British Muslims don't commit a lot of crime

Unlike their European counterparts

Written by Noah Carl.

Muslims commit a disproportionate amount of crime in Europe. Groups like Moroccans, Algerians, Somalis, Turks, Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese and Afghans are overrepresented in the crime figures – sometimes dramatically. This is true in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany and France.

But is it true in Britain? The answer is widely held to be “yes”, based on a table that periodically goes viral on social media. The most up-to-date version of that table is shown below.

Table from ‘UK Prison Population Statistics’.

As you can see, Muslims make up 18% of the prison population in England and Wales, despite being only 7% of the general population.¹ Hence they are overrepresented by a factor of 2.6. End of story? Not so fast.

There are two straightforward explanations for the overrepresentation of Muslims in prison. And most of the available evidence suggests that British Muslims actually don’t commit a lot of crime.

The first and less important reason why Muslims are overrepresented in prison is that there are a sizeable number of foreign nationals in British prisons who are Muslim. The single most-overrepresented group is Albanians, who comprise 1.5% of all inmates.² However, the overrepresentation of foreign Muslims can only account for a modest part of the overrepresentation of Muslims in general.

The second and more important reason why Muslims are overrepresented is that a lot of people convert to Islam in prison. There have been numerous reports on this phenomenon, some of which run to dozens of pages. Suffice it to say that converting to Islam in prison is extremely common. Most prisoners who convert do so in search of meaning or belonging, though there is also evidence of bullying and forced conversions. The disgraced Duke of Marlborough claims he converted to Islam to get more food.

Though there aren’t any precise data, it is likely that conversions can explain much or all of the remaining overrepresentation of Muslims in British prisons. To see why, note that Buddhists are actually more overrepresented than Muslims. They make up 1.94% of the prison population, despite being only 0.49% of the general population – which means they’re overrepresented by a factor of 4. There is no evidence that Buddhists are a high-crime group. Rather, many prisoners convert to Buddhism in search of meaning or belonging – the same reason they convert to Islam.

Even Jews are marginally overrepresented. They are 0.57% of the prison population versus 0.48% of the general population. Once again, the most likely explanation is conversions to Judaism in prison.

Since police do not routinely record the religion of suspects, there are no other figures available on crime by religion. What there are, however, are figures on crime by ethnicity. These are useful because we know the exact ethnic composition of British Muslims. Specifically, they are 66% Asian (mostly Pakistani or Bangladeshi), 14% Other (mostly Arab), 11% Black, 6% White, and 4% Mixed. The three ethnic groups with by far the highest percentage of Muslims are Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Arabs. Together they account for 61% of British Muslims.³

What can we say about these groups? They don’t commit a lot of crime in Britain.

Unlike Muslims, Asians are slightly underrepresented in prison. They comprise 8.1% of the prison population versus 9.3% of the general population. Now, Asians includes Chinese and Indians as well as Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, with the former groups having lower crime rates. Which means the two Muslim groups probably are overrepresented in prison. But it’s unlikely they’re substantially overrepresented.

Asians are not only underrepresented in prison, but also in other stages of the criminal justice system. They comprise 8% of arrests, 7% of prosecutions, 6% of convictions, 8% of custodial remands and 7% of custodial sentences. They are also notably underrepresented in the youth justice system (the part of the justice system that deals with under 18s). For example, they make up 12% of the population aged 10–17 but only 5% of children sentenced for indictable offences.

When it comes to arrests, I was able to find a detailed ethnic breakdown. The White British arrest rate is 8.8 per 1,000. By comparison, the three main Muslim groups have arrest rates of 9.3 for Pakistanis, 8.8 for Bangladeshis and just 2.8 for Arabs. So Muslim groups’ arrest rates are similar to or less than the White British rate.

I was also able to find a detailed ethnic breakdown of individuals dealt with by the criminal justice system for indictable offences. The three Muslim groups were slightly underrepresented overall but were slightly overrepresented among those dealt with for the most serious (indictable only) offences. Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Arabs make up 4.4% of the population. And they comprise 3.3% of those dealt with overall versus 4.7% of those dealt with for the most serious offences.⁴

As for White Britons, they were slightly underrepresented overall and were even more underrepresented among those dealt with for the most serious offences. They make up 74.4% of the population. And they comprise 72.1% of those dealt with overall versus 63.7% of those dealt with for the most serious offences.

