Independent variables
Black population was included to the study in order to observe to what extent race (Blacks) is related to outcome variables (violent, property, and Part 2 arrests). We hypothesized that Blacks are disproportionately arrested than Whites. Along with the Black population, we included the population of each block group to standardize their racial compositions.
Studies suggest that there is a reciprocal relationship between the number of arrests and the number of crime in a given area. For this reason, the police more likely to patrol in those areas based on the principles of hot spot policing as discussed above. In order to capture this conception/construct, we employed three proxy variables. The first one is the block
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At the neighborhood level, we used three variables. The first variable is the number of liquor stores in neighborhoods. A growing body of literature suggests that concentration of liquor stores is related to crime and arrest counts (Conrow, Aldstadt, & Mendoza, 2015; Gorman, Speer, Gruenewald, & Labouvie, 2015; Lipton et al., 2013; White, Gainey, & Triplett, 2012; Zhu, Gorman, & Horel, 2004). The second variable is the percent vacant houses in neighborhoods. Studies suggest that high number of vacant houses is a robust indicator of neighborhood deterioration (Hannon & Cuddy, 2006; Spelman, 1993). These areas cause criminals to gather around for certain criminal purposes (i.e., drug use, selling, burglary) that foster deviant behavior (Hannon & Cuddy, 2006; Newman, 1972).
TABLE 2 IS ABOUT HERE
The last variable is the neighborhood level concentrated disadvantage which includes four different neighborhood level indicators: percent female headed households , percent rental properties , percent violent crimes , and percent households living under poverty line . Since these variables are highly correlated with each other, we created a measure of “concentrated disadvantage” by merging them with the function of factor analysis of SPSS 21.
TABLE 3 IS ABOUT HERE
As presented in Table 3, merging these three variables under one factor is statistically confirmed by the results of the factor analysis. The acceptable value for
The Mass Incarceration in the United States is a major topic of discussion in our society and has raised many questions about our criminal justice system. There are few topics disputed as much in criminal justice as the relationship between race, ethnicity, and criminal outcomes. Specifically, the large disparities that minorities face regarding incarceration in our country. Minorities such as Hispanics and African Americans are sentenced at far higher rates than their white counterparts. There are multiple factors that influence this such as the judicial system, racial profiling by law enforcement, and historical biases (Kamula, Clark-Coulson, Kamula, 2010). Additionally, the defendants race was found to be highly associated with either a jail or prison sentence; with the “odds increasing 29 percent for black defendants, and 44 percent for Hispanic defendants” (King, Johnson, McGeever, 2010).
Neighborhood factors include aspects such as socioeconomic status and urbanization. Socioeconomic status is one of the main correlates of crime and delinquency, and neighborhoods with low socioeconomic status often lack sufficient money and resources (Sampson and Groves 1989, 780). In the book, LaJoe was unemployed and received governmental aid every month to buy groceries, pay the rent, and support her many children. She lacked the money to buy her
Hot spots policing revolves around the idea that crime is focused in small problem locales, and that crime can be more efficiently reduced if police concentrate their efforts on those smaller areas (Papachristos & Hureau, 2012). By stopping crime in smaller areas, it is easy to prevent it from growing in larger parts. Activities like patrolling high crime areas and presence of law enforcement officers in the area are performed will reduced crime (Hot spots policing, 2017, What is the focus of the intervention?). “When authors calculated the overall
Given this context, three neighborhood level variables, number of liquor stores, percent vacant houses, and concentrated disadvantage were determined as the best level-2 predictors to explain neighborhood level substantial variance identified by the unconditional model. Table 9 shows the introduction of these three level-2 variables in the HLM equation. When these level-2 predictors are added to unconditional model, level-2’s (intercept, mean level of violent crime arrests) variance component was substantially reduced.
Three correlates of criminality in the film were: poverty, mental health status, and family circumstances. The neighborhood, Beecher Terrace was the low-income area where most of the prisoners and juveniles delinquents came from. Neighborhoods like the one in film are the stereotypical type of areas where people in poverty live. The neighborhoods contain large populations of low income residents. A low income neighborhood typically means the schools zoned to the neighborhood are low quality and the crime rate is high. A individuals mental health status is also a predictor of
The dependent variable(s) is this study or the expected outcome (Hagan, 2010) is much as is the hypotheses of this study are between law enforcement agencies and the treatment of blacks and Hispanics as it relates to whites committing the same actions and their related treatment (Milner et al., 2016, p. 1). The independent variable or the cause(s) would be the sheer size combined with the race of the individuals. The quantitative research that was accomplished in this study will be shown in tables containing data in the
Whites are less likely to encounter with the police compared to African Americans. African Americans are twice likely to be arrested and almost four times likely to experience the use of force during police encounters (Costly, 2011). As stated earlier, other sociological factors need to be eliminated to attribute the high number of Black arrests to race. Poverty is known to be a predisposing factor for criminal acts according to the strain theory of
Crime has always been a hot topic in sociology. There are many different reasons for people to commit criminal acts. There is no way to pinpoint the source of crime. I am going to show the relationship between race and crime. More specifically, I will be discussing the higher chances of minorities being involved in the criminal justice system than the majority population, discrimination, racial profiling and the environment criminals live in.
