Is_There_Racisim_Present_in_the_Police

Is there racism present in the criminal justice system' My aims of this research is to find out whether there is strong evidence to suggest that racism is present throughout the criminal justice system and my objective will depend on the outcome of my research. If my research proves that racism is present my objective would be to devise possible solutions to overcome racism in the criminal justice system or if my findings to my research prove that racism is not present then to try and eliminate the stigma that racism does exist. Before I carry out my research my prediction of the outcome will be that racism is in fact present throughout the criminal justice system. I have based my prediction on previous research on this topic that has suggested racism is present and I have also based it on my own current views on the situation based on views of the media. There have been many other pieces of research carried out and literature written on racism within the criminal justice system and the two most well known and arguably most influential are the Scarman and Macpherson report. The Brixton riots came about due to the increased numbers of stop and search on young black youths otherwise known as operation swamp. During the riots 299 police and at least 65 civilians were injured during the riots. The home office appointed lord Scarman to hold a public inquiry. His findings were that the riots started after two policemen were seen to allegedly ignore a young black man who had sever stab wounds. He put the causation of the riots down to racial aggravation by the police and in particular the racial bias of stop and search. After his findings Scarman insisted on more community policing and that the police should employ more officers from ethic origins. The Scarman report was seen as a mile stone in tackling racial prejudice in the police. On April 22nd 1993 Stephen Lawrence was brutally murdered. This was a malicious unprovoked racial attack. It was the deplorable investigation into Stephen’s murder which displayed a great extent of institutional racism within the police. Stephen’s friend also suffered racial discrimination by the involved personnel as he was viewed as an offender instead of a victim who has just witnessed his friend being murdered. In 1999 Macpherson released his enquiry into the investigation of Stephen Lawrence’s murder. He described the investigation as being ‘marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and failure of leadership by senior offices’ (Macpherson 1999). After this report there was many suggestions to change the police and policing on particular communities, theses included all police, and more people in public services, should be trained in racism awareness and valuing cultural diversity, and police should record every 'stop and search' they make, and give a copy to the person stopped, including reason for the stop. The government response to the Macpherson inquiry was to establish a ministerial priority for the police service to ‘increase trust and confidence in policing amongst minority ethnic communities’ (home office 1999). Since the Macpherson inquiry the police improvement agency have developed a police race and diversity learning and development program (PRDLDP). This was a result of the home office’s ‘strategy of improving performance in race and diversity’. However although there has been a lot of research in the issue of racism within the police force there is not so much research on racism in the other aspects of the criminal justice system such as the courts and the prisons so I have decided to aim my research more towards these aspects of the criminal justice system. I would also like to look into racism towards victims of crime and see if there have been improvements in which the way people from ethnic racial backgrounds are treated as victims by the criminal justice system since the Macpherson report into the Stephen Lawrence case. I would also research if racism is present towards workers within the criminal justice system who come from a ethnic racial background and see if the police force in particular has driven away from the white ethos and ‘cop culture’ that has previously been identified. Methodology For my research I will use a combination of methods. I will gather information from government statistics showing how many white people and how may people from ethnic races go through the criminal justice system. I will look at the statistics to find out the number of white people who have been arrested, charged with an offence, been taken to court and finally imprisoned, I will then use the that data I’d collected and compare it to the figures of different racial origin. However as there are greatly more white people living in the UK to any other racial group it would be hard to compare the statistics, so to put them in a format that would make them comparable I would turn the number of white people who had been threw the different aspects of the criminal justice system a percentage of the white population and then I would do the same for the other racial groups I would then put them into a table and graph to make them easy to compare and see the differences shown in appendix A. However the problems I will incur in this method of research is the statistics may not be solely reliable and it may be hard to get hold of all the different statistics I will require to make my comparisons. I will also look at statistics of how many people from different races work within the criminal justice system to see how underrepresented different races are within the criminal justice system. This is a quantitative research method which means it will be easy to measure however it does not express people’s opinions on the matter of racial discrimination within the criminal justice system. However as there is no direct contact with specific individuals they are not any ethical issues as no ones identity of feelings need to be taken into consideration. After completing this research it will only give me a view of racism in the criminal justice system as offenders it will not give a view of racism in the criminal justice system towards victims of racial minorities. In order to research this information I have decided to use questionnaires. (Appendix B) My questionnaire will be devised of both structured and unstructured questions. My ethical issues will be hard to overcome as racism is a very sensitive subject and being white caucastion I have to be careful when thinking of my questions as not to offend or upset any of my participants. Also being white accusation I feel that a questionnaire would be a better option rather than interviews as the participants may not feel comfortable talking to me regarding racial issues within the criminal justice system therefore my findings may not be accurate and would lead to inconclusive results. I will email my questionnaire to students of ethnic races. The limitations of this would be that I am not guaranteed to get the number of respondents that I require to make my research feasible and worthwhile. If I am successful in my responses and get back more than one hundred replies I will use selective sampling so I get a representative amount of different ethnic minorities. I would put my participants into three different groups to compare their answers and comments. A limitation of this method of research is that I am only getting the views of a small sample of society and in this case that is students. It does not represent ethnic minorities as a whole. I have chosen to email my questionnaire to people as they can fill it out and are more likely to read the questions properly as apposed to if I stopped people in the street to fill in my questionnaire, and it is easier and less time consuming than