Ethnicity and Crime in Australia: Moral Panic OR Meaningful Policy Response

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Ethnicity and Crime in Australia Moral Panic OR
Meaningful Policy Response

• Presentation to the WSCF Annual Conference,
  Parramatta,
• 22 November 2006

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• By Jock Collins,
• Professor of Economics, Faculty of Business,
  University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).
• jock.collins_at_uts.edu.au

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Structure of Presentation

• Australian Background
• Moral Panic and the media
• Criminological data
• Sydney survey
• Immigrants as Victims of Crime
• Policy responses
• Conclusion

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1. Background Australia

• We have more immigrants from a more diverse
  background than most contemporary societies.
• WA has highest proportion of 1st Generation
  immigrants in Australia
• Sydney where the ethnic crime panic has
  developed has the 7th highest immigrant
  presence of any city the world today

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Foreign Born as of total population
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Cosmopolitan Sydney The world in one city.2001
census
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Cosmopolitan Sydney

• 58 of Sydneys population first or second
  generation from 180 different birthplaces
• Sydney has 90 of Australias Lebanese immigrants
• Previously Irish (razor gangs) Chinese (Triads),
  Italian (mafia), Greek, Vietnamese and other
  immigrant minorities tagged with the brush of
  criminality.
• Today a public debate and moral panic about
  Lebanese or Middle Eastern crime and youth gangs
  since 1998

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Ethnicity and Youth Crime in Sydney Trigger
Points

• October 1998 Killing of 14 year old Korean
  immigrant boy
• 2 weeks later drive by shoot-up of Lakemba police
  station Premier and Police Chief blame Lebanese
  Gangs
• In 2001 a so-called race rape by Lebanese youth
  on a number of Anglo young women record
  sentence for leader Bilal Skaf.
• 9/11 Bali 02 7/7 London bombings

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Background International Ethnic crime and
conflict

• LA Riots 1992 Blacks and Latinos burn hundreds
  of houses and thousands of cars
• UK Midland Riots early 2000s Bradford, Oldham et
  al. between Asian and English youth
• Paris November 2005 northwestern suburbs in
  flames 40 buses and 100 cars burnt

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Background International Ethnic crime and
politics in Europe

• Ethnic crime (with illegal migration) the key
  driver of national elections in much of Europe
• Rise of the Right in countries like France
  (National Front and Le Pen), Austria, Denmark,
  Netherlands (death of Pym Fortune and stabbing of
  van Gough), Germany (Neo Nazi resurgence) and UK
  (BNP gain in local elections)
• Ethnic crime key to critique of cultural
  diversity brought about by immigration in West
  (USA Huntington Clash of Civilizations)

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2. Moral Panic and the media

• Media frenzy about ethnic crime and ethnic youth
  gangs
• Fear of crime disproportionate to realities of
  crime
• Youth gangs seen everywhere
• Crime of individuals becomes criminality of a
  (Middle eastern) culture

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Discourse of Moral Panic

• A particular event is not contentious until it
  has been constructed in public discourse.
• We are not who we used to be
• Illegal immigrants threat to civilized society
• Discourses include health risk and criminality,
  amplified migration pattern leading to moral
  frenzy
• Frances Henry and Carol Tator, Discourses of
  Domination, www.yorku.ca/fhenry/racismincan.htm

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Media

• Media responsibilities in a multicultural society
• Sensationalism sell papers and TV and radio ad
  time
• cf. Buying a Gun Its easier than buying a
  Pizza
• Duncan Campbell, then Director of the Australian
  Institute of Criminology, Biased media reporting
  and prejudice in wider society have depicted
  minority group enclaves as suffering from crime,
  disorder and inter-cultural conflict. Hazelhurst
  1990

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Key players in moral panic

• Sensationalist tabloid newspapers
• Right-wing shock jocks on Sydney radio
• Political Opportunism of New South Wales
  political leaders a law and order auction in
  1999 and 2003 state elections by Labor and
  Conservative parties

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Problem with the moral panic

