Is the U.S. justice system racist?

Is the U.S. justice system racist?

A number of topics I'm not too fond of, prison and racism, I've heard this a lot in the news and from other sources. That, because there are more black people in prison, disproportionately than white people, that the U.S. prison system is racist. While it is true that there are more black people in prison than white people, proportionally, (37%, compared to 12.6% of the population, or 2.93 times higher than the average [1]) the reality is often more complex. Simply suggesting that the higher presence of a particular demographic makes the system prejudiced against them, seems a bit far fetched. Roughly 90% of prisoner's are male, but few people argue that the prison system is sexist. Furthermore, a higher percentage of black people are currently incarcerated in prison (37%) now than in the 1920's (21%) (Page 5), so does this objectively mean then that we are more racist than we were, then in the 1920's? We merely accept this as the way things are; not that men are inherently violent or criminally minded, blacks, Hispanics, whites etc. but just that, sometimes statistics are skewed or even arrest rates due to random factors. Culture, poverty, economics, law enforcement effectiveness, technology, and the general well being of the people all have considerable influence on crime rates, as well as the successful nature of the criminals themselves. Criminals who are particularly good at what they do will boost crime rates, and obviously criminals are more important to crime rates than anything else.

The primary issue I find with this argument is a false dichotomy. The argument being that, either black people are inherently violent and criminally minded, or the prison system is racist. Both of these arguments, in my opinion, are wrong. While some people will produce asinine or worthless arguments about the so called "warrior gene", this is not only generally considered wrong, but also not relevant in all black communities. Some places predominately made up of black people have less crimes, and even certain countries, say in Africa, where white's commit the majority of crimes. The trend is not always the same. So, if racism isn't the root problem, nor genetics, what is? For obvious reason's, you can't simplify or bring to terms all the reasons crime happens the way it does or police arrest the way they do based on just a handful of factors. A myriad of potential reasons exist to explain the discrepancies, and jumping to conclusions on either side with little information tends to lead to inaccurate conclusions.

Brass Tacks - Statistics

So, more black people are in prison, proportionally, than white people. Are crime rates higher among people who are black? According to most sources, yes. It's no secret in this country that poor black communities have unusually high crime rates, such as Detroit or Chicago, (a murder rate of 43.5 and 15.1, compared to 4.5 for the national average), and it's relatively well known that poverty stricken areas tend to have higher crime. According to the FBI's figures, the UCR data published is representative of those cases cleared by arrest, or the number of cases solved via identifying the suspect. According to the 2013 data, out of 9,014,635 crimes, 2,549,655 were committed by people who were black (different from black people, since black people do not collectively decided to commit crimes). This is approximately 28.2% of crimes, while black people make up 12.6% of the U.S.'s population. This is roughly 2.23 times higher than the average population. Still perhaps not enough to compensate for black people being 3-5 times more likely to end up in prison; however, roughly 50% of crimes committed by those in prison are, violent crimes, which are disproportionately more likely to land you in prison, especially with lengthy prison sentences. According to the 2013 figures, approximately 53.8% were in prison for violent offenses. 4,379 out of 8,383 cleared murders were committed by people who were black, or roughly 50%. With a population level of 12.6%, that's over 4 times the amount. [1] However, poverty seems to have a stronger correlation; Poor urban blacks (51.3 per 1,000) had rates of violence similar to poor urban whites (56.4 per 1,000). [2] In the same poor communities, black and white people are just as likely to commit crimes and be victims of crimes, which suggests that the issue is more related to poverty, rather than prejudice against any particular race in and of itself. 

Black people, are unfortunately, more likely to be poor, and end up in these poor urban communities, than white people, which explains why black people are more likely to commit crimes. Black people are also, more likely to be the victims of these crimes, as well; despite making up 12.6% of the population, they make up roughly 50% of victims, or are four times more likely to be victims of crime, as well. [3] The problem tends to be more correlated with an epidemic of poverty, rather than prejudice by police. In most of these communities, those police are also predominately of the same racial make-up, as well, and the majority of individuals shot by police are also shot by people, of the same race, or approximately 2/3rds. [4] This isn't a case of white police simply being racist and deciding to blame crime on black people more commonly, so much as it is a system of poverty exacerbating the conditions and exponentially increasing the crime figures. By arbitrarily blaming the police, who do not control the economy, we not only attack people who are not responsible, but we ignore the very real problem of the high crimes and the underlying conditions that cause the crime in the first place. In order to solve the problem, we will need to help out these communities which are suffering, rather than simply blame the problem on someone else. 

Another important thing to consider is the definitions, of which the term white "excludes persons of Hispanic or Latino origin and persons of two or more races." That means mixed race individuals are automatically considered non-white, which automatically will boost the statistical numbers, beyond what the actual crime rates are. Hispanic is an ethnicity and not a race, so thus many whites are accounted for, in the Hispanic criteria. In fact, white Whites make up over half of all hispanics (8.7 % of 16.4 %, or 53%), shifting the numbers even more. This means that the number of people who are incarcerated and would be considered white by the average population is different from the statistics, per say. It is however, still much higher. 

