The Relationship of Race and Criminal Behavior: Challenging Cultural Explanations for a Structural Problem

Abstract

Disproportional arrests and conviction rates between blacks and whites in the US criminal justice system is well documented in social research. Many studies have examined the various social explanations for the disproportional arrest rates by race, varying from structural explanations of institutionalized racism and differential poverty outcomes to micro-level analyses of culturally prescribed behaviors. Research that focuses on culturally motivated behaviors may increase the sense of otherness associated with blacks and may minimize the effects of discriminatory criminal justice practices and unequal opportunities. Studies that focus on describing disproportional distributions without also including individual behaviors may also mask successful strategies by blacks avoiding re-arrest as they manage to reintegrate into society. This study analyzes racial differences in recidivism patterns for a cohort of prisoners in the Ohio prison system. Recidivism was tracked for approximately 14 years (through 2006). These ex-prisoners were compared using survival analysis and Cox Regression analysis.

Predicting recidivism for offenders in UK substance dependence treatment: do mental health symptoms matter?

“…In addition, previous research has found an association between ethnicity, reoffending, and type of re-offence (McGovern et al, 2009;Wells-Parker et al, 1989). A recent study by Case (2008) found that non-white offenders were more likely to be re-arrested and reconvicted than white offenders. These findings were replicated, even after controlling for offending history and index offence (McGovern et al, 2009).…”

“…These findings were replicated, even after controlling for offending history and index offence (McGovern et al, 2009). However, when BME prisoners participated in drug rehabilitation programmes, this likelihood reduced by approximately 17 per cent (Case, 2008).…”

The Effects of Child Protective Services and Juvenile Justice System Involvement on Academic Outcomes: Gender and Racial Differences

“…Moreover, they represent the more than 70% of youth who are involved in school-related arrests and are more likely to be sentenced as adults, in spite of state and federal legislation to produce more equitable treatment in courts (Brinkley-Rubenstien, Craven & McCormack, 2014; Mendel, 2011; Rodriguez, 2010; Rodriguez, 2007; United States Department of Education, 2012). Consequently, scholars suggest that these disparities are the result of blatant bias or racial discrimination based on social and structural factors (e.g., poverty, population density, female-headed households, racial composition, residential mobility) or legal factors (e.g., penalties for drug crimes, or the aforementioned unfair sentencing practices) and play a significant role for Black versus White youth (Brinkley-Rubinstein, Craven, & McCormack, 2014; Case, 2008; Freiburger & Jordan, 2011; Mitchell & Caudy, 2015; Sampson & Loeffler, 2010). However, more research is needed to disentangle the complex associations among systems involvement, academic outcomes, and the presence of organizational, systemic, and intersectional structural factors impacting Black youth.…”

Conceptualizing the Carceral Turn: Neoliberalism, Racism, and Violation

“…In addition, the overrepresentation of people of color in detention puts them at greater risk for abuse and injury due to use of force by prison authorities, including widespread use of non-lethal weaponry and ‘pain compliance’ techniques, often indistinguishable from torture (Martin, 2006). Furthermore, race-related disparities in the experience of the criminal justice system correlate with different chances at social integration and opportunity after release from prison (Case, 2008). In this way, the bureaucratic and market rationality of the prison system as a provisional solution to economic and political exigencies coincides with the historical imperative to contain black and brown bodies in particular.…”