America 's Fear Of Crime

“It’s a war going on. The ghetto is a cage. They only give you two choices, be a rebel or a slave” Dead Prez, ‘Turn off the Radio’, 2002. It’s an epidemic that’s happening in major cities across America; racialized black and latino youth are pipelined directly into the criminal justice system through different institutions starting at a young age. These boys are marked for illegitimate gang activity at an early age, initiating the ongoing process where they are stigmatized in every aspect of their life for their negative credentials before they even have the opportunity to prove themselves. Victor Rios, author of Punished, names this phenomenon the Youth Control Complex and shadows several youth in the Oakland area, in hopes of bringing light to these injustices. Rios, having grown up in the ghetto himself, knows firsthand what it takes to escape this inevitable incarceration; mentorship from adults who care and opportunity fueled by the individual. The Youth Control Complex effectively criminalizes these boys at a young age, however through the sociological imagination one can see that the conditions are part of larger structural and societal processes.

Over policing in African American communities started during the drug wars and continue to result in over drug arrests of African Americans. Over policing may also occur when police concentrate their efforts not on illegal activity, but on citizens behavior with the hope that in the process of the investigation some evidence of crime may be uncovered. Some police activities such as undercover drug buys are more common in African American communities than other communities and consequently disproportionate numbers of African Americans are arrested for drug dealing (Nunn, 2002). When it comes to violent or non drug crimes there is a clear victim and suspect, and the police can go to the crime scene and investigate. On the other hand when it comes to drug related offences, there isn’t a clear victim and the police can choose when and where to investigate. Police choose to target African American communities because they are easier to target, which results in over drug arrests (Mauer, 199, p.143). The police focus on substances that blacks buy, sell, and places where they would sell them, which results in high drug arrests rates. For example in 2008, the drug arrests of blacks was 3.5 times higher than whites (Tonry, 2011 p. 54). One would wonder if the government and law

The purpose of this study is to expose the process of mass incarceration of poor black males, and females increasingly, within the context of a fabricated war on drugs which really is serving to keep the prison population booming by exploiting traditionally disadvantaged minorities in society. Alexander rightfully calls this a ?redesign? of the old racial caste system in America which was supposed to have been destroyed by the civil rights movement. The war on drugs in the 80s merely became the newest vehicle by which to exploit the black community in this country. The War on Drugs is really the rationale for racial control, which targets black men and women and relegates millions of citizens to what Alexander calls a ?second class status (Alexander, 2012).?

In today’s society, discrimination is an issue that is considered to be a thing of the past. In a country with such diversity it is hard to believe that people living in the “land of the free” face issues of racism. This paper will focus specifically on the social problem of mass incarceration of minority groups and how the criminal justice system targets these groups. Although this social problem can be linked to specifically African Americans, the impacts of mass incarceration can be felt by almost everyone. I have chosen three articles that focus on how the criminal justice system is masking mass imprisonment a major problem in minority communities.

Since the beginning of this great nation there has always been a racial caste systems due to slavery, money, and greed. The End of slavery was after the civil war and enfourced through the 13th Amendment. The loophole that was created that was the exception that criminals can be treated as a involuntary servitude, which was noted in the U.S constitution. To speed things along you have the slavery which transferred to convicted leasing to Jim Crow Era and now Mass Incarceration which all has striped millions of the people, whom are in the lower caste systems, away from their families similar to slavery. This paper focus on how mass incarceration has become the new form of Jim Crow and slavery. The United Stated population represent 5% of the world population, but we have 25% of the world prisoners (NAACP). In the USA people of color represent 30% of the populations but contributes to 60% of those who are imprisoned(NAACP). I hope that that this study will open up conversations that the we are in a new form of Jim Crow and how Mass Incarceration should be tentatively looked through and help come up with ways to make Mass Incarceration go away. As social workers we must advocate for the people who cannot advocate for themselves, rather it is because of money or lack of education they do not know how they are being taking advantage of. It is in our hearts to make sure that everyone is in the same postion so that they can be the best that they can be. The purpose of this study

Brent Staples’ essay, “When the Paranoids Turn Out to be Right,” acknowledges the issues of racism and racial profiling committed by police. In “Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun,” Geoffrey Canada also expresses views on this issue when he asserts that police fail to protect and serve individuals in poor neighborhoods. Staples contends, “Among the day-to-day acts of discrimination that shadow African Americans, none are more stressful or dangerous than those committed by police, some of whom treat black people as criminals until proved otherwise.” (Staples. 380) Although statistics show that the looming presence of narcotics and violence is more prevalent in urban neighborhoods, police should apply the same effort to protect individuals in these

Recent sociological studies have focused on pressing social issues such as urban crime and mass incarceration, and examining the invisible link between urban crime, poverty and race. Research indicates that mass incarceration has always worked to the detriment of African Americans, especially the low-income earners (Western, 2006). The aftermath of this trend is that the employment prospects of former felons are significantly diminished (Pager, 2007). Felon disfranchisement in turn distorts the local and national politics of the county (Uggen, 2006). This paper focuses on addressing the contemporary trends and ramifications of mass incarceration of African Americans, and elucidating on the criminal justice policy and the factors contributing to the intangible but real racial divide.