The evidence suggests that Muslims commit crime at rates that are not substantially higher those of White British people. This is noteworthy given that Muslims are much younger than average, so you’d expect them to commit more crime for that reason alone. The average White person in England and Wales is 43; the average Muslim is only 27.

It’s also worth noting that the average IQ for Pakistanis and Bangladeshis is at least half a standard deviation lower than the average for White British.⁵ So despite being younger and scoring lower on IQ tests than their White counterparts, they do not commit crime at substantially higher rates. On an age-adjusted basis, it’s likely that Muslims commit crime at rates that are only slightly higher than those of White Britons.

Indeed, when I restricted the analysis of individuals dealt with by the criminal justice system to the age range 15–30, the three Muslim groups were slightly underrepresented among those dealt with for the most serious offences. (Although it should be noted that White Britons were more underrepresented.)

Since many leftists believe that Muslims are unfairly demonised and any mention of downsides from Muslim immigration amounts to “Islamophobia”, you’d expect them to be constantly pointing this out. Why aren’t they?

One possible reason is they get caught out by the fact that Muslims are overrepresented in prison. Another reason, I suspect, is that doing so would draw attention to the awkward fact that Black Britons do commit a lot of crime.

Blacks comprise 12.1% of the prison population, 14.1% of those dealt with for the most serious offences and 17.8% of those suspected of homicide. Yet they’re only 4% of the general population. They also have an arrest rate of 21.1 per 1,000, which is 2.4 times the White British rate. (Like Muslims, Blacks are younger than average, so this can account for some of their overrepresentation.)

Incidentally, the fact that Blacks have high crime rates militates against the theory that Muslim crime rates are understated because the authorities look the other way for reasons of political correctness, as they did with grooming gangs. Why would the authorities be concerned about Muslims looking bad but not about Blacks looking bad? Note that Blacks and Asians are similarly underrepresented in the police force.

Okay, so what explains the difference between British Muslims and their European counterparts? Unfortunately, I can only speculate.

One possibility is that British Muslims are more positively selected than Muslims in other European countries. This is probably true to some extent. Studies find that immigrants to Britain (including second generation immigrants) achieve higher scores in international students tests than immigrants to most other European countries. Of course, we’re talking about all immigrants here (not just Muslim immigrants) so we have to be careful.

Another observation consistent with British Muslims being positively selected is that Pakistanis and Bangladeshis achieve similar GCSE scores to Whites despite having lower average IQs. This suggests they may be selected in terms of non-IQ traits like motivation or conscientiousness. Interestingly, lone parent households are marginally less common among Pakistanis and Bangladeshis than they are among Whites – while being substantially more common among Blacks.⁶

Alternatively or in addition, Britain may have simply done a better job of integrating Muslims than other countries in Western Europe.

A third possibility is that British Muslim communities maintain practices of informal social control that are absent or weaker in European Muslim communities. Perhaps in Britain there is more oversight of young Muslim men’s behaviour by community leaders? I have no specific evidence for this theory but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Muslims commit a lot of crime in Europe and it’s widely assumed this is also true in Britain. However, the overrepresentation of Muslims in British prisons can be explained by prison conversions and, to a lesser extent, foreign Muslim prisoners. What’s more, the distribution of crime by ethnicity suggests that Muslims commit crime at only slightly higher rates than White Britons when adjusting for age.

Exactly what explains the difference between Britain and other Western European countries is unclear. Muslim immigrants to Britain being more positively selected is likely part of the explanation. Greater informal social control in British Muslim communities may be another.

The original version of this article stated that the three Muslim groups were marginally underrepresented among those dealt with for the most serious sexual offences. This has been corrected.

Noah Carl is an Editor at Aporia Magazine.

---

Support Aporia with a $6 monthly subscription and follow us on Twitter.

1. In the last census, 6.5% of people gave their religion as Muslim. However, 6% of people declined to answer the question. Dividing 6.5 by 94 yields a figure of 7%.

2. Albanians presumably identify as White.

3. The percentage Muslim is 90% for Arabs, 97% for Bangladeshis and 98% for Pakistanis.

4. Using data from June 2021 to June 2023. (Data from June 2020 to June 2021 were excluded due to the exceptional circumstance of the pandemic.)

5. IQ is an important predictor of criminality.

6. Lone parent households are less common among Pakistanis and Bangladeshis when excluding households where all members are aged 65 or over.