Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Black Men in Prison Undermine Black Marriage

The Economist has a good story on how the high prison rate for black men contributes to the abysmally low black marriage rate. They cite a study by Kerwin Kofi Charles and Ming Ching Luoh which estimates that for every 1% increase in the black male incarceration rate, there is a 2.4% reduction in the number of black women who ever marry.

Nisa Muhammad, promoter of the annual Black Marriage Day, urges educated black women to be more open to marriage with blue-collar black men. I think this is a very sensible idea.

Moreover, middle-class black boys are not likely to commit crimes, but are likely to become educated, middle-class black men. They have their pick of educated black women, who outnumber their male counterparts by about 40%.

The Economist concludes that "the simplest way to help the black family would be to lock up fewer black men for non-violent offences."

I disagree. The simplest way to help the black family would be for fewer black men to commit crimes in the first place.

18 comments:

Rachel said...

Legalize marijuana.

Gruntled said...

I agree, but that will have little effect on prison populations.

420 said...

Rachel, you are a day late! Put the pipe down.

Kerri said...

Doesn't this speak more to sentencing discrepancies, though? I agree that that ultimately we have to find a way to keep people, black or white, from turning to crime in the first place. Criminology was a long time ago, but there's a correlation between sex/race and the sentence a judge is likely to hand down, even when you control for the nature of the crime. Black men are the the most likely to get the harshest sentence possible. White women are the mostly likely to get the most lenient sentence possible.

Kerri said...

This isn't the original article we read/talked about it, but it's one of many a quick search turned up: http://bit.ly/aRCuDO

So I would modify that last sentence of the Economist article somewhat: we shouldn't lock up black men less often, but we should lock them up at the same rate for the same crimes that we do whites.

(Abstract quote from the article link above:
"Regression analyses of incarceration and term-length decisions reveal considerable judicial consistency in the use of sentencing criteria for all defendants; however, important racial/ethnic disparities in sentencing emerge. Consistent with theoretical hypotheses, the authors find that ethnicity has a small to moderate effect on sentencing outcomes that favors white defendants and penalizes Hispanic defendants; black defendants are in an intermediate position.")

Doug Duncan said...

I happen to work in a prison in Texas, and the greatest disparity in sentencing I see is not so much between black and white as it is where you were convicted of your crime. Urban counties, like Dallas, are much more lenient (or less harsh) than rural ones.

As to the problem of educated black women being without enough professional black men to choose from, the answer is that they should feel freer to marry white men.

wryn said...

I agree with Kerri. We should stop arresting black men for murder until we find white men who are also murderers in equal numbers. A quota system if you will.

Everyone knows that each race commits crime in equal numbers.In fact Asian men may be under represented in our jails.

No justice! No peace!

Gruntled said...

Kerri, I agree that sentencing disparities are part of the problem of the high black male incarceration rate. But victim studies (as opposed to sentenced crimes) show that black men are, indeed, more likely to commit crimes. I think the root cause here is fatherlessness, but this is a large and complex question.

Doug Duncan said...

Part of my job in the prison in Texas requires me to interview prisoners and get a psychosocial history from them (I am a mental health clinician). Fatherless is, indeed, a common denominator for almost everyone who is in prison. So is dropping out of school, though that, too, may be a symptom of fatherlessness.

Grace said...

Doug Duncan, did you wife write a book exposing on an abusive cult in Dallas Texas? It was an incredible read.

Doug Duncan said...

Grace,

Yes, that was her.

Kerri said...

Good point, Gruntled. I was just meaning to point out that both issues go hand in hand-- society should be figuring out how to even out the crime rate among all populations, while also evening out the sentencing trends across the board.

peaches said...

Kerri said,
"society should be figuring out how to even out the crime rate among all populations"

I agree.We should stop prosecuting black criminals until whites catch up. A reverse affirmative action program if you will.

Doug Duncan said...

Kerri said,
"society should be figuring out how to even out the crime rate among all populations"

Kerri, this is the liberal mindset taken to its absurd conclusion. Wouldn't it be better to focus on LOWERING the crime rate, rather than evening it? Or, are you just concerned with spreading the misery?

I would point out that black crime is mostly against other blacks.

Kerri said...

Doug,
By "even out" I meant lower. I said "even out" because the social problems that contribute to the black crime rate are somewhat different than the social problems that contribute to that of whites--so if we're specifically talking about keeping black fathers out of jail, the measures that lower the black crime rate might not simultaneously lower the white crime rate. Hence I hastily used the term "even out." Sorry for the confusion.

Kerri said...

and Peaches, that's not what I'm advocating, at all.

My original comment was just to point out that sentencing discrepancies are an important part of a multi-faceted, very tangled issue--they are not THE reason more black men are in jail, but it is something to keep in mind.

Doug Duncan said...

Okay, Kerri. Based upon my experience dealing with prisoners, I have come to the view that we need to give judges more discretion when it comes to sentencing. If a father is involved with his children and gainfully employed, judges should have the latitude to hold them accountable for their crimes in other ways besides just tossing them in prison.

Kerri said...

Doug,
I agree completely.