Less is known about the extent of discrimination at the arrest stage, in part because underlying rates of criminal activity by race cannot be easily assessed. Some evidence comes from comparing the race distribution of offenders derived from victims’ surveys with the racial composition of individuals arrested for the same crime. Two studies have found that these distributions are roughly comparable for many violent crimes.
In this article, Robert, April, and Jorge (2010) acknowledges previous research reports on this topic and reveals that race, and racial patterns have found their way in involvement of crime. However, Robert, April, and Jorge (2010) argue that there is no significant proof that there are meaningful racial disparities in the legal systems. Although some literatures provide research on the existence of racial profiling by police, in imprisonment, and sentencing, other researchers report no significant racial disparities in the legal systems (Black and Reiss, 1970; Pilivian and Briar, 1964). However, other researchers report on ample racial disparities based on race. These researches are controversial because the size of the differences in such reports tends to bring up the question of meaningfulness of the differences observed (Wilbanks, 1987).
Numbers suggest that, for instance, while Blacks compose six percent of population in St. Clayton city, they represent 57% of overall police arrests. Similarly, the probability of Black arrest in Berkeley (CA) and Madison (Wis) cities is nine times higher than other racial groups compared to their corresponding population. In addition to this, Bureau of Justice statistics report that at the national level, Blacks are two times more likely to be arrested compared to Whites. Concurring with media reports and national statistics institutes’ estimates, empirical studies also report high proportion of minority arrests compared to their representation in the population (Golub, Johnson, & Dunlap, 2007).
The incarceration rate for African Americans is higher than that of Caucasians and has been that way for years. The Blumstein study conducted in 1982, found a disproportion between black and white incarceration rates of seven-to-one (Hawkins & Hardy, 1989). The inequality of incarceration rates within criminal justice lingered. Authors of State and County Incarceration Rates: The Direct and Indirect Effects of Race and Inequality, Thomas Arvanites and Martin Asher, stated that the white majority feels threatened by nonwhite minorities because they believe they are more involved in crime. Blacks were seven times more likely to be incarcerated than whites in 1993. Due to these facts, “cultural conflict theorists argue that law enforcement
While both sides of this deeply entrenched controversy substantiate meaningful claims, neither of their arguments is exhaustive, although Walker, Spohn, and DeLone’s case is much more convincing. African American arrest statistics are best understood as the convergence of both a somewhat higher incidence of crime as well as racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. Although higher incidence of crime may initially appear to justify higher arrest rates, there is significant evidence demonstrating that not only is African American crime exaggerated by a racially discriminatory criminal justice system (one of the products of which is disparate arrest rates), the greater crime rates in and of themselves are a result of economic inequality.
Studies on relationship between race and delinquency primarily focus on two groups, African Americans and Whites. Applicable arrest data reports that African Americans are disproportionately involved in delinquency, with larger differences for serious crimes. Recent analysis has indicated that these race differences have declined in recent years. Criticism of these studies note that crimes committed by African Americans may be more likely to come to attention of the police and that African Americans offenders are more likely to be arrested than their white counterparts. Early self-report data found little or no relationship between race and delinquency. Later self-report studies found that African Americans and whites commit similar levels of minor delinquency, while African Americans are more likely to engage in serious delinquency, but not to extent reported in arrest data. The studies attributed the discrepancy to a larger percentage of high-rate African Americans offenders than high-rate white offenders. Victimization data suggests that African Americans are more likely than whites to be both offenders and victims of violence. Race and social class explain some but not all of the factors contributing to serious delinquency (Wright and Younts, 2009).
This project is a focus on how variables such as population, ethnicity, and income affect crime rates throughout different neighborhoods throughout a city. I feel that this information finding this information could be useful to many people. For example if you are looking to buy a new home or even start a new business, you’ll probably want it located in a safe neighborhood. This study will help identify the signs of a safe neighborhood. Knowing why crime rates are higher in some areas may also help prevent the crime rate to rise in other neighborhoods. For example, if crime rates are higher in neighborhoods with