Possible Explanations

So, if it's not blatant racism by the government, what is it? The first key issue is poverty, which is unfortunately rampant among many minority groups, but more importantly, urban areas. In fact, poverty and urbanization correlate exactly with violent crime and crime in general, with poor whites just as likely to commit crimes as poor urban blacks. What is responsible for this phenomenon? There are a number of issues, the key one being that these poor communities get little help. While we could largely say that racism is fairly uncommon in the U.S. today, the lack of oppression doesn't fix racism of the past. While many people have succeeded and overcome their conditions, many more have not. Having a black president, a population accepting of all races, does not eliminate years of systematic oppression that can trace it's roots to nearly 400 years ago in the U.S. Simply leaving people to the wolves and hoping for the best doesn't solve the problem, it just stops the oppression. Thus, these communities, and poor communities in general, need our support to get out of these conditions. When Detroit looks like this, it's no wonder crime is high there.

An additional factor to consider is organized crime. Roughly 48% of violent crimes are proven to have been committed by organized criminal organizations, and roughly the same amount of murder. While estimates are higher, it is generally much higher in urbanized communities (which black people are also disproportionately in). Despite making up less than .5% of the population, they make up roughly half of violent crime, making organized crime nearly 100 times more likely to commit violence, than the average person; in fact, because their figures are so large, and consume half of the "average", it's over 200 times more likely than someone not in a gang. Gangs naturally congregate where they are large numbers of people, as criminals can become connected and network, compared to rural or suburban areas, where it is much more difficult to run in to like minded individuals. Furthermore, the extreme poverty makes them a natural breeding ground for desperate people and makes it easier to evade law enforcement, which allows them to continue their operations. The subculture of violence generated by these organizations, who value it like currency, and even have their own music generated to propagate and encourage these forms of behavior, drastically increase the violence, making it exponentially higher than it otherwise would be. This is in large part why crime in poor urbanized areas is so high. Even worse, organized crime is much more sophisticated and well funded than ordinary criminals, possessing smuggling operations with illegal weapons and contraband, making money in the billions. It's no secret for instance that the Los Zetas were formed when over 30 special forces soldier defected and took over the cartels, effectively bringing with them more ex-military individuals in their cartels than the active Mexican military (100,000 compared to 90,000). Or that after the fall of the soviet union, war criminals fled, and ex-KGB and Russian military tried to take over entire countries, such as Kosovo, or perhaps even modern day Russia. On top of this, many have legitimate support from governments, such as the Taliban which was formed by Pakistan in 1994, or Hezbollah with support by Iran, the Taliban which controlled roughly 90% of the heroin at one point. The Cartels are often thought to have infiltrated even the highest level government of many south american countries, and the Colombian cartels have known connections to Cuba. 

All of this paints a worrisome picture, and shows that organizations which deal with american gangs drastically worsen crime. It's no wonder why organizations that consider themselves like and even are in some cases military organizations commit so much violence. At one point, the demographics of Chicago and Detroit were not were they were today, despite having roughly similar crime rates over the years. It's well known that other minority groups, such as Italians or the Irish, were once responsible for the crime in these areas, but this has shifted to new demographics. In 1950, the black population of detroit was 16.2%; by 2010, it was 82.7%. It's no secret that the rise in black crime has paralleled the fall in white crime, mostly due to the shift in power from mafias to urban street gangs. Thus as a result, we can more aptly blame the high crime rates in these areas on the presence of organized crime, and less so on the potential for police misconduct. Not only is organized a huge problem in and of itself with many of these organizations possessing intricate global connections responsible for fueling some of the worst paramilitary organizations in existence, but it also increases crime exponentially among the poor, and thus more so among minorities. Focusing on the problems at hand rather than shifting blame on to an imaginary boogeyman or scapegoat will do far greater to help this country than constantly pushing it off on to someone else. Fundamental issues are present, which have little to do with the police or even the government, that need to be remedied. From education to general infrastructure, we need to invest in to these people, and help them out of their situation; many of them are not begging for free hand outs, but jobs, so they can work hard to get pay. It's sad that we live in a country that has hard working people seeking opportunities, that we can't provide to them. 

Other problems include drugs and smuggling, in general. While shutting down smuggling would drastically hamper the profits of organized criminal organizations, who largely operate transnationally, drug users in general make up a disproportionate amount of criminals. Approximately 50%, or 46.7% and 48% in 2004 and 1994 respectively (Page 4), (Page 7), of violent criminals were drug dependent, and roughly 25% were on drugs, at the time. This is vastly disproportionate to the percentage of Americans who actually take illegal drugs chronically, or about 5%. Drugs tend to impair people's critical thinking skills, which tends to make them more reckless and not consider the consequences of their actions. As a result, crime tends to be higher among drug users, which is not surprisingly, also heavily connected to organized crime. One's psychological state, is far more important ot determining crime than any single factor. Poverty is correlated with crime, but poor tribal communities in various places of the world don't commit as much crime as urban poor. Rich people with billions sometimes murder their spouses in a fit of rage. Understanding the in depth and deeply rooted psychological issues that causes irrational behavior, from the desperation that comes from poverty, actual or perceived, to the subculture of violence in this country, are far more important than any other single factor. Thus, understanding crime is as much about understanding people, as it is about individual factors. Only if we work together to solve the underlying issues, will we truly solve problems related to crime, and our other pressing issues.