Likelihood of going to prison
The likelihood of black males going to prison in their lifetime is 28% compared to 4% of white males and 16% of Hispanic males.[3] Other social factors include Socioeconomic status, the environment in which a person was raised, and the highest educational level a person achieves. It has been argued by some that the race a person is born into has a substantial effect on the amount of discrimination they experience in their lifetime. In a sociological experiment conducted by Steven Raphael, a black male with no criminal record applying for a certain job had a 14% chance of getting a callback for an interview while a white male applying for the same job had a 34% chance of getting a callback for an interview. If both the black male and white male had criminal records the callback percentage was 5% and 17% respectively.[2] This shows that there are significant negative effects on blacks even after their prison sentence has been served.[clarification needed] With less opportunity than whites to enter back into the workforce after incarceration, blacks end up having a higher rate of return to prison.
The Moynihan Report also blamed the lingering effects of slavery for contributing to the breakdown of the black family, i.e., the rise of single-parent families headed by females (which he called "matriarchy"). Moynihan said the lack of a father in the home led to poor socialization of young black males, e.g., inability to deal with authority; and that matriarchy severely reduced the esteem of men as the family "breadwinner".
[edit]Likelihood of being accused or convicted
Various studies have shown that, in recent decades, there has been no noticeable disparity in black vs white crime statistics in black-run vs white-controlled cities, say Atlanta vs San Diego. In the largest counties, the rates of conviction for accused blacks was slightly less than the conviction rates for whites, for example.[4]
[edit]Racial inequality in the death penalty
There is also a large disparity between races when it comes to sentencing convicts to Death Row. Looking just at the federal death penalty data released by the Department of Justice between 1995–2000, 682 defendants were charged with death-eligible crimes.[5] Out of those 682 defendants, the defendant was black 48% of the cases, Hispanic in 29% of the cases, and white in only 20% of the cases.[3]
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Monday, April 16th 2012 at 5:00PM
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