BCJ 4201, Race and Ethnic Relations 1
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit II
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
1. Identify the key challenges for law enforcement related to the increasing multicultural populations in the United States.
1.1 Discuss the role of race in the criminal justice system and the challenges it presents.
1.2 Discuss improvements to the criminal justice system and why they are needed.
4. Explain the key law enforcement concern that could arise when interacting with minority populations within the United States.
4.1 Discuss the police-citizen relationship from a minority perspective.
4.2 Discuss recommendations to improve police-citizen interactions involving minority populations.
5. Examine law enforcement response strategies to the War on Terror within multicultural communities.
5.1 Discuss the relationship between race and domestic terrorism, and discuss the responses by law enforcement.
Course/Unit Learning Outcomes
Learning Activity
1.1, 4.1
Unit Lesson
Chapter 2
Unit II Scholarly Activity
1.2, 4.2
Unit Lesson
Unit II Scholarly Activity
5.1
Chapter 2
Unit II Scholarly Activity
Required Unit Resources
Chapter 2: Victims and Offenders: Myths and Realities about Crime
Unit Lesson
In this unit, we will consider the relationship between race and victimization. We will first review the role of media in criminal activity as well as in fear of crime and perceptions of crime. As with the previous unit, we will review the role of data in comprehending the true picture of crime, and we will address common myths surrounding crime and race. Finally, we will look at the role of social policy and economic inequalities in offending and victimization.
Media
The media plays a large part in the development of one’s viewpoint. Media, such as television shows, most frequently portrays Whites, specifically women, as victims and minority men as offenders (Chermak, 1995; Entman, 1990). However, as Walker et al. (2016) explain, crime data reveals that it is actually males and females belonging to minority groups who are most likely to be victimized.
The media has a substantial influence over one’s perceptions of crime and victimization. Media in all forms—television, print, online, fiction, or nonfiction—has the ability to distort the realistic view of crime by focusing on random violent crimes, which can heighten people’s fear of crime and perception of crime in their neighborhoods (Surette & Gardiner-Bess, 2013). Fear of crime is one’s emotional response to the concern for
UNIT II STUDY GUIDE
Victims and Offenders
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criminal victimization resulting in personal harm. Alternatively, the perception of risk of neighborhood crime is a cognitive awareness or view of the amount of crime occurring in one’s neighborhood (Callanan, 2012). Often, these fears and perceptions are not grounded in fact.
Studies suggest a variety of factors influence the fear of crime. For example, influence varies by the type of media. Research reveals that news on television and crime reality shows influence people’s perception of crime in their neighborhoods and their fear of crime more so than news in a newspaper or crime drama shows (Callanan, 2012). While media does influence perceptions and fear, studies indicate that this does not vary across race or ethnic groups, meaning that Whites, African Americans, and Latinos alike experience increased fear of crime and perception of neighborhood crime. However, the type of media does vary; for example, only Whites reported an increased perception of neighborhood crime from viewing crime-based reality shows. Alternatively, watching crime drama increased African American perceptions of neighborhood risk (Callanan, 2012).
In a study of media influence on an individual’s support for criminal justice policies, Dolliver et al. (2018) also found that exposure to media (television, newspaper, online) increases one’s fear of victimization. Additionally, their results demonstrate the outcome of this heightened fear leads individuals to support more punitive criminal justice policies, such as the death penalty and the three-strike law, as well as defensive policies, such as open-carry laws and stand-your-ground laws (Dolliver et al., 2018).
Social and Economic Inequalities
Walker et al. (2016) present several explanations for high rates of intraracial (within a race) crime and minority delinquency. Many explanations focus on social and economic inequalities as well as cultural norms. Wilson (1987) studied poverty, crime, and the underclass from the macro-level perspective. His study reviews how changes in the 1970s and 1980s in work availability and industry, combined with affirmative action and the public housing policies, created poverty-stricken inner-city neighborhoods. As the industries moved, residents were left with job skills that were no longer needed. Also, as housing and anti-discrimination laws were put into effect, upper- and middle-class families moved to the suburbs in what is often referred to as “White flight” and “Black flight” (Wilson, 1987). As a result, the neighborhoods left behind were characterized by persistent joblessness, single-parent homes, and poverty, creating what Wilson calls the “underclass” or the “truly disadvantaged.” The consequences of these characteristics and classifications are concentration effects and social isolation. A fact that was later demonstrated by Schill and Wachter’s (1995) findings was that federal housing law and policy, notably the Federal Public Housing Program, have negatively affected urban cities through redlining practices, creating concentrated and isolated inner-city areas of poverty, thus reinforcing Wilson’s idea of concentration and social isolation.
