A new study released Wednesday finds that African-American boys in
Oakland, California, are far more likely to be arrested than boys of
other races. They are also more likely to be arrested for minor offenses
like gambling and drunkenness.
According to the study,
conducted by the Black Organizing Project in conjunction with the ACLU,
black boys comprised of 73.5 percent of all juvenile arrests by the
Oakland Police Department between 2006 and 2012, even though they only
make up 29.3 percent of the city’s youth population. Nearly 80 percent
of these young African Americans were not prosecuted.
As Jacquelyn Byers, director of the Black Organizing Project, told the San Francisco Chronicle, “we’ve heard stories about racial profiling — when you see the actual data, it’s hard to believe this is actually happening.”
Read on...
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Showing posts with label racial justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racial justice. Show all posts
Race, Lead, and Juvenile Crime
I know, I know: I'm a broken record on the subject of lead exposure
in kids and crime rates 20 years later. But there's lately been a
renewed focus on black crime and black incarceration rates, as well as
the racial profiling of blacks and Hispanics in New York City's
stop-and-frisk program. Guess what? The lead theory has something to say
about that.
For starters, did you know that arrest rates for violent crime have fallen much faster among black juveniles than among white juveniles? They have, as the charts below show. Rick Nevin explains why:
African-American boys disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system were also disproportionately exposed to lead contaminated dust as young children, because black children were disproportionately concentrated in large cities and older housing. In 1976-1980, 15.3% of black children under the age of three had blood lead above 30 mcg/dl (micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood), when just 2.5% of white children had blood lead that high. In 1988-1991, after the elimination of leaded gasoline, 1.4% of black children and 0.4% of white children under the age of three had blood lead above 25 mcg/dl.
Read on...
For starters, did you know that arrest rates for violent crime have fallen much faster among black juveniles than among white juveniles? They have, as the charts below show. Rick Nevin explains why:
African-American boys disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system were also disproportionately exposed to lead contaminated dust as young children, because black children were disproportionately concentrated in large cities and older housing. In 1976-1980, 15.3% of black children under the age of three had blood lead above 30 mcg/dl (micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood), when just 2.5% of white children had blood lead that high. In 1988-1991, after the elimination of leaded gasoline, 1.4% of black children and 0.4% of white children under the age of three had blood lead above 25 mcg/dl.
Read on...
10 Ways the Drug War Is Causing Massive Collateral Damage to Our Society
The war on drugs is America’s longest war. It has been 40-plus years
since Nixon launched our modern “war on drugs” and yet drugs are as
plentiful as ever. While the idea that we can have a “drug-free society”
is laughable, the disastrous consequences of our drug war are dead
serious. While it might not be obvious, the war on drugs touches and
destroys so many of the issues we care about and the values we hold.
Below are 10 collateral consequences of the drug war and reasons we need
to find an exit strategy from this unwinnable war.
1. Racial Injustice
The war on drugs is built on racial injustice. Despite roughly equal rates of drug use and sales, African-American men are arrested at 13 times the rate of white men on drug charges in the U.S. -- with rates of up to 57 times in some states. African Americans and Latinos together make up 29 percent of the total U.S. population, but more than 75 percent of drug law violators in state and federal prisons.
Read on...
1. Racial Injustice
The war on drugs is built on racial injustice. Despite roughly equal rates of drug use and sales, African-American men are arrested at 13 times the rate of white men on drug charges in the U.S. -- with rates of up to 57 times in some states. African Americans and Latinos together make up 29 percent of the total U.S. population, but more than 75 percent of drug law violators in state and federal prisons.
Read on...
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