Week 10; Race in Criminology Flashcards
Why is there such racial disparity in the criminal justice system?
No racial differences in using or selling of drugs; however, blacks are sent to prison more often and for longer prison terms
What does Tonry argue about racial disparities?
Tonry argues that the racial disparities in prison are a result of the War on Drugs
Black people in serious violent offenses
○ Blacks are more involved in serious violent offense
- 6 times more likely to be murdered than whites
- The firearm homicide rate for blacks is 15.6 per 100,000 compared to 1.9 per 100,000 for whites
* Place matters as well
○ Violent crime not evenly distributed across neighbourhoods
○Disproportionately distributed in segregated black neighbourhoods marked with much poverty and surrounded by similar communities
- Sampson and Bean call these areas killing fields
What is the Racial Invariance Thesis?
race holds no credibility as a cause of violence
- Reason for the lack of attention to race can be traced to the view that the causes of crime are the same regardless of race
- Argue that people engage in crime because of exposure to criminogenic social factors
Problem with the Generality Approach?
Can lead to race being ignored
What is Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General theory of crime?
○ Blacks and whites enter crime for the same reasons
○ Argue that racial differences should focus on differential child - rearing practises, which is the source of low self control
○ Do not need to ascribe differences to culture and strain because of structural inequality
- Their theory could be enhanced if bringing race into the picture and explaining why black parents may struggle more in parenting practises
What did Du Bois say in The Philadelphia Negro?
- addressed the role of racial animus in crime in the early 20th century
○ Although subtle, still dangerous - Blacks unfairly blocked from advancement, which breeds an atmosphere of rebellion and discontent
Some scholars today have been paying attention to race, generally they focus on three major factors:
- Structural theory
- Cultural theory
- Perceived discrimination theory
Social Disharmony & Racial Injustice
- Legacies of slavery and failed reconstruction
- Urbanization and migration to cities
- Social environment of exclusion
- Poor housing condition —> economic exclusion —> racial prejudice
- Structural strain & rebellion
What are the two types of economic inequality by Judith and Peter Blau?
Achieved and Ascribed
What is achieved economic inequality?
based in educational attainment, etc. and seen as just
What is ascribed economic inequality?
based on gender, race etc. and seen as unjust
○ Ascribed inequality leads to frustration, resentment and higher rated of violence
Blau and Blau research in structural theory?
- Blau and Blau found support for the effect of economic inequality on overall violent crime rates in U.S standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSAs)
○ But recent research has found little evidence that the degree of economic inequality between races is related to black rates of violent crime
○ Thus, contemporary structural theory does not argue that between race economic inequality alone motivates high rates of black violence
William Julius Wilson’s research in Structural theory?
- William Julius Wilson suggests that, beyond economic deprivation, the spatial arrangement of black communities in relation to white communities is critical
○ Details interrelated demographic, social, and economic changes in U.S inner cities in the post - World War ll era
- These shifts along with discriminatory policies created a structural milieu for many black communities
□ Shift from manufacturing jobs led to extensive loss of jobs in the urban core, which led to unemployment and delayed marriage- Whites and middle class blacks fled, leaving a concentration of economic disadvantage, with black communities being spatially and socially isolated
Sampson and Wilson research in structural theory?
- Sampson and Wilson provide an explanation of community level racial differences in crime
○ Extreme disadvantage and social/spatial isolation of the inner city serve to alter its cultural landscape
- Cognitive landscape or norms of standards, expectations of conduct, and tolerances of behaviour are shaped in the inner city, where crime, disorder, and drug use are expected as part of everyday life
□ These are ecologically structured norms - norms that stem from a disadvantaged context rather than a monolithic subculture
□ Crime and disorder are not valued, but rather tolerated and accepted because mainstream behaviours in this environment are irrelevant, which leads to high rates of violent crime
□ If whites lived in these areas, the racial differences would disappear (racial invariance hypothesis)