However, as Billy Lamar Brooks Sr. explained in “The Case for Reparations,” if “you got a nice house, you live a nice neighborhood, then you are less prone to violence, because your space is not deprived.” But if “you grow up in a place like this, housing sucks. When they tore down the projects here, they left the high-rises and came to the neighborhood with that gang mentality. You don’t have nothing, so you going to take something, even if it’s not real. You don’t have no street, but in your mind it’s yours” (Coates). By Brooks’ standards, people turn to gang violence because they have no space and want something that defines them as a person. Once again, the negative assumptions associated with Blacks today, such as that all Blacks are criminals, derive from the segregation in the past. While some African Americans are criminals, they often are such because they were forced to live in segregated communities with fewer opportunities. To reduce crime, the government must open more programs that provide impoverished communities with “something that defines

The past quarter century has seen an enormous growth in the American incarceration rate. Importantly, some scholars have suggested that the rate of prison growth has little to do with the theme of crime itself, but it is the end result of particular U.S. policy choices. Clear (2007) posits that "these policy choices have had well-defined implications for the way prison populations have come to replicate a concentrated occurrence among specified subgroups in the United States population in particular young black men from deprived communities" (p. 49).

African-Americans are more likely than others to have social histories that include poverty, exposure to neighborhood violence, and exposure to crime-prone role models. For example, African-American children with no prior admissions to the juvenile justice system were six times more likely to be incarcerated in a public facility than white children with the same background that were charged with the same offense. A major study sponsored by the Department of Justice in the early 1980s noted that juvenile justice system processing appears to be counterproductive, placing minority children at a disproportionately greater risk of subsequent incarceration (Deadly Statistics: A Survey of Crime and Punishment, 2000). This writer?s grandmother retired after more than thirty years as a welfare social worker for Los Angeles County. She has stated on more than occasion that the government is the main reason that most black men are in jail awaiting the death penalty today. In the sixties and early seventies, she says that women on welfare were not allowed to have men in the home, even the father of the children. These fatherless generations of men seem more prone to crime,

“The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison” (Alexander, 2012). The numbers tell the story better than words can: black people are more likely to go to prison than any other race in the United States, shown by the fact that more than 60% of the prison population is composed of people of color (The Sentencing Project, 2016). These statistics can be traced back to several different cause, including the Era of Jim Crow and the War on Drugs, both of which led to higher policing in minority areas.

“As the walls of the ghetto shook and threatened to crumble, the walls of the prison were correspondingly extended, enlarged and fortified. . .” (Wacquant 2002:52). In his account, Wacquant implies that once ghettos began to disperse, American society required a new place for African Americans to reside: prison. Reading this article, one would never know that African Americans existed outside ghettos and prisons. The concept of African Americans in suburbia or anywhere of decent living standards is ignored completely. There is no dispute over the “racially skewed mass imprisonment” (Wacquant 2002:56) of black men and women, but not only African Americans inhabit ghettos and the “inner city.” However, the “centuries-old

When looking at the different fears of crime, there is a common trend that can be spotted early on. The common fear between whites and blacks is when it involves a stranger and having something taken from them. Whether it be being cheated or conned out of money, which averaged out to 8.0 for both groups. Additionally, it can be seen in having your car stolen or having someone break into your home while you’re away. Each of these instances show that for white and black groups in the Tallahassee area, whether it be FAMU or FSU students, were very similar in cases of robbery and being approached by strangers. However, it can also be identified that the black groups averages scored higher than that of the white groups. Showing that there is a

Way, Lori Beth, and Ryan Patten. Hunting for “Dirt bags”, edited by Lori Beth Way, and Ryan Patten, Northeastern University Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/apollolib/detail.action?docID=1093565. This book offers information of the policies of New York City, and other large urban centers and their long living policies of “zero tolerance policing” or “order maintenance” and how these deal with catching criminals before a crime is committed. These policies have contributed to growing racial tensions and have lowered crime rates nationwide as many departments utilize these methods of catching suspects. However, they have negatively impacted the black and Latino communities as they are concentrated in the low income diverse neighborhoods. The book offers qualitative and quantitative data on the nature of the American criminal justice system and its contributions to this prevalent issue. The book also provides evidence of the existing carceral society focusing on punishment and deterrence versus reform and

Gilchrist et al (1998, pg283) explains that the fear of crime has become a phenomenon and one that will be discussed within this journal review exploring whether or not women’s fear is rational or not. McLaughlin (2001) cited in Kinsella, C (2005) defines fear of crime as ‘…a rational or irrational state of alarm or anxiety engendered by the belief that one is in danger of criminal victimisation’. Campbell (2005, pg120) explains that due to social political mobility, women’s fear of rape is heightened, thus women are dependent on men to protect them from other men, however, it has been shown that family members and close friends are normally the rapists. Alongside this, Campbell (2005, pg121) continues to explain that through a criminological and victimological viewpoint, the institutional, political and cultural surroundings additionally express that women are more at risk than men. The British Crime Survey contributes further evidence of women being assaulted by men they know as the survey showed that 32% of women were sexually assaulted by a partner compared to 8% by strangers.