Public crime perception clashes with media view
Media representations of young black people and criminal behaviour do
not influence public perception, according to findings from a
Government committee.
The Home Affairs Committee into black people and the criminal justice system said that while the media often makes a connection between young black people and criminal behaviour, this link does not feature strongly in the publics consciousness.
Instead, the public perceives that young people of all racial backgrounds are more likely to be perpetrators than victims of crimes. In addition, the public sees men as more likely to commit crimes than women,
It said: Although the perception is that the gender gap is closing, people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and who live in deprived areas are seen as being more likely to commit certain types of crimes.
However, the view is that with increased peer pressure and consumerism, crimes these days can be committed by people from any socio-economic group.
The report commented that race was mentioned spontaneously in discussion with respect to certain specific types of crime, such as gang-related crime. However, a small minority of older white British participants did spontaneously mention race as a factor in a broader range of crimes.
It said: When shown statistics demonstrating an overrepresentation of black people in the criminal justice system, most people accept that this is the case, even though they had not been conscious of this.
They question why this situation has arisen and particularly to what extent the overrepresentation is due to young black people actually committing more crime and to what extent it is due to this group being particularly and unduly targeted by the criminal justice agencies.
The report said that people perceive there to be many possible causes for young black peoples overrepresentation in the criminal justice system.
Some are perceived to be the same reasons as would apply to young people of any racial background.
These include consumerism and Americanisation of cultural values, peer pressure, family breakdown, lack of discipline, boredom, and the availability of drugs and alcohol.