City Research Online

Abstract

The question of how we measure, categorise, and represent ethnicity poses a growing challenge for identifying and addressing ethnic inequalities. Conceptual critiques and qualitative studies highlight the complexities and challenges of measuring ethnicity, yet there remains a lack of quantitative studies investigating the implications of these complexities for inequalities research. This paper addresses this gap by scrutinizing methodological processes and analysing the implications of measurement and categorisation in the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), critiquing the UK’s standardised measurement of ethnicity in national survey data and government statistics. Based on our comparative quantitative analysis of standardised ethnicity categories and regional origins and our evaluation of the CSEW and census’ methodologies, we propose an alternative categorisation of ethnicity, focusing on the ‘Mixed’, ‘Asian’, and ‘Latinx/Hispanic’ ethnic groups. Using adjusted crosstabulations and logistic regression models, we found variations in ethnic patterns of violence based on standardised measures and our alternative recategorisation, particularly relating to the distinction between ‘Asian’ sub-groups, the recategorisation of ‘Mixed’ ethnicities, and the inclusion of ‘Latinx/Hispanic’ as a distinctive ethnic group. Our findings reveal valuable insights into the implications of ethnic categorisation for understanding violence inequalities, with significant implications for further policy and research areas.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Publisher Keywords:	ethnicity; inequalities; measurement; categorisation; violence; survey data
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HA Statistics H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Violence and Society Centre
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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