The Criminalization of British Asian Youth: Research from Bradford and Sheffield

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Abstract
Asians are a neglected group in British research on crime and ethnic minorities. This article addresses the question of Asian criminality with reference to an 'incident of public disorder' and a 'riot', involving young British Pakistani males, in the British cities of Sheffield and Bradford during the mid 1990s. Police actions, in relation to these two localized incidents, were variously criticized by the young men in the author's research whose comments help to contextualize the article's broader discussion of Asian criminalization beyond the actions of a minority within the Asian 'community'. The article examines 'facts' and stereotypes in consideration of British Asians and crime with regard to shifts in their negative imaging. General and 'race-specific' explanations of Asian criminality are critically offered as helping to interpret the reaction of 'white' society, and the police, to the actions of a few young Pakistani males; explanations that, hopefully, resonate with experiences in other cultural contexts beyond two localities and the particular meanings that are assigned in Britain to race, racism, crime and policing.

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