The Pains Of Racism In Criminology

The Pains Of Racism In Criminology Presented by: Prof. Phillips Date: 3 June 2023 Lecture Outline - The search for racism and Hood's legacy • - Where does it leave us in 2021? The pains of racism in the everyday - affective, cultural, institutional, political and structural dimensions • - Drawing from disciplinary developments outside and within Criminology Concluding thoughts The Search For Racism - Kind + social justice! • Pre-MacPherson - racism in CJS 'unproven' • Limitations of previous research • 2884 men sentenced in 1989 • 433 women sentenced in 1989 • Aimed to isolate/predict 'race' effect... Race And Sentencing (1992) Headline Findings - Probability of custody score based on 'legally relevant' variables which predicted 75% of court outcomes - 479 not 503 black men 'should have' received custody - 0 statistically significant difference for black women, Asians - NG plea average sentence: • 9 months+ for Asian men • - 3.4 months+ for black men 5 West Midlands Crown courts • Offence variables (seriousness, plea, mitigation/aggravation, etc.) • Defendant characteristics (age, class, previous convictions, etc.) • Case processing variables (venue, plea, pre-sentence reports, remand, etc.) Hood's Legacy - Precision and specificity in finding: • A race effect that was variable (by court, judge, offence range/seriousness, ethnic group) • - - The importance of indirect and cumulative effects Emergent Questions (more later) • Plea varies by race - why? • Offence 'choices' vary by race - is racism implicated? • Lower offending by 'Asians' - why? Nothing in my book suggests that I regarded this work as the last word on the subject: it was but one further step in the quest for improved knowledge (Hood 1995: 278). • May et al. (2010) - complex findings with some observed ethnicity effects as a predictor for adverse outcomes • Pina-Sánchez et al. (2019) - 8,437 sentenced in Crown Court 2007-2017 with no discernible race effect Multivariate Studies Of Education And Employment - - Strand (2014) • 'Legitimate factors' (class, parental/pupil aspirations) • With some variations, regardless of SES (low, average, high): • Black Africans, Caribbeans, Pakistanis, lower unexplained attainment Heath and Di Stasio (2019) • 'Legitimate factors' (skills, qualifications, experience) • Meta-analysis of field experiments 1967-2017 • Black Africans, Caribbeans, Pakistanis, 'MENA's no callback; same since 1970s Positivist Regression... To Apolitical Logic Or Depoliticized Opacity? - Is Criminology complicit in 'bias-laundering routines' relying on faulty binaries of 'legal' and 'extra-legal' factors? • How meaningful is it to claim racial neutrality in, for example, education and occupational status? - Racism as only singular, binary form The Pains Of Racism In Criminology - Bosworth, Bowling and Lee (2008: 263) • ...academic criminology has had little to contribute to our understanding of this complex field...a general indifference to the study of difference - Williams and Clarke (2018: 328) • At present there is criminological reluctance to name racism and racialization as an intrinsic feature of the CJS... - Phillips et al. (2020: 429) • There are worrying signs...of criminology turning away from race...In noting criminology's suppressions, contradictions and lacunae when it comes to race and racism our intention is to highlight criminology's carelessness rather than claim proactive discrimination The Pains Of Racism In The Everyday Race At The Level Of Affect And Emotion - Objectification and the psychic plight of the [post]colonized - Dynamic ambivalence and race's invisible traces (Fanon 1964) - The violences skin differences provoke (Lewis 2009; Yancy 2008) Phillips (2011) - Macro • Structural forces  Globalized racial orders  Historical-Contemporary patterning - MESO • Institutional processes  Epistemology  Positionality  Cultures  Policy  Operational practices  Politics (including media narratives) - Micro • Interpersonal dynamics  Interactions  Relationships  Affect and Emotion The Pains Of Racism In The Everyday - Race at the level of... • Affect and emotion • Epistemology and positionality • Cultures • Institutional policy/practice • Politics • Structuring principle of (historicized) global racial orders Colorism - Monk (2019) – • Skin tone as bodily capital • National Survey of American Life 2001- 2003 • Black interviewer- rate/matched on skin tone - - One-level increase in 'darkness': • 14% higher odds ever arrested • 13% higher odds of ever incarcerated Questions /Research: • UK relevance with large mixed race criminalized population • Zymological study of the regulation/conduct of the skin- lightening industry (estimated to be valued $5.8bn globally) The Pains Of Racism In The Academy Race At The Level Of Epistemology - Universities implicated in establishing/preserving racial hierarchies - Deconstructing empire - Agozino (2003) scathing of bourgeois Anglo criminology - Cuneen and Tauri (2017) - intergenerational state- inflicted violent racism - Ciocchini and Greener (2021) - a cautionary note The Pains Of Racism In The Everyday Race At The Level Of Institutional Policy/Practice - Some (potentially) racialized examples • Stop and search performance indicator for officers will likely increase racist stopping without reducing crime • Remands because of risks of absconding or witness interference likely increases risk of custody on conviction • Sentencing discounts advantage those who plead guilty ignoring legitimacy deficits for some minority ethnic groups • Should time (life) forfeited in custodial sentencing acknowledge lower life expectancy of Gypsies/Travelers? • - Koch - modern slavery legislation and black 'slave masters' Williams and Clarke (2018) - racialized signifiers are used in case construction of Joint Enterprise using linguistic cues, spatial euphemisms, and non-criminal cultural artefacts - Parmar (2020) - bordering practices reflect and magnify racial hierarchies, preforming political ideologies - Benjamin (2019) - the allure of accuracy designed into biased digital worlds - Ugwidike (2020) - the parameters of race neutrality The Pains Of Racism In The Everyday Race At The Level Of Politics - Policing Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (2021) • Creates a summary offence where one person resides/ intends to reside on land without consent in or with a vehicle • Where significant damage, disruption or distress has been/ likely to be caused according to occupier, rep, constable • Custody up to 3 months, level 4 fine, vehicle seizure