Violent Racism: Victimisation, Policing and Social Context

• NCJ Number: 178680
• Author(s): Benjamin Bowling
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 403 pages
• Sale Source: Oxford University Press, Inc
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom
• Note: Clarendon Studies in Criminology

Annotation

This book documents the daily abuse, assaults, and intimidation that are suffered by black and Asian people in Great Britain, using information obtained in an East London case study.

Abstract

Part I contains four chapters that review historical and sociological literature on violent racism and policing in the recent period, describe the events and pronouncements recorded in the national and local press during the 1980s, and examine the policy documents published by various statutory agencies from approximately the beginning of the 1980s. Part II consists of an empirical study of violent racism and the police response to it, preceded by an introduction to the geographical, demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the East London locality. One chapter presents the results of the analysis of police records, interviews with local officers, and the victimization survey conducted as part of the North Plaistow project. It describes the nature, experience, and effects of the problem; patterns of victimization; and their connection with racism and racial discrimination more generally. The chapter shows that victimization is widespread among the ethnic minority communities. Another chapter analyzes the policing policy and practice regarding racial incidents in the locality, drawing on police records and group and individual interviews with police officers. It examines the processing of racial incidents, including investigation, follow-up, prosecution, and the calculation of clearance rates. These data are used to evaluate police performance with respect to law enforcement, order maintenance, crime prevention, and the production and distribution of information. The concluding chapter considers the extent to which policy and practice implemented in the late 1980s and early 1990s achieved the various objectives stated by the organizations that began to respond systematically to violent racism in 1981. 396 references, a subject index, and appended survey design and methods as well as police organizational structure