• Doesnt fit with the criminological facts
• Crime linked to culture, not socio-economic
  factors
• Cultures as a whole become criminalized, not just
  individuals
• It diverts attention away from key socio-economic
  causes of crime
• Asymmetrical and racialised treatment of ethnic
  youth crime

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Media vilification of immigrants in Australia

• The HREOC consultation with Australias Arab and
  Muslim communities reported that 47 per cent of
  survey respondents felt that they had been
  vilified by the media, complaining of the unfair
  stereotyping of Arabs and Muslims and the use of
  ethnic or religious labels in crime-reporting
  (HREOC 2004 64).
• the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board (2003), in its
  publication Race for the Headlines concluded
  that It serves governments well when media
  coverage of crime is racialised, because
  attention is diverted from the inadequacies of
  government policies and programs in addressing
  the underlying causes of criminal behaviour (p59)

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Racialised discourse about ethnic youth crime

• It reinforces racist stereotypes
• The discourse denied the Australian identity of
  Lebanese youth
• Community leaders told to solve problem
• An ethnic code of silence
• The reality of immigrants as Victims of crime
  ignored
• Racial profiling shapes police interaction with
  immigrant minorities

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Australia is not alone in this regard

• In Canada (Henry and Bjornson 1999 Sacco 2000
  James 2002 Wortley 2002) and Europe (Gilroy
  1987 Webster 2001 European Monitoring Centre on
  Racism and Xenophobia 1999) the role of the
  media in constructing racial stereotypes of
  immigrant criminality has attracted increasing
  attention.
• Bowling and Phillips (2002 79) put is, the
  media and political reactions to the public
  disorders in Britain of the late 1970s and
  1980s also contributed significantly to popular
  understandings of black people as disorderly and
  criminal.
• This media loudness about the criminality of
  immigrant minorities is contracted to relative
  media deafness about the victimology of the
  same immigrant minorities. Reporting on a study
  of the Toronto, Canada, media Wortley (2002 64)
  concludes that the media are much more likely to
  communicate the race of criminal offenders than
  the race of crime victims.

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3. Moral Panic and the Criminological Data

• Rates of most crimes down in most States but
  concern about and fear about crime at an all time
  high Why?
• Rates of imprisonment by birthplace only kept by
  few states. No reliable data on other aspects of
  immigrant criminality.
• Self-reportage of criminal behaviour.

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Rates of Imprisonment by birthplace, 1997 (per
'000)

• Australia 1
• UK/Eire 0.6
• N.Z 1.6
• Vietnam 2.7
• Greece 0.5
• Italy 0.6
• Turkey 1.6
• Lebanon 2.0
• Source Mukherjee, (1999a 8) The Evidence

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Problems of ethnic crime data 1

• Relates to birth place, not ethnicity
• Only imprisonment data kept
• This is top 10 of crime iceberg
• Birthplace does not equate with ethnicity a
  person born in Malaysia, for example, might be of
  Chinese, Indian or Malaysian background.

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Problems of ethnic crime data 2

• Police discretion (and hence racial
  discrimination) influences links from criminal
  incident to criminal justice system.
• A suspects ethnicity does make a difference
  (Keith and Murji 1993). As Bowling and Phillips
  (2002 243) argue for the UK By the end of the
  criminal justice process there is an undeniable
  disproportionate number of people from ethnic
  minorities who had been stopped under suspicion
  by police, arrested and imprisoned.
• How to collect ethnic data (birthplace,
  birthplace of parents?) and at what stage?
• If you only collect ethnic data on crime (and not
  socio-economic or other data) then crime becomes
  a (surprise! surprise!) a consequence of
  ethnicity and immigration.

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4. Results of Sydney Fieldwork

• Desperately need more research into ethnic crime
• The Sydney Survey of Youth, Ethnicity and Crime
• Funded by Australian Research Council and 26
  industry partners.
• Report titled Gangs, Crime and Community Safety
  Perceptions and Experience in Multicultural
  Sydney (available for sale)

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Sydney Survey Details 1

• The survey canvassed the experiences and
  perceptions of the crime issue from 825 people -
  380 adults and 445 youth living mainly in the
  south-western LGAs of Hurstville, Bankstown,
  Fairfield, Rockdale, Liverpool, Auburn, and
  Bankstown in 2001. These are municipalities where
  most of Sydneys immigrant minorities live and
  where most of the concern about ethnic crime in
  Sydney has been located.

