Expert weighs in on race, crime and punishment in the U.S.
Richard Rosenfeld
To help us better understand what statistics show us about crime and race, we’ve asked Richard Rosenfeld, curators professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, to start a discussion. He’s put a few thoughts here and then will answer your questions in a chat Tuesday, Feb. 17. Don’t put your questions in this blog, though, use this link.
Race, crime and punishment in the United States
Few subjects generate as much controversy as the role of race in the American crime problem. Or as much myth and factual distortion. I’m a criminologist specializing in the factors underlying crime trends. I’ve pondered the complex relationship between race and crime for much of my career. I’d like to begin today’s discussion by presenting a few facts on race-specific patterns in crime and imprisonment and call your attention to some of the best writing on the topic that seeks to explain those facts.
1. Blacks are nearly 60% more likely than whites to be the victim of an aggravated assault, which are assaults with a dangerous weapon or that cause serious bodily injury (source: National Crime Victimization Survey).
2. Blacks are six times more likely than whites to be killed in a homicide and seven times more likely than whites to commit a homicide. The great majority of homicides involve victims and offenders of the same race (source: Supplementary Homicide Reports).
3. Black homicide offending rates dropped by 51% during the 1990s, when overall U. S. crime rates fell dramatically. White homicide offending rates decreased by 36% during the same period (source: Supplementary Homicide Reports).
4. The black male imprisonment rate is 6.5 times the white male imprisonment rate. In 2007, 8.2% of black males between the ages of 30 and 34 were serving time in a state or federal prison. The comparable figures for whites and Hispanics (who may be of any race) were 1.2% and 2.5%, respectively (source: Bureau of Justice Statistics).
5. The imprisonment rate in the United States has grown by 264% since 1980. Most of this growth resulted from changes in sentencing policies (e.g., mandatory minimum sentences, truth-in-sentencing) and not from rising crime rates (source: Bureau of Justice Statistics; Travis and Visher 2005).
The sources listed below provide some context for these factual observations. Anderson (1999) and Wilson (1990) attribute higher rates of violent crime among African-Americans than whites to the entrenched poverty, joblessness, and racial segregation of many American inner cities. In addition, Anderson argues that these conditions and alienation from the police produce a “code of the street” among some inner-city youth that encourages violent responses to provocations. Yet, it would be incorrect to assume that race differences in violent crime are fixed or timeless. African-American homicide offending rates were cut in half during the 1990s, a period of record economic expansion.
Finally, no meaningful discussion of race and crime in the United States can escape the problem of punishment. The United States imprisons its citizens at a far higher rate than any other nation in the world. About 5% of the world’s population resides in the U. S. but 25% of the world’s prisoners are in American jails and prisons. African-Americans are imprisoned at a far higher rate than whites. Some level of incarceration of course is required as just punishment for crime and to maintain public safety. Beyond that level, however, the incarceration burden poses enormous costs on all of us and may further destabilize impoverished urban communities already hard hit by high crime. Over 700,000 persons return from prison each year, most to the same communities in which they committed the crimes that led to their incarceration. The Travis and Visher (2005) volume addresses the problem of “prisoner reentry” and considers options for reducing imprisonment while safeguarding public safety. All Americans will benefit if such approaches are found to be effective, but none more than African-Americans.
Further reading:
Anderson, Elijah. 1999. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. New York: Norton.
Blumstein, Alfred and Joel Wallman, eds. 2006. The Crime Drop in America. Rev. ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Travis, Jeremy and Christy Visher, eds. 2005. Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, William Julius. 1990. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Jean is projects editor at the Post-Dispatch. She is a member of Bridges Across Racial Polarization, a group devoted to creating friendships and fostering communication among racial and cultural groups in the community. After growing up in a small town in Kansas, she lived in Kansas City and Wilmington, Del., before moving to St. Louis in 2004. She and her husband, Dan Wiggs, live in University City. 
Tell us all something new.
13% of this population commits 50+% of the felonies in our country.
Unless they have an IQ of under 79 I see no excuse. If you know it’s against the law to rape rob kill you can’t claim stupidity.
