The true facts of "black crime,"
Reiman, Jeffrey & Dreier, Peter
A key finding in a new Department of Justice report on the nation's prison population is attracting considerable attention: nearly 7 percent of black males were in prison in 1994, compared with...
...Nevertheless, white-collar crime is actually more deadly than street crime...
...Because almost all the looking takes place in innercity areas, it is inevitable that blacks will be overrepresented in arrest statistics...
...A key finding in a new Department of Justice report on the nation's prison population is attracting considerable attention: nearly 7 percent of black males were in prison in 1994, compared with less than 1 percent of white males...
...Violations of the law undermine our social and economic fabric...
...And the more you look, the more you find...
...Moreover, criminologists have consistently found that police departments arrest selectively...
...Why are black males more likely than their white counterparts to end up in prison...
...Police officers' perceptions and behavior are greatly influenced by the skin color, clothing, posture, and "attitude" of the people they see in their daily routine...
...For example, the Department of Justice's National Crime Victims Survey found that 36 percent of victims of violent attacks report that their attackers were black, but blacks made up 44 percent of those arrested for such crimes...
...If you look for drug crimes, you'll find them...
...Predictably, the recent Department of Justice report on imprisonment failed to mention these facts...
...q 10 • DISSENT...
...Fewer African-Americans than whites are in a position to commit white-collar crimes...
...Thanks to racial discrimination by landlords and banks, poor blacks are much more likely than poor whites to live in predominantly low-income neighborhoods, where police concentrate their search for street criminals...
...So it is no surprise that about 25 percent of all blacks in state prisons, compared with 12 percent of whites, are serving time for drug offenses...
...For example, at least twice as many people die from preventable occupational diseases as from "ordinary" murders, but the corporate executives responsible for workplace deaths are almost never treated as 8 • DISSENT Comments and Opinions SOCIALIST SCHOLARS CONFERENCE: April 12, 13, 14 1996 Borough of Manhattan Community College, New York City TWO CHEERS FOR UTOPIA: RE-IMAGINING SOCIALISM Proposed Plenary Sessions (in formation-subject to change) Two Cheers for Utopia: Re-Imagining Socialism Barbara Ehrenreich, Bogdan Denitch, Manning Marable, Luciana Castellina The Left and the Job Agenda Stanley Aronowitz, Frances Fox-Piven, Trudy Goldberg U.S Elections and the Third Party Alternative Gerry Hudson, Bob Wages, Bernie Sanders...
...About 39 percent of black males in the crime-prone ages of sixteen to nineteen are jobless, compared with 16 percent of white males...
...Finally, blacks are more likely to be sent to prison than are whites convicted of similar crimes...
...As a result, black males are more likely to be arrested for activities that whites regularly get away with...
...But we have to ask ourselves why the United States has more people in prison (and a higher rate of imprisonment) than any other democratic industrialized country...
...Four factors explain most of the differences in white and black rates of imprisonment: • First, although most Americans break the law every once in a while—from speeding in a car to cheating on their income taxes—our criminal justice system focuses more of its resources on some kinds of violations than on others...
...They perpetuate racial stereotypes that don't help us address the realities of crime...
...Or consider drug-related crimes...
...Police spend much more time looking for the perpetrators of muggings, shootings, and robberies than for white-collar criminals engaged in tax evasion, consumer product safety violations, medical malpractice, and other high crimes...
...These facts—which seem to confirm the view that a crime-prone African-American underclass is terrifying our society and overwhelming our criminal justice system—are misleading...
...Women's Movements and the Left, Eastern Europe: Democracy Imperiled, What is Happening to Labor...
...The unemployment rate among black Americans is typically twice that of whites...
...A key factor is residential segregation...
...According to the Department of Justice, the number ofAmericans behind bars has now reached 1.1 million, a 9 percent increase over the past year and almost a 300 percent increase since 1980...
...Or can these disparities be explained better by looking at how our criminal justice system operates and at the social conditions that lead to certain kinds of criminal behavior...
...The SPRING • 1996 • 9 Comments and Opinions former is preferred by suburban whites, the latter by inner-city blacks...
...None of this is meant to make excuses for criminals of whatever race or class...
...Cultures of Solidarity Christopher Hitchens, Todd Gitlin, Benjamin Barber, Elaine Bernard...
...Assault on New York City Major Owens, Jerold Nadler, Nydia Velasquez, Ruth Messinger Also...
...Criminologists regard drug arrests as largely discretionary...
...This disparity is even greater among young males, the demographic group most likely to engage in street crime...
...And even when they are apprehended and convicted, they are more likely to be fined than imprisoned...
...It concentrates on crime in the streets rather than crime in the suites...
...One out of every nine white Americans lives below the poverty line compared to one out of three blacks...
...Solidarity Around the World, The Million Men March, France: A New Beginning for the Left, Cuba, Islam, Bosnia...
...Pre-registration: $30.00 (regular) $20.00 (students with ID) At the Door: $45 (regular)$30.00 (student with ID) Send Name, address, affiliation and check to Socialist Scholars Conference, CUNY Graduate Center, 33 West 42 Street, Room 800 New York, NY 10036 criminals...
...For example, sentencing guidelines normally require that the perpetrator have a hundred times more cocaine in powder form than in crack form to trigger mandatory sentencing...
...Second, blacks are more likely than whites to be poor and unemployed, conditions that give rise to street crime...
...Perhaps these trends have something to do with the fact that the United States has the widest disparity of wealth and income among Western nations, declining wages, growing poverty, and persistent racial segregation...
...Is there something about African-American genes or culture that makes blacks seven times more crime prone than whites...
...Third, blacks are more likely than whites to be caught for committing the same crimes...
Vol. 43 • April 1996 • No. 2