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Sydney Survey Details 2

• The Sydney survey was conducted in 2001 after a
  pilot survey in late 2000 in the Canterbury LGA
  but was finalised before September 11 2001. The
  survey sample was designed to get 80 of
  respondents from a range of non-English speaking
  backgrounds, and designed to include roughly
  equal numbers of adults and youth, and males and
  females

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Survey Methodology 1

• A snowballing or networking methodology was used
  rather than a random sample. The sample was
  stratified to draw in a wide range of NESB
  immigrant groups. Interviewers from different
  ethnic/language groups were hired to find and
  interview 10 adults and 10 youth in their local
  area.

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Survey Methodology 2

• Stratified Sample to include following
  birthplaces Australia, China, Egypt, Greece,
  Hong Kong, India, Italy, Korea, Lebanon,
  Macedonia, New Zealand, Philippines, Samoa, Sri
  Lanka, Tonga, UK, Vietnam, Croatia, Fiji, Poland,
  Iraq, Cambodia, Laos, Uruguay, Thailand

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Survey Methodology 3

• Nearly sixth per cent of the interviews with
  adults and 13 per cent of youth - were
  conducted in languages other than English. This
  was in order to tap the views of immigrant
  Sydneysiders who are at the centre of this ethnic
  crime storm yet whose voices go unnoticed in most
  English-based opinion poll and other surveying.

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Sydney Survey Key Findings 1

• concern about crime and about safety is very
  widespread adults (77) and youth (66)
• Nearly one half (45.4) of females surveyed were
  very concerned about crime, compared to about one
  third (34.4) of males.
• Violent assault was thought to be the crime that
  was perceived as the biggest social problem
• Two in every three people surveyed (71.7)
  reported that they felt safe in their own area
• There is a very big inconsistency between fear of
  crime and the actual incidence of crime.

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Sydney Survey Key Findings 2

• Minority youth more likely to be victims of crime
  than perpetrators of crime
• Only a minority of youth have committed crimes
• 33 of male youth self- reported that they had
  committed a crime (cf. only 15.4 of the female
  youth)
• Male youth twice as likely than female youth to
  commit crime

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Sydney Survey Key Findings 3

• 66 thought that that there were organised
  criminal gangs in their local area.
• 64 of adults and 55 of youth agreed that there
  was a problem with youth gangs.
• 62.8 of youth thought that police picked on
  groups of young people youth from Asia, the
  Middle East and Lebanon were mentioned most
  often, with Pacific Islanders also mentioned.

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Self-Reporting of Crime (Youth)
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Those with friends who have committed crimes
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Do You Consider Your Group to be a gang?
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The Major Factors that Bring the Group Together
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What cultural backgrounds of youth do police pick
on?
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5. Immigrants as Victims of Crime

• immigrants as victims of crime
• immigrants as victims of the fear of crime.
• immigrants as victims of racial abuse and
  violence, especially Muslims in the aftermath of
  the 9/11 and the Bali and London bombings
• immigrants as victims of media discourses

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Victims of Crime (Adults) Sydney Survey
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Victims of Crime (Youth) Sydney Survey
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CRC (NSW) Hotline data in aftermath of 9/11

• Half of all victims were female.
• Seven in ten victims were adults.
• 52.4 of calls to the Hotline were in Arabic
• Almost half (47.2) of all incidents occurred in
  a public space, including in or near shops and
  shopping centres and on the road or while
  driving.

