NCJ Number
220629
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 47 Issue: 5 Dated: September 2007 Pages: 746-763
Date Published
September 2007
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Building on Brunson and Miller's 2006 U.S. study of young minority men's encounters with police, this same issue was examined for the West Midlands (United Kingdom).
Abstract
This British study found that both male and female youth of ethnic minorities had an absence of trust and a high level of cynicism regarding the willingness of the police service to work with the community in order to deal with various public-safety problems. Individual encounters with police were perceived as involving conflict, hostility, and confrontation. Respondents tended to believe that police targeted them for aggressive intervention due to racial prejudice and stereotypical views of minority youth as being involved in crime and antisocial behavior. There was a prevalent view that police stop-and-search policies and tactics were based on race rather than a reasonable suspicion that a crime had been or was about to be committed. These findings imply that police have much work to do in cultivating the sense among minorities, particularly the youth, that the police are unbiased in their efforts to serve the public-safety needs of all citizens. The majority of the sample (n=47) were contacted through various youth groups and projects working with Black and other ethnic minority groups in the West Midlands region. The study, which was conducted during late 2004, involved 38 males and 9 females between the ages of 15 and 18. The majority of the males described themselves as Black and from African-Caribbean or mixed-race backgrounds. All of the females were African-Caribbean or mixed-race. The other 13 males were of South Asian heritage. 68 references