Investigated or ignored? An analysis of race-related deaths since the Macpherson Report

Abstract

Since the publication of the Macpherson Report in February 1999, there have been at least ninety-three deaths with a known or suspected racial element in the UK. Of these, 97 per cent of the victims were from BME communities (including those from Gypsy or Traveller communities and European migrant workers). Particular groups of BME people are at risk – asylum seekers, new migrants, students and those working in the night-time economy. In only a quarter of the cases was the allegation of racism accepted and prosecuted as such, with racial motivation factored into sentencing. The over-strict interpretation of the legal provisions for racial motivation may be inhibiting the (racial) charging of perpetrators and in fact removing the racial context of a crime from the court room. It also appears that if authorities, including the police, had, on occasion, intervened earlier, against persistent harassment and low-level abuse, some deaths might have been prevented.

Keywords

BME communities criminal justice system Crown Prosecution Service harassment inquests Macpherson Report policing racial violence self-defence sentencing Stephen Lawrence

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References

Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 2012 (London, Ministry of Justice 2013).

Home Office, The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry: report of an inquiry by Sir William Macpherson of Cluny, Cm 4262-1 (London, The Stationery Office, 1999), para 46.27.

In 2012, Dobson

Gary

Norris

David

were convicted of the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Others involved in the attack have not been convicted.

‘The Macpherson Report – ten years on’, Twelfth report of session 2008-09, HC 427 (London, House of Commons, 2009), p. 2.

Ibid.

Bennetto

Jason

, Police and Racism: what has been achieved 10 years after the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report? (London, Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2009), p. 34.

Direct quotes from cases not otherwise attributed are taken from the IRR’s database.

This case is discussed in further detail in Claire Lewis, ‘Family want justice for punch death dad’, Sheffield Telegraph (14 March 2011); see also Molly Lynch, ‘Sheffield family vow to fight for justice’, Sheffield Star (6 August 2013).

Our term of reference – deaths with a known or suspected racial element – is deliberate. We are not examining all interethnic crimes. Attacks which occur where the perpetrators(s) and the victim(s) are of different ethnic backgrounds are, of course, not necessarily racially motivated per se. Nonetheless, as our research shows, there are many deaths with a known or suspected racial element which take place where the racial element is, in effect, ‘defined out’ of the case as it is processed through the criminal justice system. Given the well-known limitations of official crime statistics in capturing accurate incidences of offences, coupled with the historic failure of criminal justice agencies to respond adequately to racist attacks, our methodology does not rely solely on those attacks which are recognised formally and prosecuted as racially motivated. To do so would be to ignore the ways in which the state’s response to racism is contested. Instead, we utilise the following definition: ‘The IRR considers that the identification of a racially motivated attack must depend on an objective evaluation of the whole context in which the attack takes place and not just on the skin colour or ethnicity of the alleged perpetrator(s) or victim. In particular, the IRR would regard a murder or attack as racially motivated if the evidence indicates that someone of a different ethnicity, in the same place and similar circumstances, would not have been attacked in the same way. Subject to the above, a formal legal finding or allegation of racial motivation would be taken as prima facie (but not definitive) evidence that an attack was racially motivated.’ Summaries of the cases identified by the IRR as deaths with a known or suspected racial element are available at: http://www.irr.org.uk/news/deaths-with-a-known-or-suspected-racial-element-1991-1999/ and http://www.irr.org.uk/news/deaths-with-a-known-or-suspected-racial-element-2000-onwards/.

10.

For discussion of this point, in relation to victimisation more generally, see Robert Elias, Victims Still: the political manipulation of crime victims (London, Sage, 1993), p. 9.

11.

All figures are rounded to the nearest percentage point.

12.

Burnett

Jon

, ‘Racial violence and the night-time economy’, Race & Class (Vol. 53, no. 1, 2011), pp. 100–6.

13.

It should be noted that criminal justice systems across the UK are not entirely consistent. The criminal justice system in Scotland has different agencies and procedural workings than that of England and Wales, for example.

14.

‘Race: the Macpherson Report’, BBC News (7 May 2001), available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/news/vote2001/hi/english/main_issues/sections/facts/newsid_1190000/1190971.stm.

15.

Guy Smith, ‘The Macpherson Report ten years on’, BBC News (24 February 2009), available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7906641.stm.

16.

Dominic Casciani, ‘Phillips clears police of racism’, BBC News (19 January 2009), available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7836766.stm.

17.

Lewis

Paul

Evans

Rob

, Undercover: the true story of Britain’s secret police (London, Faber and Faber, 2013).

18.

Rowe

Michael

, Policing, Race and Racism (Devon, Willan, 2004), p. 101.

19.

For discussion of this, see Ben Bowling and Coretta Phillips, Racism, Crime and Justice (London, Longman, 2002), p. 113.

20.

For discussion, see for example, Nick Moss, ‘Racism and custody deaths in the UK: the Zahid Mubarek inquiry’, Social Justice (Vol. 33, no. 4, 2006), pp. 142–50.

21.

In three cases, it is unclear whether anyone was ever convicted. At the time of writing, one case is still ongoing.

22.

The Race Relations Act 1976, for example, contained an offence of ‘incitement to racial hatred’.

23.

Hate crime: the case for extending the existing offences. Appendix B: history of hate crime legislation (London, Law Commission, 2013), pp. 53–4.

24.

It should be noted that it is CPS policy ‘not to accept pleas to lesser offences, or omit or minimise admissible evidence of racial or religious aggravation for the sake of expediency’. See ‘Racist and religious crime – CPS guidance’, CPS, available at: http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/racist_and_religious_crime/

25.

Burney

Rose

, Racist Offences – how is the Law Working (London, Home Office, 2002).

26.

For discussion of this point, see Jon Burnett, ‘Racial violence and the politics of hate’, Race & Class (Vol. 54, no. 5, 2013), pp. 5–21.

27.

See Bennetto, op. cit.

28.

Sanders

Andrew

Young

Richard

, Criminal Justice (2nd edn) (London, Butterworths, 2000), p. 67.

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