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HREOC Isma-Listen report

• The report outlines anecdotal reports of the
  extent of discrimination, vilification and
  prejudice experienced by Arabs in Australia. It
  noted that people readily identifiable as Muslim
  because of their dress or appearance were
  particular targets of racist violence and abuse
  and that Muslim women who wear the hijab, niqab
  or chador have been especially at risk (HREOC
  2004 45).
• Physical attacks, threats of violence and
  attempted assaults were widely reported
• there were a number of incidents of vandalism on
  what was identifiably the property of Muslim
  organizations or individuals
• These incidents were reported as having occurred
  on the street, at home, in private and public
  transport, in shops and shopping malls, at
  school, college and university and at work.

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6. Meaningful Policy Responses

• If the roots of crime are cultural or ethnic in
  character, solution is to stop immigration,
  challenge a criminal culture and build more
  jails no need for socio-economic solutions
• If the roots of crime are socio-economic, need
  to look at a range of policy areas

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Areas of Policy Response to Youth Crime

• Labour Market
• Education
• Public Space
• Urban Renewal and Public Housing
• Policing
• Media
• Community Relations.

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Labour Market

• jobs are important
• In France today unemployment rates of Muslims in
  the northwestern suburbs where todays conflict
  started are 50
• Those with highest rates of imprisonment those
  with highest unemployment rates EG 1st Gen
  Lebanese Males 14.3 2nd Gen Lebanese Males
  11.5 Males Australia 6.6 (2000 Aust Census)
• Eg Riots in Sydneys Macquarie Fields in March
  2005 Western Sydney highest rates of
  unemployment in Sydney

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Education

• Experience in school linked to post-school labour
  market experience
• Schools as places of learning that have the
  potential to promote social justice outcomes
• Schools as the place where community relations
  and prejudices both appear and can be overcome
• Schooling outcomes linked to youth crime and
  anti-social behaviour in schools and in the
  community

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Public Space

• Youth have a right to public space
• Safety design near public transport nodes
• Shopping malls need to provide space for all
• Entrepreneurs a key role to play
• Local government authorities important for
  recreation space for youth

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Urban Renewal and Public Housing

• Rates of crime highest in poorer areas of the
  city and in areas of high density of (poor
  standard) public housing (cf. UK, France, USA)
• Just as crime is a multi-faceted phenomenon so is
  a multi-faceted community building approach
  needed
• Jobs, public infrastructure, transport, welfare
  and medical services, recreation facilities

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Policing

• Police Racism in all western multicultural cities
  (cf. Montreal,Toronto, Stephen Lawrence in UK,
  Sydney)
• Police force not representative of society
• Police training needed on cultural and religious
  diversity
• Racial Profiling an issue
• Community relations between police and minority
  communities crucial.

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Media

• Media responsibilities in a multicultural society
• Sensationalism sell papers and TV and radio ad
  time
• Cf. Buying a Gun Its easier than buying a Pizza

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Community Relations

• Being one of the worlds most multicultural
  nations beings many opportunities and many
  responsibilities
• LA riots not because multicultural societies
  multicultural societies inevitably bring conflict
  but because of the need to ensure social justice
  of all minorities in multicultural societies.
• Need to reduce social exclusion of immigrant
  minorities with policies, programs and services
• Culturally sensitive Policing (Zero tolerance
  policing and racial profiling act against social
  cohesion) needs to be complemented with
  investment in community relations and social
  justice.

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7. CONCLUSION 1

• There are ethnic criminal gangs in Australia, but
  we exaggerate the number and size of youth gangs
• In a multicultural society criminals come from
  all ethnic backgrounds, but individuals, not
  cultures, are criminal
• A moral panic about youth crime diverts attention
  away from causes of and solution to crime and
  flames anti-immigration and anti-religious and
  cultural minority sentiments.

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People Feeling Safe where they live (Sydney
survey).
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CONCLUSION 2

• A moral panic about ethnic crime also generates
  racial stereotypes about immigrant (and
  religious) minorities and undue criticism of
  multicultural societies.
• This moral panics about ethnic crime threaten the
  social cohesion of Australian (and other western)
  society by blaming cultures for individual
  problems, ignoring the key areas for policy
  response, fanning racial prejudice and alienating
  immigrant youth and adults.
• We need meaningful policy responses in all policy
  areas, not just policing.