The government published a progress report (the first of an annual series) on the range of commitments made in response to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee report of June 2007 on young black people and the criminal justice system.
Source: Home Affairs Select Committee Inquiry: Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System – First Annual Report, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Dec
A new book provided a comprehensive overview of race and ethnicity across the criminal justice system – including police, prosecution, prisons, and probation.
Source: Hindpal Singh Bhui (ed.), Race and Criminal Justice, SAGE Publications Ltd (020 7324 8500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Dec
The Prison Service published a report detailing progress made on race equality over the previous five years. 'Significant progress' had been made in putting the systems and processes in place to effectively manage race equality in prisons: nonetheless the experience of black and minority-ethnic prisoners and staff had not been transformed.
Source: Race Review 2008, HM Prison Service/Ministry of Justice (020 7217 6947)
Links: Report part 1 | Report part 2 | MOJ press release | Nacro press release | PRT press release | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Dec
A new book brought together important material in race and ethnic studies, and provided different ways of thinking about race and ethnicity in relation to crime and the criminal justice system.
Source: Basia Spalek, Ethnicity and Crime: A Reader, Open University Press (01280 823388)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Jul
An annual statistical report was published on race and the criminal justice system in England and Wales. Members of black communities were seven times more likely than their white counterparts to be stopped and searched, three-and-a-half times more likely to be arrested, and five times more likely to be in prison.
Source: Alex Jones and Lawrence Singer, Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System – 2006/7, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report | ACPO press release | APA press release
Date: 2008-Jul
A new book examined hate crime as a social problem, using a victim-centred approach. Many offenders were ordinary people who offended in the context of their everyday lives.
Source: Paul Iganski, 'Hate Crime' and the City, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Jun
A report said that the print media's reporting of violent crime stirred racist tension. It identified clearly different approaches to reporting of crime, dependent on whether the victim or perpetrator were black or white. These approaches served to influence public opinion and policy, and contributed to the reinforcement of racist stereotypes.
Source: Kjartan Pall Sveinsson, A Tale of Two Englands: 'Race' and violent crime in the press, Runnymede Trust (020 7377 9222)
Links: Report | Runnymede Trust press release
Date: 2008-Apr
A report said that honour killings – together with domestic violence, forced marriage, and female genital mutilation – were not isolated practices but were instead part of a 'self-sustaining social system built on ideas of honour and cultural, ethnic and religious superiority'. They had became an indigenous and self-perpetuating phenomenon, carried out by third- and fourth-generation immigrants who had been raised and educated in the United Kingdom.
Source: James Brandon and Salam Hafez, Crimes of the Community: Honour-based violence in the UK, Centre for Social Cohesion (020 7222 8909)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Mar