Discuss this in relation to the British criminal justice system

Institutional racism is defined by the Macpherson Report 1999 as “The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin which can be seen or detected in processes; attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people”(Dennis et al 2000).

The concept of institutional racism in the criminal justice system has been used to describe the way that people from ethnic minorities are discriminated against at various stages in the criminal justice process. The issues of racism as they affect the position of ethnic minorities within the criminal justice system have been given increased attention. The death of Stephen Lawrence 10 years ago and the report into his murder brought to light the widespread failings in the criminal justice system and validated what people from ethnic minorities had been saying for years, “we live in a two tier society, one rule for whites and another for

The term institutional racism has in itself caused debate between the Police, Politicians and black campaigners. The phrase is seen by some as now being counterproductive and institutions are using it as a way to avoid tackling discrimination. It is feared that institutions will confirm that there is a problem but will choose not to do anything about. Trevor Philips, who chairs the CRE, said, “ I think the term is beginning to be a cop out for people and I am beginning to be rather worried about that”. (www.guardian.co.uk 2003).

Black people choose to be tried at the Crown Court. The reasons for this are not known but it is thought that they would rather be tried by their peers than the magistrates. Research shows they are right, and that magistrates send a higher proportion of black defendants to prison than whites There is currently new proplsals by the Government to take the right to choose jury trial from defendants accused of minor thefts, handling, criminal damage and assault and give the decision to magistrates. This will affect an estimated 18500 defendants per year, a disproportionate number of them black. There is already much evidence to show that black defendants are being consistently over-charged (by the police). Research shows that, on review, the CPS often reduces or drops charges faced by black defendants. But if cases no longer go to jury trial, the CPS will no longer be performing this review. The small safeguard against wrongful convictions for black defendants contained in committal for trial will be lost. (www.carf@demon.co.uk 2003).

For the purposes of this assignment I will be discussing institutional racism in the Police, the courts, sentencing and in Prisons. Due to the constraints of the word count I will only be looking at evidence on men and not both men and women’s experience of the criminal justice system.

Some topics in this essay:
Police Service, Macpherson Report, Crown Court, Asian Chinese, Prison Service, Robert Stewart’s, John Stevens, Stephen Lawrence, Manchester Police, Police Politicians, stop search, justice system, criminal justice, criminal justice system, ethnic minorities, black people, institutional racism, macpherson report, black defendants, people ethnic, black ethnic, black ethnic minorities, people ethnic minorities, relations people racial, stop search powers,