Wilson (1987) further explains that concentration effects occur as people adapt their behavior in response to their geographic isolation. These concentration effects are the characterizations of concentrated disadvantage, pervasive joblessness, a lack of job networks, unavailability of marriage partners, subpar schools, and an absence of role models. Social isolation occurs when individuals are excluded or isolated from interacting with people and institutions of what is considered “mainstream society” (Wilson, 1987). Social isolation can encourage behaviors in the neighborhood residents that are not conducive to “normal” work behaviors, such as fostering low job performance and weak commitment to employment. These behaviors are learned through the association and interaction with others residing in the concentrated poverty area. Over time, these behaviors are passed down through generations. As children are raised in areas of social
Does
Does your community have isolated areas of poverty and isolation?your community have isolated areas of poverty and isolation?
(layacarlos16, 2016)
(layacarlos16, 2016)
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isolation, they lack pro-social role models as well as opportunity, and they often respond by participating in delinquent activities, mainly to earn money, which further removes them from the mainstream (Wilson, 1987).
The Black-White mobility gap demonstrates the perpetuation of intergenerational poverty. Sharkey (2009) studied the mobility gap, which compares families of similar income based on their race, in order to identify the difference in their economic status. The study compared families in poverty over 45 years, finding that 66% of Black children live in neighborhoods of poverty as compared to 6% of White children. The root of the Black-White mobility gap lies in the persistence of poverty, location factors, and restricted intergenerational mobility (Sharkey, 2009).
Anderson (1999) conducted an ethnographic study of youth violence in the inner city. Wilson (1987) looked at urban poverty from the neighborhood perspective; however, Anderson considered an individual or micro-level analysis. He identified that street culture is an adaptation to circumstances, particularly the sense of alienation from the mainstream and a lack of faith in the justice system, particularly the police. This adaptation is called the code of the street.
The code of the street is a set of unofficial rules that govern interpersonal public behavior, particularly violence (Anderson, 1999). The code asserts the idea that individuals should use “street justice” to solve their problems informally—without the involvement of the police. The code is based on elements of respect, an alternative economy, rejection of the mainstream culture, and rejection of traditional institutions—mainly the police.
A primary motivation for the development and the use of street code is alienation. Anderson (1999) explains that those living in persistent poverty, experiencing discrimination, violence, unemployment, and disadvantage, begin to feel isolated or alienated from the mainstream. This idea of alienation is comparable to Wilson’s (1987) discussion of social isolation. Both surmise that over time isolation and alienation result in adaptation and an alternative culture to establish norms of status and respect within the neighborhood, which often clashes with mainstream values (Anderson, 1999).
Anderson (1999) identifies a lack of faith in, or cynicism concerning, the criminal justice system as a second factor in the adaptation of the code of the street. Just as residents feel alienation from the mainstream, they also feel isolated from and rejected by the justice system and, more often, by the police. These perceptions are developed over time by personal and vicarious negative encounters with the police. In response, as dictated by the street code, individuals reject the traditional institution of the police and resort to solving their problems on their own, frequently through the use of violence (Anderson, 1999). Due to the fact that residents either fear the police or have no faith in the police, they take matters into their own hands, delivering “street justice” to gain status, establish respect and dominance, or right wrongs. Because the code rewards aggressive behaviors for demonstrating respect, violence is a common occurrence.
Violence and victimization in urban poor communities have been connected to street culture and code. In their studies of adolescent violence, Stewart and Simons (2010) found that street culture is a significant predictor of violence. They also found that violence is the product of the pressure to establish one’s identity on the street. Violence in the form of retaliation is often used to regain or maintain respect. Kubrin and Weitzer (2003) studied retaliatory killings, finding that it is the combination of both structural and cultural demand of race, violence, and crime that can culminate in retaliatory killings. Because the subculture supports the use of the violence to right wrongs, individuals may use violence in its most severe form to settle their scores, such as retaliatory killings (Kubrin and Weitzer, 2003).
