We've looked at the disproportionate fatal shootings of Black people by U.S. police, and we've examined the victimization and crime rates by the numbers from all angles between white and Black communities. In this essay, I'd like to take the time to analyze why crime rates are disproportionately high in Black communities, and - even more importantly - what can be done to alleviate this problem. There is an undeniable link between poverty and crime. According to the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 2008-2012, "persons in poor households at or below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) (39.8 per 1,000) had more than double the rate of violent victimization as persons in high-income households (16.9 per 1,000)" (Harrell, 2014). Interestingly, Black people living in poverty had a violent victimization rate similar to but actually lower than white people living in poverty, at 51.3 per 1,000 to 56.4 to 1,000. Per the graph below provided by the U.S. Census, the poverty rate for Black communities was much higher than white communities from 2007-2011. Poverty and crime are correlated. Whether or not this implies direct causation is still a matter of debate, but the connection is there. But the plague of poverty affecting Black communities doesn't end there; indeed, the afflictions are a generational curse stemming all the way from the dawn of segregation. According to the Economic Policy Institute: "In 1988, black students typically attended schools in which 43 percent of their fellow students were low-income; by 2006 it had risen to 59 percent (Orfield, 2009). In cities with the most struggling students, the isolation is even more extreme. The most recent data show, for example, that in Detroit, the typical black student attends a school where 3 percent of students are white, and 84 percent are low income (Detroit Public Schools, 2009, Enrollment Demographics as of 11/19/2009)" (Rothstein, 2014). The analysis continues: "Rutgers University Professor Paul Jargowsky has found that in 2011, 7 percent of poor whites lived in high poverty neighborhoods, where more than 40 percent of the residents are poor, up from 4 percent in 2000; 15 percent of poor Hispanics lived in such high poverty neighborhoods in 2011, up from 14 percent in 2000; and a breathtaking 23 percent of poor blacks lived in high poverty neighborhoods in 2011, up from 19 percent in 2000."
Rothstein then mentions that "it is inconceivable that significant gains can be made in the achievement of black children who are so severely isolated". The curse of segregation breeds poverty, and the curse of poverty breeds crime. But it seems as though the curse of being Black is an inescapable one, landing more Black individuals behind bars than any other race or ethnicity. Part III to follow. Sources https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5137 https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2013/acs/acsbr11-17.html https://www.epi.org/publication/the-racial-achievement-gap-segregated-schools-and-segregated-neighborhoods-a-constitutional-insult/
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AuthorMy name is Dani Slaughter. I am a university student from San Antonio, musing about what I see and how I see it. Archives
October 2020
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