Scarman Report - "Community Relations" and "institutional Racism"

"Community Relations" and "institutional Racism"

The Scarman report a shift from a concern about "race relations" to "community relations". According to Paul Rich, Lord Scarman's views expressed in the Scarman report most closely resembled that of the mid-Victorian era. Scarman was concerned with the "plight" of the ethnic communities in UK inner cities and their relationship with the rest of the national "community". He concluded that it was essential that "people are encouraged to secure a stake in, feel a pride in, and have a sense of responsibility for their own area". While the importance of community involvement in policing was recognised, the Scarman report pointed to "community redevelopment and planning" as the main area of concern. Scarman called for a policy of "direct coordinated attack on racial disadvantage".

The Scarman report sought to locate the riots in the social, economic and political context of the acute deprivation in Brixton at the time. Lord Scarman identified the causes of the riots in the pathology of the Caribbean family, in the question of bilingualism amongst Asian children and in the undefined problem of policing a multi-racial society. In doing so Scarman highlighted what Robert Beckford has termed a "pathological image of Black youth". According to the report:

"Without close parental support, with no job to go to, and with few recreational facilities available the young Black person makes his life the streets and the seedy, commercially-run clubs of Brixton. There he meets criminals, who appear to have no difficulty obtaining the benefits of a materialist society."

The Scarman report does not apportion blame to the police. While the report acknowledges that "ill considered, immature and racially prejudiced actions of some officers" contributed to the riots Lord Scarman only acknowledges "unwitting discrimination against Black people". The report concludes that "The allegation that the police are the oppressive arm of a racist state not only display a complete ignorance of the constitutional arrangements of controlling the police, it is an injustice to the senior officers of the force." In his recommendations Scarman accepts that "hard" policing, such as stop and search operations, would be necessary in the future in areas characterised by severe social problems. Hence the Scarman report seeks to establish how policing could be enforced without provoking further outbreaks of disorder.

The 1999 Macpherson Report, an investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, found that recommendations of the 1981 Scarman Report had been ignored. While the Scarman report concluded that "institutional racism" did not exist the Macpherson report concluded that the police force was "institutionally racist".