When Looking At The Different Fears Of Crime, There Is

Crime has always been a hot topic in sociology. There are many different reasons for people to commit criminal acts. There is no way to pinpoint the source of crime. I am going to show the relationship between race and crime. More specifically, I will be discussing the higher chances of minorities being involved in the criminal justice system than the majority population, discrimination, racial profiling and the environment criminals live in.

Whites are less likely to encounter with the police compared to African Americans. African Americans are twice likely to be arrested and almost four times likely to experience the use of force during police encounters (Costly, 2011). As stated earlier, other sociological factors need to be eliminated to attribute the high number of Black arrests to race. Poverty is known to be a predisposing factor for criminal acts according to the strain theory of

1.) This man who was suspected of a burglary, was a victim of institutionalized oppression from the police officers questioning him. Although the officer confirmed that the call was for a different neighborhood, this man was automatically assumed to be the burglar because he was black, and that in itself was deemed suspicious by the police due to the stereotype of black crime. These officers, who were also black, have internalized oppression about black criminals, which means that they harbor the oppressive thoughts about their own minority group. This leads to the fact that this man was also facing horizontal hostility. Despite the fact that the officers were the same race as the ‘suspect’ they still jumped to conclusions about his actions instead of approaching this man without judgment.

Another common negative stereotype, establishes the African American male as intellectually inferior. Studies directed by psychologist Claude Stale, indicate that African American teenagers are aware that they are stigmatized as being intellectually inferior and the go to school bearing what psychologist Claude has called a “burden of suspicion” Such burden can affect their attitudes and achievements. These shadows hang over stigmatized people no matter their status or accomplishments. These stigmas have the potential to roll them of their individually and debilitate their attempts to break out of the stereotypical roles. Blacks are the repository for the American fear of crime. Ask anyone, of any race, to picture a criminal and the image will have a black face. The linked between blackness and criminality it’s routinized by terms such a “black-on-black crimes” or “black crimes”.

In order to understand the nature of the statistical disparity, the first aspect that must be examined is necessarily the statistics themselves. Recent data (1998) shows that more than two out of every three arrested persons are white (67.6%) and that African Americans account for only 30% of all arrests. More striking is the data adjusted per capita: African Americans are two and a half times as likely to be arrested as whites, and are even more over-represented in violent crimes, for which they are over three times as likely to be arrested. African Americans are five times as likely to be arrested in cases of robbery or murder (Walker et al., 39).

The racial stereotyping of minority groups is a prevalent problem within the United State’s criminal justice system. It is a regrettable issue which permeates American society. The young Black male, in particular, is often portrayed as a criminal based on incorrect assumptions regarding who perpetrates crime. There are several components contributing to the criminal stigma of Blacks. The way crime is conveyed by American culture is possibly as important as how crime actually functions. The widespread belief that Black males commit the majority of crime skews the view society’s perception of Blacks. Typifications of Black males include a violent, threatening, thug-like character. The connection between race and crime is so deeply seeded in

Williams assumes that crime is related to poverty but, as in the US, white communities tend to be much wealthier than communities of color, people are, one more time, induced to stretch poverty into race. Moreover, in order to sustain her point of view, she points out that statistics have proven that in areas where there are many poor whites, the crime rate is almost the same as African Americans and Latino neighborhoods.

Meyer, Castro-Schilo, and Aguilar-Gaxiola (2014) found that lower socioeconomic status resulted in higher fears about safety due to the necessity of living in neighborhoods with higher crime rates. Fear about the safety led to lower levels of activity and subsequently

Welch (2007) instituted her article with details of speculations and theories that coincided to the development of Black criminal labels. Now, the Black criminal labels are basically the stereotypes that black people are commonly involve or associate with regarding with crime. She thought it was a plausible concept to understand the images of crime shown by a society. She explicates on racial stereotypes through crime rates, black involvement in crimes, media, and racial hoaxes. For instance, young black males in America are commonly perceived as violent, gang affiliated, and sustain by other labels everywhere. She mentions “talking about crime is talking about race” which has adapted to the publics’ minds throughout a wide range in history (Welch, 2007; Barlow, 1998, p.151). Welch gives an example of a common white stereotype of African Americans as being less controlled, and more prone to crime than whites which adds to the public’s conception of criminality (2007; Higginbotham, 2002, p.147). Through the various factors, like black involvement in crime have contributed to the criminal stereotyping of blacks. Concerning this, Randall Kennedy interpreted how the reputation of Blacks has been “besieged” by beliefs from white people about inclinations beforehand towards criminal activity that could be traced back to when Africans were held in captivity (1997; Welch, 2007). His statement conveyed that African Americans have had this reputation for decades. The real

This overall inability to predict crime is due to many discrepancies found in the risk assessment. First white defendants were predicted to be less risky than they actually were with white defendants mislabeled low risk almost twice as often as black defendants. Black defendants were 45% more likely to be assigned higher risk scores than white defendants when controlling for prior crimes, future recidivism, age and gender. Black defendants were also twice as likely to be misclassified as being higher risk for violent crimes than white defendants while white defendants that do reoffend with violent crime were 63% more likely to have been misclassified as low risk for violent crime. Finally, black defendants were 77% more likely to be

Differential involvement among African-Americans for violent crimes accounted for over 40% of prison populations and 80% of the disproportionality between black and white incarceration rates (Bloom, 1982). Blumstein (1982) further identified that the exploitation of crime-type specific racial distributions at arrest and in prison indicates, that as the seriousness of the offense decreases, blacks are disproportionately represented in prison (p. 1280). Blumstein (1982) suggested that racial disproportionality alone does not suggest discrimination but rather the life conditions that contribute to the different involvement between the races in serious person crimes (Harris, et. al, 2009).

Figures show that in 2006/07 the arrest rate for blacks was 3.6 times the rate for whites. By contrast, once arrested, black and Asians were less likely tan white to

The hypothesis for this research question would be “If a person is of color, and recognized as a minority, they are more likely to be arrested for violent crimes than a white person.” I expect that this hypothesis will be proven true because of the framing effects of the media, and the stereotypes that minorities face. It also seems like this is a plausible relationship, especially in the current climate. With protests about the police, the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, there has been racial tension throughout the United States. For example, an analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union indicated that “Minneapolis police officers made nearly 100,000 non-felony arrests between Jan. 1, 2012, and Sept. 30, 2014… African Americans and Native Americans were arrested at rates nearly nine times higher than the rate for whites.” It’s important to note that these are non-felony arrests in one city in the United States. So, it is reasonable to consider, due to the racial disparities, that actual felony arrests rates are even higher. In fact, “African Americans make up less than 19 percent of the city 's population, and Native Americans just 2 percent… The arrest numbers don 't include separate categories for Asians and Hispanics” (Williams, Brandt).

The concept of race is an idea that has been socially and historically created. However, as we look closer into race and the role race plays in society, one realizes that education and wealth are unable to provide safety from the consequences of being part of an unfavored racial group. In terms of crime in America, the role of race has been implemented to harm people of color, especially those that are African-American. An African-American and a white person, can commit the same crime, and yet experience the consequences differently.

I understand that some people are afraid of weapons being pranced around in the everyday community, however this fear to me is illogical. This doesn’t make sense to me in a way that it’s essentially a form of crime protection. I can best explain this by saying imagine a community with police. Then imagine them gone all together to where there was no police. It would be chaos. So now imagine the crime rate, as it would be through the roof. This is the same scenario for gun laws. If you have all of these people who legally abide by the gun laws of the area they are in, they will cause the crimes to go down. However, if you take them away what will happen? The crimes will go up. You will still have the police in place and they do a great job as