for Ethnic Minority Youth. British Journal of Criminology. • There’s money on gangs! ‘Making up gangs’ (Fraser and Atkinson 2014). • Racialisation as institutionalised (criminalised collective memories). • CJ processes, practices and policies which result in differential treatment. • Police conceptions of ‘high violent spots’ are a feature of collective memories (Haining 2007).

14. In conclusion The durability of inertia [T]hrough time and over space the dominant themes in racializing discourses fluctuate and contradict each other. The precise nature of ‘Blackness’ that is connoted evolves. In Britain, at a crude level, the succession of racist images of (gender specific) Afro-Caribbean criminality have followed from the pimp of the 1950s, to the Black power activist of the 1960s, to the mugger of the 1970s, to the rioter of the 1980s and, quite possibly, to the ultimate folk devil, the underworld ‘Yardie’ of the 1990s.’ [Keith 1993: 245] Sexual Grooming gangs Radicalised Extremists Street Robbers and Drug Dealers Knife Crime The Rioter The Violent Gang