NCJ Number
110125
Journal
Howard Journal Volume: 26 Issue: 4 Dated: (November 1987) Pages: 272-282
Date Published
1987
Length
11 pages
Annotation
The article addresses problems of ethnic and foreign minorities in the criminal justice system in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Abstract
Analysis of a police and court data suggests at first glance that members of foreign minorities commit far more crimes than are committed by the population's majority. But controlling for differences in those variables which make considerable differences between foreign minorities and the population's majority, especially socioeconomic status, differences in crime rates fade away. It is argued that cultural conflict theory does not provide an adequate framework for explaining crime occurring within foreign minorities. Available evidence suggests that deprivation and control theories are more powerful in explaining criminal behavior within ethnic and foreign minorities; they seem also to be more useful in guiding criminal policy dealing with foreign offenders. Although crime problems have been of paramount importance in criminological studies dealing with ethnic and foreign minorities, problems of criminal victimization should be taken into account, too. Furthermore, problems of processing members of ethnic minorities through the criminal justice system are touched on in the article with special emphasis on those points in the process which are hypothesized to embody great potential for discriminatory decisionmaking. (Author abstract)