With a diverse group in mind, discuss the development of diversity policy within the criminal justice system within the post-war period. Towhat extent has such policy aided individuals in their dealings with thecriminal justice system?
Introduction
This essay will be looking at the definition of ‘diversity’ in context with the criminal justice system. The diverse group identified and kept in mind for this essay will beethnic minorities, particularly black prisoners both men and women held in prisons of England and Wales. Thus the author will also discuss diversity policy dimension andits development within the criminal justice system, thereby laying more emphasis onsentencing and prison system.This work will examine to what extent diversity policies have aided ethnicity and raceissues within criminal justice system laying more emphasis on the prison system. The policies with regards to question about this essay is supposed to be analysed in post-war period, however the author will slightly highlight on earlier periods as its believedthis will reflect the socio-political roots of dimension of policies. Further work willexplore; what can we learn from official statistics and surveys in relation to race andethnicity? Is prison service able to address race issues and follow fair equality policyor is it the way of government in favour to interests of national parties dealing with people from ethnic minorities and black throughout all criminal justice stages?The constant over-representation of ethnic minorities, particularly black people inBritain’s prisons is a critical issue (Kimmett 2007, Morgan and Liebling 2007, Croall1998) as the prison population grows the number of prisoners from ethnic minoritygroups grow faster still. Alongside this high profile racial incidents in a number of Criminal Justice agencies, have also elevated prison racism to an issue of primaryimportance. (Cheliotis and Liebling, 2006)The racial discrimination within prisons cannot be analysed without taking intoaccount other factors existing outside the criminal justice system, which includesracial and cultural stereotyping, exclusion from job market and inadequate education(Kimmett 2007: 268, Welch 2007: 276, Carbone-Lopez 2005: 29) however this essaywill focus on prisons.
Diversity definition
Hudson (2007) explained the difference between using ‘diverse’ and ‘difference’.Difference suggests difference from the standard case and implies hierarchy that oneof the qualities is dominant or superior to other which differs from it. Thus differencehas negative connotation unlike diversity which has a more positive or neutralconnotation. She emphasizes that politics and policies of criminalisation and crime are based on an ideology of difference rather than on acknowledgement of diversity.In criminology the importance and complexity of conceptualising race stretches far beyond the narrow definitions of lexicologists. It is connected with epistemologicaldifficulties and socio-political implications. A number of authors argue for the studyof race from an ontological perspective. Said (cited by Cheliotis and Liebling, 2006:286), for example, considers the long discourse of distinction between the West and
its ‘Others’, particularly the Orient, to have consolidated political and military controlin nowadays.The terms race and ethnicity are used to categorise groups on the basis of number assumed differences as researchers have failed to establish any certain biologicaldifferences between so-called races and it is acknowledged that race is a sociallyconstructed category (Croall 1998). Therefore defining race in terms of difference isclassified as a social process and can be seen as social and a biological formationhowever the social relationships become racialised when racial differences assumed to be significant (Croall 1998). This just adds to the point that racial discrimination is theoutcome of state politics and public notions built also by politicians and the media.
Development of diversity policy
The starting point for analysis of development of diversity policy should be ahistorically specific material based on cultural forms and historical matters becausethe notion and attitude towards the black race have been passed from generation togeneration. Passing experiences and information over generations is a constantlyflowing process therefore it is hard to introduce radical changes in public notionswhich have legally existed and have been supported by law for centuries. Historicalmatters still have some impact and reflection in nowadays public notion.Wacquant’s (2000) provided table (Table 1) which clearly reflects the fact that thesame treatment towards black race has been brought through centuries just bychanging the terms used to identify it to comply with existing political rules.Table 1. The four ‘peculiar institutions’ and their basis (Wacquant 2000: 98)Following we can see that the first ‘equality’ policies between races after slavery wereintroduced by Jim Crow’s ‘segregated but equal’ (Pilgrim, 2000), where in fact whole policy emphasised and legalised inequality of races within community, labour marketand any other everyday situations and good manner policies.Slavery has been abolished in most countries a long time ago, but Agozino (1997) believes it is worth looking back to find out what lessons there are for understanding present problems that black women and Black in general are facing in criminal justicesystem. Agozino goes further to explain that for black woman it is twice as hardstruggling against racial discrimination and also gender discrimination the same timewithin criminal justice system. He also points out that the author who classifiedstruggle classes forgot to include black women into any of them; either you have to be
black man or white woman, both facing similar difficulties and discrimination formswithin criminal justice system. However by this classification black women wouldhave to be taken out of existence.Agozino also links colonial practice of collective victimisation of poor black man andwomen by which crime problems became localised to the Institute of Race Relationsdocuments of special police operations holding poor black residents as suspects. Heemphasises Britain’s early 1950s when colonies were identified with a particular range of crimes, most common – living off immoral earnings, brothel-keeping anddrug pushing.The Race Relations Act 1976, as amended by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act2000, gives public authorities a statutory general duty to eliminate unlawfuldiscrimination and promote race equality and good race relations. The Act requiresauthorities to take account of and monitor the impact of services and policies onethnic minorities. However implementing of this policy in practice have not been thatsimple.The issue of racial violence and abuse had been a problem for a long time for minoritycommunities, but it reached the national policy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In1985 in order to fight with criticism levelled against them the Association of Chief Police Officers adopted and defined the concept of ‘racial incident’. It did build upfewer statistics of racial incidents however only two per cent of them were classifiedas serious crimes. Also The Home Office in 1997 only just found out that only fewforces monitoring detailed figures of racial incidents. The same year CrownProsecution service published the first report of its ‘Racial Incidents MonitoringScheme’. Despite its limitations, the British Crime Survey (BCS) became increasinglyimportant as a bench-mark against measuring trends in police figures, however thesefigures began to rise in early 1990s. Following was a yearly rise since the first reportand by 1999 the reports showed 66 per cent increase. (FitzGerald 2001)Ethnic monitoring of prison population began in 1984 to assist with monitoring ‘racerelations’ within prisons and the first statistics by Home Office were published in1986. It showed that in 1985 eight per cent of the male prison population and 12 per cent of female prison population were of West Indies, Guyanese or African origin, thesame time these groups made up of only one and two per cent of the whole populationof England and Wales. The same pattern was also visible in sentenced and awaitingsentence prisoners. Over-representation also between longer sentences was again proportionally dominated by prisoners from ethnic minorities and black. (Bowlingand Philips 2002) The background of this experience was the widespread support tothe National Front and extreme racism among prison officers in 1970s and early1980s. Incidents of brutality, physical and verbal abuse were common. Another reasonwas poorly equipped prison officers, who were not prepared to respond and deal withdifferent culture needs. However monitored and described incidents helped indevelopment of Home Office prison service policy (Bowling and Philips 2002). According to Riley et.al. (2009) the 1999 Macpherson report about the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence set in motion a systematic review of not justgovernment policies within criminal justice system but how the entire country treatsracial issues. Further more this led the government to review all existing racial policies and redefine the definition of racial incidents and racially aggravatedoffences. Since 1986 all police forces had collected information on racial incidents
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