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Violence often goes unpunished based on residents’ perspectives of the police. As Anderson (1999) described, lack of faith in and cynicism toward the police creates a mistrust and a reduced inclination to rely on the police. One particular observation by Anderson was that residents in his study were hesitant to call the police to report crime for fear that when the police responded, the caller would be harassed by the police themselves or would receive retaliatory aggression from the perpetrators for involving the police. Anderson’s assertion that individuals lack confidence in the police was explored in later studies of other cities, demonstrating that in disadvantaged, crime-ridden neighborhoods, distrust in the police is common (Brunson & Miller, 2006; Sampson & Bartusch, 1998). This lack of faith is the result of a myriad of police interactions. Klinger (1997) found that police respond to calls for service differently in high-crime neighborhoods; for example, there were reports of fewer responses, arrests, and investigations, as well as reduced thoroughness. Also, Terrill and Reisig (2003) concluded that when it comes to use of force, police are significantly more likely to use higher levels of force in neighborhoods of disadvantage and high homicide rates than in upper- and middle-class neighborhoods.
Summary
As illustrated here, social policy, economic inequality, cultural norms, and negative interactions with the criminal justice system all play a role in both offending and reporting crimes to the police. When victims fear or do not have faith in the police, crime is likely to go unreported. These foundational studies by Wilson (1987) and Anderson (1999) illustrate the complex factors that contribute to minority neighborhoods and having low reporting rates.
References
Anderson, E. (1999). Code of the street: Decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city. W.W. Norton.
Brayley, M. (n.d.). SWAT police house entry (ID 1880265) [Photograph]. Dreamstime. https://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-swat-house-entry-image18800265
Brunson, R. K., & Miller, J. (2006). Young Black men and urban policing in the United States. The British Journal of Criminology, 46(4), 613–640.
Callanan, V. J. (2012). Media consumption, perceptions of crime, risk and fear of crime: Examining race/ethnic differences. Sociological Perspectives, 55(1), 93–115.
Chermak, S. M. (1995). Victims in the news: Crime and the American news media. Westview Press.
Dolliver, M. J., Kenney, J. L., Reid, L. W., & Prohaska, A. (2018). Examining the relationship between media consumption, fear of crime, and support for controversial criminal justice policies using a nationally representative sample. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 34(4), 399–420.
Entman, R. M. (1990). Modern racism and the images of blacks in local television news. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 7(4), 332–345.
Klinger, D. A. (1997). Negotiating order in patrol work: An ecological theory of police response to deviance. Criminology, 35(2), 277–306.
Would arrival of a SWAT team be considered a normal
Would arrival of a SWAT team be considered a normal level of force in your neighborhood?level of force in your neighborhood?
(Brayley, n.d.)
(Brayley, n.d.)
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Kubrin, C. E., & Weitzer, R. (2003). Retaliatory homicide: Concentrated disadvantage and neighborhood culture. Social Problems, 50(2), 157–180.
layacarlos16. (2016). City, alley, graffiti [Photograph]. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/city-alley-graffiti-2482506/
Sampson, R. J., & Bartusch, D. J. (1998). Legal cynicism and (subcultural?) tolerance of deviance: The neighborhood context of racial differences. Law & Society Review, 32(4), 777–804.
Schill, M. H., & Wachter, S. M. (1995). The spatial bias of federal housing law and policy: Concentrated poverty in urban America. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 143(5), 1285–1342.
Sharkey, P. (2009). Neighborhoods and the Black-White mobility gap. The Pew Charitable Trusts. https://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/reports/economic_mobility/pewsharkeyv12pdf.pdf
Stewart, E. A., & Simons, R. L. (2010). Race, code of the street, and violent delinquency: A multilevel investigation of neighborhood street culture and individual norms of violence. Criminology, 48(2), 569–605.
Surette, R., & Gardiner-Bess, R. (2013). Media, entertainment, and crime: Prospects and concerns. In B. A. Arrigo, & H. Y. Bersot (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of international crime and justice studies (pp. 371–396). Routledge.
Terrill, W., & Reisig, M. D. (2003). Neighborhood context and police use of force. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 40(3), 291–321.
Walker, S., Spohn, C. C., & DeLone, M. (2016). The color of justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Wilson, W. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. University of Chicago Press.
Suggested Unit Resources
In order to access the following resources, click the links below.
The chapter from the textbook is also presented as a PowerPoint presentation and as a visual summary through MindTap.
Click any of the links below to access an alternative format.
• Chapter 2 PowerPoint Presentation
• PDF version of the Chapter 2 PowerPoint Presentation
The following Visual Summary can be viewed in MindTap through clicking on the link provided in the Unit II tab in Blackboard.
• Chapter 2 Visual Summary
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