The Relationship Between Race and Crime Essay

In this article, Robert, April, and Jorge (2010) acknowledges previous research reports on this topic and reveals that race, and racial patterns have found their way in involvement of crime. However, Robert, April, and Jorge (2010) argue that there is no significant proof that there are meaningful racial disparities in the legal systems. Although some literatures provide research on the existence of racial profiling by police, in imprisonment, and sentencing, other researchers report no significant racial disparities in the legal systems (Black and Reiss, 1970; Pilivian and Briar, 1964). However, other researchers report on ample racial disparities based on race. These researches are controversial because the size of the differences in such reports tends to bring up the question of meaningfulness of the differences observed (Wilbanks, 1987).

Minorities remain overrepresented in crime, offending, victimization, and all stages of the criminal justice process especially confinement. Overrepresentation alludes to a situation in which a greater part of a particular group is present at various stages within the justice system than would be expected based on its part in the general population (Rosich, 2007). Minorities have always had a larger population in the prison system and after the Civil War they were overrepresented in American prison. There are a few reasons as to why races are disproportionately which are denial of jobs, poverty, and it is felt that police have bias and

Chapter 4 in The Color of Justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America, was about the relations between society and law enforcement officers. This has been a major topic, especially in the United States for a long time. The unfortunate statistic that minorities are more likely to encounter being killed, arrested, and victimized by excessive physical force; has been a real issue even in today’s society. However, police departments are trying to combat the way police officers interact with the community; especially those of color. Although steps have been takes there are still some instances where police aggression happens. With all of the issues that arise between certain minority populated community’s police it is evident that conflict

In 2009, a survey showed that blacks were arrested for drug possession more than three times as often as whites, and a survey made in 2011 showed that whites have abused drugs more than blacks (The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive). Yet, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one out of every 3 black males can expect to go to prison in their lifetime, and 225,000 of the people who were serving time in state prisons for drug offenses in 2011, blacks made up 45 percent while whites comprised of just 30 percent. One must question, why is there a disproportionate number of African Americans in the criminal justice system? Well, the majority of Americans are unaware of this mass incarceration and outright racism in the criminal justice system. When we think of racism, we think of the 1930’s-60’s, slavery, and Jim Crow which come to mind, but what

Statistics do show that African Americans have a higher percent of crime rates than Caucasians. African Americans makes up thirteen percent of the countries total population; however they also make up thirty-one percent of all of the arrests. “... analysts say, [police] stop many more blacks and Hispanics on highways and on city streets then they do whites” (“Crime and Race”). Do the police target these minority races merely on race? Analysts not only believe the idea of racial profiling, they refute it. They consider the fact that these races commit more crimes than whites do. The high crime rates of minorities are argued that the minorities are arrested at a higher rate than whites because a higher population of minorities live in poor neighborhoods. Areas where unemployment is high, poverty is common, and schools are unfunded. Many socialists point out that crime tends to correlate with both poverty and unemployment. These factors may make minority youth feel they have to turn to criminal activities because of the “blocked opportunities” other adolescent people might receive. Minorities are not arrested at higher rate because they are targeted by police, they are just committing more crimes for the reason that they live in deprived regions (“Update: Crime and Race”).

Less is known about the extent of discrimination at the arrest stage, in part because underlying rates of criminal activity by race cannot be easily assessed. Some evidence comes from comparing the race distribution of offenders derived from victims’ surveys with the racial composition of individuals arrested for the same crime. Two studies have found that these distributions are roughly comparable for many violent crimes.

