Throughout this chapter, it looks at the historical underpinning of the Police in England and Wales. There will be definitions of racism and ethnicity and looking at theoretical perspectives of institutional racism. There will be an introduction to the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales and a brief historical insight into the history of policing in England and Wales.
It is important to have an understanding of racism and ethnicity as this is two of the main concepts of this study. Looking at a theoretical point of view orthodox Marxist theory argues that racism is a reflection of the manipulation of workers by the capitalist class to divide them along racial lines and reduce their capacity to struggle against the system. (Cashmore
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The early 1970s saw increasing political pressure from black and anti-racist organisations and street skirmishes between minority youths and the police (Sivanandan, 1974). This indicated the 1976 Race Relations Act, this outlined in directed discrimination in employment, educations, services and housing. However in 1981, the Brixton riots happened due to the uprising youth felt that the police was institutional racist this is when the Scarman report 1981 was released. Institutional racism ' does not exist in Britain: but racial disadvantage and its nasty associate racial discrimination have not yet been eliminated. They poison minds and attitudes; they are, and so long as they remain, will continue to be, a potent factor of unrest (Scarman 1981: 135). Even though Scarman rejects the concept that all police officer decimate against ethnic minorities, and the idea that police organisations of society are racist, but Scarman accepts that the practices of the police and some individuals unintentionally discriminate. In 1980s in Britain, institutional racism began to be used and became apparent. Following 1980s Britain, institutional racism began to be used in two ways; firstly, it described how racism became institutionalised as a policy and secondly, it identified racial inequalities throughout the government and working