having to return a postal questionnaire. It is also the most cost effective and time efficient way of collecting data from a questionnaire. My final method of research will be to find out about racism towards people of ethnic races who work within the criminal justice system. To carry out my final piece of research I have decided to interview police officer of ethnic races. The advantages of this would be if I received an ambiguous answer from my interviewee I could ask for further explanation. I have decided to do a structured interview with set questions as this means I am more likely to find out the information that I require. However I must ensure that my questions are appropriate and are none offensive so as to not offend or insult my participants. A problem of this is that because I am of a different race and I am talking about race the person I am interviewing may not feel totally comfortable and give me true response as to what they believe. Also I will only be getting the views of those from ethnic racial backgrounds, I will not be getting the views of police officers from a white background and giving them a chance to rebuttal the views from the ethnic officers. I have select three different methods of research for different aspects of my project and I feel each is the most appropriate method for that particular part of my project. The main ethical issue I will have throughout my research is that race is a very sensitive issue and as I don’t come from a racially discriminated race I have to be very carful to be sympathetic to the views and feelings of those from different racial backgrounds but also I need to be careful to go too far that way and come over as patronising. I have not chosen to do observation research as I feel it would be too difficult to observe and I would face too many ethical issues. As my role as a researcher I will try to ensure that all my participants are made to feel comfortable during my research so that I ensure maximum participation and more truthful answers. I will ensure to respect the views and religions of my participants. I will dress appropriately as not to offend which means I will wear clothing that is respectful to all religions and is not revealing. I will ensure that my questions on my questionnaire are not to ambiguous so as that my participants will understand the question and therefore will give a true reflective answer. Also if the questions are too hard for my participants to understand they may be less likely to complete and return the questionnaire which means my research will be less representative than I intended. I will do my best as a researcher to ensure confidentiality and that there identity will be protected. This will be especially important when doing my interviews with the police officers because if I don’t ensure total confidentiality my participants may be reluctant to express there true views about how they are treated or discriminated against in the police force as they may feel they maybe discriminated against even more in their job and this again would lead to less reliable results. I will allow my participants to read my notes of what I have made to ensure that I have interoperated them correctly and if I have wrote anything down wrong they have the chance to correct it. I will also ensure that I will send my results, findings and conclusion of my research to all of my participants. Once I have collected my statistical data I will put into tables and graphs so I can compare and contrast the different percentages of different races throughout the criminal justice system. I will compare the percentages of people arrested from different races then out of those how many are charged and how many are given a prison sentence and how many are not for similar crimes. From this I will be able to see if there is a pattern of racial bias within the criminal justice. I will also compare this data to the data I gathered to from the representation of different races within the criminal justice system and see if those races that are most underrepresented are those that are mostly penalised. What I do with the data I receive back from my questionnaires will depend on the number of responds I receive. If I am lucky and receive over one hundred responses I will use a selective sample of one hundred. The reason I will chose a selective sample is so I get the fairest representation of the different races. I will then categorise my respondents into three groups. The three groups would be Asian, black and other. I will then put the results from the structured answers into tables and compare them. I will then read through the answers to the unstructured questions and make notes so I can come back to when I am devising up my conclusion. I will also read through my notes from my interview but as it is qualitative research it is harder to put in a table or graph to measure so again I will thoroughly read through my findings and make detailed notes for me to review back to when writing my conclusion. I will then look at all my findings and compare them to other research on this topic and see if they concur or if my findings differ from those of previous research on racism within the criminal justice system. From my findings I do not just wish to just identify the problem of racism within the criminal justice system but I would also like to find some suggestions of reform or possibly a way to overcome the situation altogether. From my research I hope to get valued opinions of those from different racial backgrounds and suggestions as to how they feel they will make the criminal justice system a fairer system with the ethical issue of race. I feel that by doing a variety of research methods and looking at the criminal justice system in all its different forms and looking at everyone who is involved in the criminal justice system which is offenders, victims and workers from ethnic racial backgrounds will give a broader outlook on racism as a whole in the criminal justice system. I feel by doing a combination of qualitative and quantitative research I will get a better understanding of the issue as will have both statistical data which can be compared and easily measured but I will also have peoples personal opinions, which can be analysed and can identify more specifically what the main problems are on the issue of racism within the criminal justice system which therefore would lead towards suggested solutions of the problem. From my research I would also like to find out if the suggestions for reform from previous literature such as the Macpherson and Scarman report have in fact took place and if this is the case have these reforms effected the amount and levels of racism towards people from ethnic racial backgrounds as offenders, victims and workers of the criminal justice system. I am aware of ethnical issues that may arise during this research especially as I am not from an ethnic racial background and I am aware that throughout my research I must take into account other peoples feelings and make sure none of my questions in both my interview and questionnaire are offensive as the issue of racism is a sensitive subject and should be treated sensitively but at the same time I must still ensure that my questions will provide me with the information I require to carry out my research. In all I believe that I have planned sufficient research in order to find out the answer to my proposal which is; is racism present within the criminal justice system. I believe my research will be ethical and feasible and would be able to give me a true insight into the issue of racism in the criminal justice system. I believe I have chosen appropriate methods of research and by using a combination of research I am more likely to again get a more reflective data on the issue of racism.