Why Do They Do It? - Racial Harassment in North Staffordshire

In the past most studies of racism in the UK have been carried out in major metropolitan areas like London, Manchester and Birmingham, but researchers from Keele University’s Centre for Criminological Research recently completed a study of racial harassment in the North Staffordshire area.

Few areas have undergone such a dramatic industrial decline as Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding areas in the last thirty years. The closure of the mining, steel and pottery industries has removed a whole way of life from the area, leaving many with a deep sense of loss, confronting an unsettling and uncertain future.

Using a unique methodological approach the researchers examined the significant problem of racial harassment of ethnic minorities in the region. Fifteen perpetrators were extensively interviewed using the Free Association Narrative Interview Method, to draw out in depth biographical accounts of their backgrounds and behaviour. Many of them did not regard themselves as racist or see their actions in those terms.

Their attitudes were then compared with the attitudes of focus groups made up of a range of people from the wider community, allowing the researchers to explore the connections between the individual motivations of the perpetrators of racial harassment, and the wider social context in which it takes place. They discovered that perpetrators shared perceptions of “us” and “them” - people who belong in the area and people who don’t - widespread among local people. They also had similar characteristics to the ordinary offenders routinely in trouble with the police in any community. Many were multiply disadvantaged, with backgrounds of severe material and emotional deprivation.

Footage:
- Pottery chimneys
- Potter
- Mining memorial
- Housing estates
- Dramatic reconstructions of harassment
- Racial Harassment report
- Street scenes

Interviewees:
- Dr Bill Dixon, Lecturer in Criminology, Keele University
- Dr David Gadd, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Keele University