Why do blacks make up 44% of inmates when they are only 12% of the population?

Question

http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/usa/incarceration/

Answer 1

Most people in prisons come from low income situations regardless of race. Law enforcement focuses a lot on impoverished areas, especially ghettos and barrios thus making it fairly easy to arrest criminals in those areas. On the other hand, white crime goes mostly unpunished as a result of no real focus in the areas where they live and they are not as centrally isolated as the areas described above.

Answer 2

unfortunately a large percentage of black population is located in the inner city and high crime areas. It is an ethnic issue but also a location issue. More police resources go into these high crime areas leading to more arrests. In the suburbs and counties there is a higher percentage of crimes without arrests. Racial profiling is an issue in this country but is not a chief issue in this instance. Police go where they are called and patrol where they are needed. Drug arrests are higher in urban areas because they are more easily recognized. Repeat offenders often set up shop in the old neighborhoods. Rearrests are counted as an instance. This leads to higher numbers in the inner city.

Answer 3

Because in spite of all the laws preventing discrimination, black people are still discriminated against for jobs and some of them turn to crime.

You are obviously not color-blind. Are you an employer perchance? How many black people do you employ? If you are an employee, look around you. How many managers/supervisors in your place of work are black?

I don't believe in affirmative action. I believe the best person should get the job or the place in a school regardless of their race. However, the people who make these decisions are often white, and often put their prejudices before their school/company interests. I know if I was a college dean I would want the most excellent students. I know if I was a business owner I would want the best workforce. But I am not everybody. I don't have those deeply ingrained prejudices because my parents never did. When I was a child I had white dolls and black dolls. Growing up I had white friends and black friends. I feel pretty much as comfortable around black people as I do around white people. Race and religion are total non-considerations when I hire people to work for me (I'm a department head). Unfortunately for so many people, they are burdened by the prejudices of their parents or growing up in places where racism was rife. I feel genuinely sorry for them, not having the opportunity to get to know people from other backgrounds and cultures (and colors) because this thing in their upbringing deprived them. I do not know how it feels myself, but can appreciate how hard it must be to abandon deeply ingrained prejudices and go against everything you knew when you were young.

On the other side of the coin, when people are deprived of jobs, they often turn to the government for support. When opportunities persistently fail to present themselves, they get sucked into the welfare system. And indolence and the lack of self-esteem it causes is a key trigger for resorting to crime.

FDR established the welfare system for people like my parents and grandparents, who were dirt poor and on the verge of starvation during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. This terrible national poverty was a shared experience for white and black people alike. Welfare was always meant to be a temporary thing until the country and the population got back on its feet. It was the only thing we could do in light of the fact that over 100,000 American citizens starved to death during the period. We were harder hit than any other country in the world because we relied on a risky financial system and after the First World War we lived the life of Riley while Europe still rationed. Anyway, FDR had worried before he died that the welfare system would become like a narcotic to those who took advantage of it for too long a period, and he was right on the money about that. It is a persistent problem, the indolence that living on somebody else's taxes causes, and of course it's not just limited to the United States. It is the primary reason why unemployment across Europe is so relatively high. The other thing about Europe is the racial make-up of welfare recipients is different. There, the majority are white.

If you want to get people off welfare, you have to give them jobs. You can't just say, "You're on your own", you have to say, "Here is a job you can do; take it - or you're on your own". Instead, governments say "We need immigration - we need people from other countries to come and clean hotel rooms, drive cabs, work in factories and do agricultural work". Why? Because as long as the government allows, businesses will continue to hire foreigners - including illegals - to do these jobs to maximize their profits.

Governments have to do more to lick these problems. They need to invest in job counselling and training for people who are on welfare, they need to raise the minimum wage and make sure employers strictly adhere to codes and practices, they need to make the legal requirements for the hiring of unskilled workers the same as they do for skilled workers, i.e. you can only employ a foreigner if no American is able to do the same job. You need to show people who have never worked the benefit of working. It's not just about making money, but about making friends and the personal reward of doing something useful, and eventually being so good at it you are promoted and get to teach other people what you know. NOBODY can tell me they work just for the money; I have not met a single person in my life who did not get some other form of satisfaction out of their jobs, no matter how simple. Lord knows a professional maid is a better cleaner than me and could teach me more good tips than I could ever remember; I could never become a better gardener than someone who does it for a living. There is no shame in these jobs, there is expertise. When we, and especially the able-bodied people who don't work for a living appreciate this, we will solve a lot of the problems in our society.

