Stuart Hall Policing the Crisis 1979 Explores the

Stuart Hall – Policing the Crisis (1979) Explores the economic crisis in 1970 s UK and issues surrounding immigration

Immigration and unemployment • 1950 s/60 s – UK welcomed immigrants from the Commonwealth – to fill essential, lowpaid, semi-skilled jobs. • By the 1970 s – unemployment increased in UK. • Black employees were first to lose jobs.

• New jobs given to white applicants. • Black workers seen as ‘taking jobs’ and being blamed for the unemployment situation. • Now they were being accused of abusing the welfare benefits system! A DOUBLE WHAMMY!

Rising Racism in UK • Black Britons were blamed for the rising economic problems and poverty (SCAPEGOATS). • Politicians like Enoch Powell began to make speeches against a multi-cultural Britain. • Right wing (neo-nazi) parties were on the increase, like the National Front (NF)

The effects of structural racism • Basically – many Black Britons were now being socially outcast as scapegoats • They were also facing poverty, due to unemployment (from losing jobs and struggling to get re-employed) • Some of the unemployed turned to crime to survive ( a rise in street crime/muggings/ dealing)

In short…. . Black crime was being driven by economic strain/poverty and not a symbolic resistance!

The Mugging Scare • Hall applies the deviance amplification cycle to this issue. • Society defined a new type of crime ‘mugging’ (the media, police, judges and politicians) wanted this threat dealt with. THE STREETS WERE NO LONGER SAFE!

• Mugging itself wasn’t a new phenomenon. In Victorian England there were ‘footpads’ who stole form people in the street. • Hall notes that this crime was re-marketed, with a new image • It fed into a moral panic – designed to help people address their fears and concerns about the crisis in society.

Remember all those social problems and resistance • • • Anti-Vietnam demos Gay liberation Women’s movement Student protests IRA threats Trade Unions/Strikes

Hall argues… • In the early 1970 s – a crisis of hegemony (influence or authority over others) • The working class were no longer in a state of false consciousness. • Capitalism needed to regain control. • The answer was to find a new way to regain order – to identify a scapegoat to blame.

• The scapegoat in the UK – were young Black Britons ( a folk devil) • The media stirred headlines that treated ‘black muggers’ as the threat to social order ( a moral panic) • Public wanted a solution (societal reaction) • Inner cities were flooded with extra ‘heavy handed police’

Selective policing • Aggressive – STOP AND SEARCH • Many arrests justified the policy. • The public felt more at ease that the social problems were being dealt with.

So, overall… • Moral panic and heavy policing were linked to the social and economic crisis in capitalism. • Black crime was happening because of poverty (and racism) caused by capitalism. • The process of selective policing and moral panic fed a deviance amplification spiral.

Critique of Hall • Downes (1988) - Hall is contradictory – on the one hand they are doing more crime and on the other it’s the fault of the police and media. - The link between moral panic and crisis in capitalism is weak. - Overemphasises police racism.