Racial profiling isn’t something new to today’s society. Most recently there were incidents in which the officers were accused of mistreating blacks such as Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. “Racism versus professionalism: claims and counter-claims about racial profiling” written by Vic Satzewich and William Shaffir discusses racism versus professionalism with officers. Their argument is more biased towards the police force and they argue that it’s part of their job. “

Racial profiling and the war on drugs play an huge role on the minority incarceration rate. According to the race and the war on drugs article “one in three black men between the ages of 20 and 29 are currently either or probation , parole or in prison.In seven states between 80% and 90% of prisoners serving time for drug offenses are black “(Fateman Gunja ). In 1973 a mandate from the public started “ get tough on crime” This started

While both sides of this deeply entrenched controversy substantiate meaningful claims, neither of their arguments is exhaustive, although Walker, Spohn, and DeLone’s case is much more convincing. African American arrest statistics are best understood as the convergence of both a somewhat higher incidence of crime as well as racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. Although higher incidence of crime may initially appear to justify higher arrest rates, there is significant evidence demonstrating that not only is African American crime exaggerated by a racially discriminatory criminal justice system (one of the products of which is disparate arrest rates), the greater crime rates in and of themselves are a result of economic inequality.

The existence of racial disparity and structural inequality within the criminal justice system renders the concept of true justice for all unobtainable. The statistics of convictions and prison sentences by race definitely support the concept that discrimination is a problem in the justice system as well as the insignificantly number of minority judges and lawyers. There are a multitude of circumstances that influence these statistics according to the “Central Eight” criminogenic risk factors. The need for programs and methods to effectively deter those at risk individuals has never been greater and the lack of such programs is costing society in countless ways.

The Mass Incarceration in the United States is a major topic of discussion in our society and has raised many questions about our criminal justice system. There are few topics disputed as much in criminal justice as the relationship between race, ethnicity, and criminal outcomes. Specifically, the large disparities that minorities face regarding incarceration in our country. Minorities such as Hispanics and African Americans are sentenced at far higher rates than their white counterparts. There are multiple factors that influence this such as the judicial system, racial profiling by law enforcement, and historical biases (Kamula, Clark-Coulson, Kamula, 2010). Additionally, the defendants race was found to be highly associated with either a jail or prison sentence; with the “odds increasing 29 percent for black defendants, and 44 percent for Hispanic defendants” (King, Johnson, McGeever, 2010).

There are so many more African-Americans than whites in our prisons that the difference cannot be explained by higher crime among African- Americans - racial discrimination is also at work, and it penalizes African- Americans at almost every juncture in the criminal justice system.1

The purpose of this paper is to first define intersectionality and how it is linked to issues such as class, race, gender and crime. Secondly, it will discuss why intersectionality is important to understand crime and justice. In order to understand the relationship between intersectionality and crime, a particular issue will be reviewed from the crime and delinquency issues of 2014. Out of the 52 articles, this paper will first look at the number of titles and abstracts that discuses race, class, gender or other social inequalities. Lastly, out of the 52 articles reviewed, five will be thoroughly examined and discussed that best address intersectionality and how these issues are link together.

The 26th President of the United States, Teddy Roosevelt, once said “Criminality is in the ultimate analysis a greater danger to your race than any other thing can be” (Youtube). By this he means that the greatest danger to one’s race is crime. Crime will take down a race and even put a negative label on a race for all people to see. Marvin E. Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti stated that “Statistics on homicide and other assaultive crimes in the United States consistently show that Negroes have rates between four and ten times higher than Whites” (). This statement is definitely true because blacks do indeed have the highest rates of crimes committed even though Whites commit more crime. They shower higher involvement in crime than whites do. In 2013, about 660,000 crimes of interracial violence that involved blacks and whites occurred. Blacks were the perpetrators 85 percent of the time. This meant a black person was 27 times more likely to attack a white person than white person attacking a black. A Hispanic was eight times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa (The Color of Crime). With this said those being of a certain race does not determine their fate as it relates to committing a crime. Factors

Violent crime has consistently been a significant issue throughout U.S. history, especially between racial and ethnic groups. As a country, we’ve had to deal with violent crime dating back to slavery in the 1600’s, up unto today with issues such as police brutality against racial and ethnic minorities. Researchers have found that segregation between races within neighborhoods can have a heavy influence on violent crime (Hipp 2007; Krivo, Byron, Calder, Peterson, Browning, Kwon, Lee 2014), although not all literature had the same results. Three races that were used throughout the research were Blacks, Whites, and Latinos. Within racially segregated neighborhoods, those with a higher percentage of African Americans experience higher rates of violent crime (Hipp 2007). The same thing can also be said about Latinos. Among racially