Why Crime Fell In The 1990s: The Decrease In Crime

Racial Disparity in the criminal justice system is when a certain ethnic group that does not represent the majority of the population is in charge or holds more power within the system than other ethnic groups. A misrepresentation of ethnicity with the Criminal Justice System. This misrepresentation can lead to the assumption that people of different ethnic backgrounds and the same crime will be treated differently within the criminal justice system. But, in some cases this assumption becomes reality. This reality is what must change. This reality that White, Black, Hispanic and Asian criminals can and will be treated differently even though they have committed similar crimes must be done away with. How to go about it is the where the issue lies. Do you incarcerate more white criminals to help

172). Spelman explains that the innate relationship between crime rates and prison populations, at the state level, does not appear to indicate any long-run equilibrium, but rather short-term effects (Spelman, 2008, p. 172). Spelman then explains the relationship between crime rates and prison population that is determined using the differenced variable specification. As expected by Spelman, an increase in prison populations are, for the most part, associated with a decrease in crime rates (Spelman, 2008, p. 172). Additionally, the research shows that an increase in crime results in an increase in prison populations (Spelman, 2008, p.

Even before our nation’s founding, people of color have been discriminated. Decades pass and the criminal justice system is still “racist” labeling people of color as criminal, meaning black equal criminals therefore is fine to discriminate people of color just because they’re criminals. In “The New Jim Crow” the system targets black men because they are associated with crime, meaning crime stands in for race. In the other hand, As Heather Mac Donald writes in her book “The War on Cops”, “The criminal-justice system does treat individual suspects and criminals equally, they concede. But the problem is how society defines crime and criminals” (154). Society is the one who chooses who is criminal. In this case society is stripping off the rights of people of color. As Barack Obama say in “The War on Cops”, “blacks and whites are arrested at very different rates, are

This article demonstrates how Bill Bratton, as the Commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD) from 1994 to 1996, William J. Bratton fought crime throughout the city of Ney York with legendary achievement, leading a national revolution in attitudes toward policing. Bratton adopted a “broken windows”1 community policing strategy of zero tolerance for minor offenses and championed statistical analysis to prevent crimes before they occurred. In the 70s and 80s, as Bratton continued his career in policing, institutional theories seemed dominant. Nixon’s brand of “tough-on-crime” and “law and order” conservatism meant that community relations were largely ignored by police. In 1982, James Wilson sought to re-establish some balance. In

Families that are poor or have a low income are more likely to commit crimes for the purpose of their own needs to survive. “It is a fact that neighborhoods where the poor are concentrated are more prone to high crime rates, and poor residents are the most common victims of crimes” (1). The best explanation for this is that poorer people have the same needs as a regular middle-class citizen. The poor citizens need certain things to help him or her live a healthy life, such as healthcare, food stamps, and more employment options. One may argue that healthcare is too expensive and that food stamps have been taken away from many people. It is also extremely difficult to get a well-paying job in order to pay for housing, healthcare, and food. The lack of healthcare, food stamps, and well-paying jobs can result in people turning towards crime because of issues such as mental health, physical health, and employment options.

Childress, S. (2016, June 2). More States Consider Raising the Age for Juvenile Crime. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/more-states-consider-raising-the-age-for-juvenile-crime/

Some examples of an unwanted child may be among teen moms, single moms, and rape cases which may increase crime rate if these women were forced to have children and failed to give them a superb upbringing. High incarceration rate is used by Levitt and Dubner as one of the background reasons why crime has dropped since the 90’s (the background with abortion being their main reason). According to Levitt and Dubner, “Harsh prison terms have been shown to act as both deterrent (for the would-be criminal on the street) and prophylactic (for the would-be criminal who is already locked up).” (123) They use several pieces of evidence for this showing definite crime drop when more people were put behind bars; however, a lot of evidence used with this theory is conceded by the complete opposite idea. Levitt and Dubner used the study “On Behalf of a Moratorium on Prison Construction” (123) to counter and, in the end, strengthen their theory of incarceration rates. This literature review will answer the following question: Do high incarceration rates in fact deter criminals from commiting crimes and, if there is a link, how big of an impact do they

