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Rather, The Probability Of Offending May Be Objectively Related To A Number ...

Rather, the probability of offending may be objectively related to a number of non-ethnic factors (family background; education level; economic circumstances; housing conditions) which, given the particular circumstances of society, are relatively more concentrated among ethnic minorities.'
It is argued that because there is no outward way of determining these ‘non-ethnic factors' that race is used as a proxy for policemen. The example given is that an equal split between old ladies and young men stopped and searched would undoubtedly display a bias against old ladies because they far less-likely to be law-breakers. Thus a disproportionate concentration on young men is not necessarily a bad thing. However, this argument whilst clearly persuasive in it's thinking has been discredited in particular because the ‘racial bias to police stops was in excess of that required by inter-ethnic differences in rates of offending'. The only conclusion that can be drawn from the study is that there has to be racial prejudice existent because of the level of excess. In fact Borooah concludes that ‘a third to a half of racial bias to stops in 1997 /98 across 10 Police Areas of England, represented prejudicemost of this prejudice was directed towards Asians and not towards Blacks'. Thus he goes onto argue that even if we are able to overcome the rather ethically dubious ‘efficiency argument' there is still a problem with prejudice.
The latter point that Borooah makes is of particular interest that taking into account intentional and justified bias there is more prejudice against Asians. The vast majority of Asians are Muslim and thus it is of interest to see whether there is a potential growth of ‘Islamophobia' in the police forces. It is worth just spending a brief period of time to understand the rise of ‘Islamophobia' in the U.K. The immigration of Southeast Asians following World War II into the U.K. was fairly significant and created a sizeable and politically active Asian, and predominantly Muslim, population within the U.K. In the 1980's a number of events such as Muslim protests against Salman Rushdie's ‘Satanic Verses' involving mass book-burning and the fatwa declared by Ayatollah Khomeini which advocated the murder of Salmon Rushdie brought severely negative press coverage. Since the 1980's and through the 1990's there was a great deal of media attention on anything which might portray Muslims as ‘antiwestern' or linked to Islamic fundamentalism was seized upon.

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