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Britain has recently declared itself to be a multi-cultural' society, especially as there have been many migrant workers from different ethnic backgrounds that have come to Britain since the 1950's. There is much cultural diversity. There are differences between each group as well as within them. However there are still inequalities and racism which leave ethnic minorities at a disadvantage.

Ethnic minorities have higher rates of poverty and unemployment; they are more likely to live in poor quality housing in deprived areas, and overall they tend to have poorer health and attainment. There are a number of factors for this, and some of them overlap.

The explanations for inequality of ethnic minorities are mainly either structural or cultural. The structural approaches stress the importance of constraints and factors external' to the group concerned, e.g. racial discrimination, class inequalities and the nature of the labour market.

Cultural approaches focus on internal' features of ethnic minority groups, such as their choices, norms, values and lifestyles, e.g. South-Asian families have large families, and Afro Caribbean people have high rates of single parent families.

However, structural and cultural factors can become blurred together.

When the first post-war migrant workers came to Britain it was generally believed that members of ethnic minority groups were just as likely to commit crime, or to be victims of crime as white people. Nowadays it is different, especially for Black people. In 1997 Smith said, Black people are about 6 times as likely to be in prison as white people or South Asians.' Black people have become associated with the criminal justice system. This is known as the criminalisation of Black people,' to sociologists.

There are 2 explanations for this. Firstly, Black people are seen as disproportionately criminal. This view has been adopted by the police, and has been reinforced by the media, (Hall et al. 1978). Secondly, the criminal justice system is seen as inherently racist and discriminating against Black people. This is a structural explanation as society is being blamed for the inequality.

Another issue is victimisation. It seems black people are more likely to be victims of crime. For example when the black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered the criminal justice system failed to convict those responsible. This led to an official inquiry. The Macpherson Report in 1999 showed there were

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