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Annotated Bibliography

Wendy Reina

Kean University

June 6, 2022

Annotated Bibliography

Topic: “Race and ethnicity in unemployment and high crime rates in America."

Couloute, L., & Kopf, D. (2018). Out of prison & out of work: Unemployment among formerly incarcerated people. Prison Policy Initiative.

According to Couloute, L., & Kopf, in the overall population in America, people of color are more probable to be unemployed than how white people are to be employed (Couloute & Kopf, 2018). However, male unemployment rates are often lower than those faced by females. As a result, the discrepancies the authors discovered between formerly imprisoned persons and the general community may have been caused by the high number of people of color and men who are overrepresented in the jail population. Separating the data by race and gender, the authors found that the unemployment rate for every previously incarcerated group was higher than that of any comparable group in the general population. When it comes to former inmates seeking work, their prior criminal records set them apart from other job searchers, not merely because they are excessively symbolized in the criminal justice organization.

Hinton, E., Henderson, L., & Reed, C. (2018). An unjust burden: The disparate treatment of black Americans in the criminal justice system. Vera Institute of Justice, 1-20.

According to Hinton et al., to some extent, racial disparities in the criminal justice system may be traced back to the nation's past and present policy (Hinton et al., 2018). In the years after the end of slavery in the South, black Americans became the major target of new tactics for policing, punishment, and jail. There was legislation aimed toward the newly freed black people that took use of a gap in the 13th Amendment, which identifies that citizens can only be forced into slavery once they have been found guilty of a criminal offense. Several laws were passed to ensure that the newly emancipated black population's labor was properly monitored and exploited. That's why police tactics and aims are often shaped by data that reflect the crimes committed by low-income and unemployed Americans, who are disproportionately black, because of structural inequities.

Hipp, J. R., & Kane, K. (2017). Cities and the larger context: What explains changing levels of a crime?. Journal of criminal justice, 49, 32-44.

This study aims to determine whether or not the wider environment in America influences crime rates over the next ten years. Hipp’s and Kane’s findings are based on extensive research that spans several years and includes many cities in America (Hipp & Kane, 2017). However, even while cities with a big population and those located near a major population county often have larger rises in crime in the following decade, communities feeling an upsurge in population throughout the present decade enjoy declines in crime. In the study's findings, cities with advanced regular incomes have lower crime rates, whereas cities bordered by lower-income counties have higher crime rates. Increasing levels of wealth disparity and racial/ethnic heterogeneity are linked to an increase in crime, and the county surrounding the city is also connected with an increase in crime. There is some evidence that racial/ethnic variety may increase the likelihood of violent crime. As a result, both levels of inequality have become increasingly important from a public safety perspective since 1970. As a final step, Hipp and Kane looked at how these connections had held up over our research. They discovered an increasing degree of linkage between rising city-level inequality and a rise in criminal behavior.

Myers, S. L., & Sabol, W. J. (2020). Unemployment and racial differences in imprisonment. In The economics of race and crime (pp. 189-209). Routledge.

According to Myers and Sabol, a person's race or employment status should not play a part in determining a person's punishment in the criminal justice system. Here, the authors examine an alternative theory on the relationship between incarceration, unemployment, and racial identity (Myers & Sabol, 2020). The paradigm suggests that the practices of the penal system are shaped by the peculiarities of the labor market inside a production system. The pool of "reserve" employees essential for price stability and economic growth includes many unemployed black workers. In the industrial economies of the northern states of the United States, prisons are part of a wider system of institutions that offer support for economically dependent populations. Workers that are financially dependent on the government make up this category. Research supports the structural paradigm linking black incarceration and jail in the North to manufacturing and black unemployment (Myers & Sabol, 2020).

References

Couloute, L., & Kopf, D. (2018). Out of prison & out of work: Unemployment among formerly incarcerated people. Prison Policy Initiative.

Hinton, E., Henderson, L., & Reed, C. (2018). An unjust burden: The disparate treatment of black Americans in the criminal justice system. Vera Institute of Justice, 1-20.

Hipp, J. R., & Kane, K. (2017). Cities and the larger context: What explains changing levels of a crime?. Journal of criminal justice, 49, 32-44.

Myers, S. L., & Sabol, W. J. (2020). Unemployment and racial differences in imprisonment. In The economics of race and crime (pp. 189-209). Routledge.