If you want to start a blog on traits of criminals, we then can see that of that 13% 5 to 7% of them, have genetic gene towards criminality.
From the stats listed above:
Blacks are 7 times more likely to commit a homicide then a white.
Blacks are 6.5 times more likely to be imprisoned then a white.
I would be more likely to take Rosenfeld seriously if he presented straight statistics and not statistics that he had massaged to fit his own preconceived notions. How about giving us the percentage of crimes committed compared to the percentage of race. Blacks are 12% of the population and they commit X% of the crimes. What is the X%? I think that would be the number that would more honestly reflect the percentage of a population that should be imprisoned. If whites were committing 50% of the crimes in America, I would expect 50% of the prison population to be white
First thought: I don’t see the importance of the statistic that always pops up in these discussions: “About 5% of the world’s population resides in the U. S. but 25% of the world’s prisoners are in American jails and prisons.” Huge areas of this planet are filled with “tribal” custom beliefs that place tradition over law enforcement, or just plain lawlessness running amok. How often are crimes committed and the perp caught in all those nations? Our nation values laws and their enforcement, and we are very good at catching and prosecuting criminals even though they are innocent until proven guilty. That stat doesn’t show harshness, it shows efficient projection of the public at large by a nation that values individual rights.
As to the percentages of minority crimes and incarcirations, this is unfortunately not news. Certainly the “entrenched poverty, joblessness, and racial segregation of many American inner cities” has something to do with these numbers. Blacks have not caught back up to the economic and social advantages that whites have gained through their oppression. While this does in my mind help explain the glaring differences, it does not mean that any one individual is exempt from being punished for committing a crime.
A little different twist here, one concerning our legal system and Blacks people.
I will use Owen Welty who is White as an example but let me just first say that I THANK GOD this child who was charged for murder as an adult at 13 years of age was FOUND NOT GUILTY!
Some think that this child was guilty and that his crime was not proved “beyond the shadow of a doubt” was the reason for the not guilty verdict but still believe that he was guilty.
Someone stated:
“Circumstantial cases are Very hard to prove. But circumstantial evidence is still evidence. All of the available evidence indicates the defendant is a murderer. Lets hope our judicial system didn’t just free a killer. And if he kills again, I hope the next victims family understands that the jury was ‘just doing their job.”
While I am very pleased with the outcome of the jury decision, I also realize that if this kid had been Black child he would have been found guilty because first off, if he was Black he would not have the right to a jury of his peers and secondly, White people do not follow the law as suppose to when the person before them is a Black individual.
Most are incapable of allowing Blacks the same considerations of the law as Whites. The law many times is ignored when a Black person is before authorities and jurors (private White citizens) alike.
The sad truth is, a Black child would have more likely than not been convicted on circumstantial evidence by an all White or mostly White jury given the exact same circumstances. The law that states that “guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt” is a law applied usually only to Whites in the U.S. and very rarely Black people.
Tim,
By the way, I agree with you 100%.
D walker
Check out http://www.wm3.org and you will see white kids are wrongly convicted of crimes also. Again the color that thhis has more to do with is green then black or white. If you are able to afford an attorney you have a bettr chance of being found not guilty. But low income people have to use overworked public defenders and sadly don’t get as good of a defense as they should.
Paul L,
I have witnessed too many times attorneys being paid by Blacks who cough up the money paying attorneys their going rate to only work against their client when that client is Black.
Paul L,
By the way, this also happens to White pople but it happens at a more alarming rate to Blacks and I think that it has everything to do with these people not valuing the rights or life of Blacks the same as they do Whites as a whole.
Paul L,
One another thing in defense of attornys who do everything in their power to defend the right sof their Black clients no matter who they are, for example I feel that Scott Rosenblum ids one of those rare attorneys, but Mr. Rosenblum as do all other attorneys who do everything in their power to do right by their Black clients refusing to sell them out, they understand and will admit with fail the hurdle that their Black clients and they face when their Black client must go before White people as jurors. It’s just one of those evil truths.
D-Your posts are getting more and more difficult to comprehend but did I understand you to claim that a lawyer would purposely damage his own reputation just to put another black in jail? They would intentionally “throw” a case? Is that what you are claiming?