Mass incarceration is a phenomenon described by Ta Nehisi-Coates as a way to explain the increase in incarcerated people in the United States over the past 40 years. This phenomenon can be traced back most obviously to the early 70s, when Nixon started his presidential term (DRUGPOLICY.ORG). Nixon came into presidency when the rebellious 60s were starting to really pose a threat to the government of the United States. His two main enemies were the major proponents of revolution: liberals against the violence of Vietnam and black people (DRUGPOLICY.ORG). He understood that these groups, but especially the poor black communities, depended on black market drug trade for a lot of their income and therefore found an extremely effective way to quell

The performance of a police officer is always under a microscope especially when it comes to dealing with people from another race. There is also the idea that police officers use racial profiling to conduct and solve many of the crimes that are happening in their neighborhood. The racial profiling aspect is very sensitive and it can be difficult to determine if in reality it is happening because this is coming from someone else 's perception.

At first, this argument makes relative sense, “violent crime rates have fluctuated over the years and bear little relationship to incarceration rates—which have soared during the past three decades regardless of whether violent crime was going up or down” (Alexander 101). Even while violent crime rates decline, incarceration rates climb; these two variables should have a dependent correlation, but it appears they do not. However, in response to violent crime, legislators placed longer sentences for less severe crimes to prevent more violent crime in the future (Forman 48). While it may be compelling to simply accept that the War on Drugs caused the prison population spike, it did not; violent crime contributed

Crime itself is an innate part of society, some may view it as a necessary component in one's society. New York city has had a history of high crime rates at one time. In the article, “How New York won the War on Crime” by Steve Chapman, the author discuss how New York City during the 1960s to the 1980s was viewed as “chaotic”, and mentioned that in 1984 there were at least “5 murders a day”. However, New York City now is not the same one it was during that time. The NYPD website provides a graph describing the crime rates and population growth in New York City between 1990s to to 2014. Through this graph we see a substantial difference in the amount of crime from 1990, which was 527,257 in contrast to 2014, which was 106,722. We can also

To expand my research to attain the goal of understanding specification of both explanations, The southern subculture of violence theory blames higher crime rates in the South on “cultural values that evolved from that region’s unique history” (Ousey, 2000:268). All cultural explanations are based on the social learning approach, which holds that criminality is learned through intimate interactions with others. Another example is that capital punishment is highest in the South.

A position that Levitt and Dubner do agree on is that “yes indeed, additional police substantially lower the crime rate.” However, Levitt and Dubner have an alternate theory to answer their proposed question. Roe v wade lowered the crime rate in the 1990s. To support this theory Levitt and Dubner offer evidence-showing woman who were likely to get an abortion when it became legal to woman who would have to raise a child in a high-risk household. By focusing on the woman who “was unmarried or in her teens or poor, and sometimes all three” Levitt and Dubner show the reader how having the opportunity to terminate a pregnancy can lower the crime rate years down the road. If the woman described above were to keep her child, he or she would have lived in

The first correctional facility to be introduced in the United States was the Eastern Penitentiary, and was constructed to hold only a couple hundred inmates at max capacity. Despite arguments discussing a decrease in current prison population, studies have shown that prisons are actually overpopulating and causing safety concerns. Prison population increasing over the years has led to seventeen states holding inmates at max capacity level. For example, Illinois’s prisons are currently holding over 48,000 inmates when their facility’s design capacity was to hold only about 33,000 prisoners (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2015). There have been many strategies suggesting to lower the population, for example, sending fewer offenders for drug crimes

Poverty’s effects on crime can be explained through a variety of reasons. There is a higher rate of mental illness among the poor than the rich. Poverty can lead to high levels of stress, which in turn drive individuals to commit theft, robbery or other violent acts. Moreover, poverty may lead to actual or perceived inferior education. Youth with less access to quality schools, jobs, and role models and opportunities end up spending time on the streets associating with gangs. Crime offers a way in which poor people can obtain material goods they cannot attain through legal means. Often, threat or force helps them acquire even more goods, encouraging them to commit more violent acts such as robbery and rape. Thus, poverty increases crime