Thanks for reading.

Answer 4

Oh boy, talk about a complex question.

There are many factors that contribute to that.

(A quick warning people, I am going to be throwing around statistics and odds. This means I will be making dangerously sweeping generalizations. I in no way mean to imply anything about any race.)

Crime, especially drug crime, has higher 'bust' rates in poorer neighborhoods. Statistically speaking blacks are more likely than whites to be poor. So they get busted more often. Also there is a fair amount of racial profiling that the cops do (which is a issue for discussing another day). Financial status also impacts the quality of the lawyer you get subsequent to your arrest.

Then the asinine 'three strikes' rules are thrown in. Since black people are more likely to be caught and subsequently convicted, statistically they are more likely to rack up the three strikes before a group of whites (assuming all other factors being equal). (Check out the stats in income brackets among prisoners. For every Ken Lay or Scott Peterson there are hundreds of lower class prisoners)

But it is not all about statistics. In the long term I think that there are cultural influences on young black men (especially the young men) that work against them. Rap videos and hip-hop songs glorify violence and drug use and the denigration of women. Black youths are discouraged from excelling in school by their peers. They are bombarded with images of how a 'man' and especially a black man is supposed to behave. Many of these images promote outright hostility towards police and rule of law. Under this inundation of cultural 'norming' I think it would be foolish to assume it had no impact on children. I think that it makes young black men more likely to commit a crime than say a white kid who grew up with Seventh Heaven and country music. (Do not by any stretch of the imagination think that I mean to say that every rap-listening young black man is a criminal in training and white kids are inherently less criminal. Rather I think that black men face a culture that works against them in a way that young white men don't)

Incidentally, yes I am the whitest-white girl of them all (heck, I'm downright phosphorescent in low light) so this is all theory I've gathered from research and talking to my black friends. I have no personal experience or education specific to this. Like I said, I was speaking in dangerously broad and sweeping generalizations.

A long post, but I hope it helps.

EDIT:
Wow, there are some really infuriating posts on here. 'The after effects of being enslaved' True Blue? Do we think so little of our dark-hued friends to think that what happened to their ancestors trump their individual drive to succeed and intelligence? They are just as capable as anyone one else. Plenty of people of all races have pulled themselves up by the bootstraps from horrible conditions.

And Adam B, I don't even know where to begin on your post. 'They don't know better'?! I'm just gonna go before I start spewing acid through my eyes or something. It's that infuriating.

Answer 5

Because the 12% do 44% of the crimes.

Answer 6

Couple of reasons-

Fundamentally, a lack of self-esteem and productive morality.

Assholes within the black community that equate success with selling out.

The glorification of thuggery promoted by dickmunches like 2pac and David Stern.

Answer 7

I know that people are going to right that the laws are written to be racial predigest against black people. I think that LAWS are blind, if you aren't committing a crime you won't be caught doing it. So simple put , They are committing the crimes there for they are in jail for it.

Answer 8

I didn't want to tell the world about the "GREAT WHITE CONSPIRACY"-but here goes---All white people,especially cops,go out of their way to oppress blacks.The very first thing that comes into our heads when we wake up is"What can I do to oppress a black person today?"It is judges,prosecutors,witnesses--EVERYONE.I can't believe you didn't know about this.Don't you listen to al sharpton ,jesse jackson and louis farakan?

Answer 9

Because they're still suffering the effects of being enslaved. They tend to have a lower income and less education than many other ethnic groups. People who have less money and less education are more apt to resort to crime; hence the higher percentage of black people in prison. It's a vicious cycle that needs to end.

Answer 10

my opinion is that black people, especially in ghettos, use violence as a tool. Violence is not abnormal, human beings are violent in nature, we use to kill each other with wooden clubs, hundred of thousands of years ago, over meat, shelter, or female. We still do this but with pistols or knives, explosives, etc, over money, houses, women, its still kind of the same , but we have different rationale these days. But black people in ghettos are poor and they need money so they kill or rob for it. Black people in prison is not hard to understand. Just look at how alot of them live. AIDS in Africa, etc. Its not their fault they just dont know any better, they should know that real power, real turf is won through brains and charisma, Charisma goes alot further, look at Adolf Hitler, he was so charismatic and he was able to persuade millions. Thats real power. Not shooting a few black rivals with a pistol in the dark night over 4 dollars.