The last British Census (1991) recorded that there were over 500
different languages being spoken in London by probably more than 1,000
different ethnic groups. Even if there were known and
proveable difference in the criminality of different ethnic groups
(e.g. middle-class, middle-aged WASP men are more likely to commit fraud
than young ,working-class Tamil women) you cannot detect ethnic group
just from the way people look. Police Officers need to be made aware
of this fact repeatedly. I doubt that surpressing Ethnicity and Crime
Statistics will help combat institutional or individual prejudice in
the police and this is the real issue that needs to be tackled.
There is currently an advert put out be the British Police Federation
which states; What do you call a Black man in a BMW? the answer is "A
police sergeant on duty". This might be crude but at least the
sentiment is in the right place and it is only in the last two months
in the UK that the police have even been willing to admit that there
might be a problem of institutional racism. Now would be a very bad
time to try to ban Ethnicity and Crime statistics in the UK as this
would send the wrong message to the police.
Best wishes
Dave
On Mon, 03 May 1999 19:02:38 "David B. Klein" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> A 11:50 PM 5/3/99 +0100, D.Gordon wrote:
>
> >The ehtnicity and crime statistics have been missused in the past
> >particularly by the Metropolitan (London) Police Force.
>
> There is controversy concerning the behavior of law enforcement agencies
> toward visible minorites in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. right now.
> Again, the question has statistical implications. If a law enforcement
> officer knows that an individual's phenotype or appearance is correlated
> with the probability of a particular offense, should they be permitted to
> use that as a criterion to stop or question them?
>
> David Klein
----------------------
Dave Gordon
Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research
University of Bristol
8 Priory Road
Bristol BS8 1TZ, UK
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel: (44)-(117)-954 6761
Fax: (44)-(117)-954 6756
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