The Economics Of Race And Crime

The relationship between crime and the economy has received too little attention from researchers. This volume remedies that deficit, resurrecting several classic writings on this elusive topic by and about blacks, and presenting new contributions by researchers at the frontier of work on the subject. Among the landmark articles included are W.E.B. Dubois' famous examination of crime in Philadelphia, an analysis of black criminal behavior by Walter Willcox, who was chief statistician of the Census Bureau at the time he wrote this essay, and excerpts from the ninth Atlanta Conference on Negro Crime. The frontier articles use quality microdata to understand particular aspects of criminal justice processes. They address the relationship between employment and criminal behavior, trade-offs among education, employment, and crime, and the link between overall economic conditions and rates of incarceration. Among the authors represented in the landmark research articles are Harold Votey and Llad Phillips, Richard Freeman, David Good and Maureen Pirog-Good, Dario Melossi, and Samuel Meyers and William Sabol. Richard MaGahey concludes the volume with comments on the current status of research in the field. This volume captures the emerging tension within scholarship on race and crime, and provides both a reflective vision of work in this area as well as state-of-the-art research by leading scholars.

The relationship between crime and the economy has received too little attention from researchers. This volume remedies that deficit, resurrecting several classic writings on this elusive topic by and about blacks, and presenting new contributions by researchers at the frontier of work on the subject.Among the landmark articles included are W.E.B. Dubois' famous examination of crime in Philadelphia, an analysis of black criminal behavior by Walter Willcox, who was chief statistician of the Census Bureau at the time he wrote this essay, and excerpts from the ninth Atlanta Conference on Negro Crime. The frontier articles use quality microdata to understand particular aspects of criminal justice processes. They address the relationship between employment and criminal behavior, tradeoffs among education, employment, and crime, and the link between overall economic conditions and rates of incarceration. Among the authors represented in the landmark research articles are Harold Votey and Llad Phillips, Richard Freeman, David Good and Maureen Pirog-Good, Dario Melossi, and Samuel Meyers and William Sabol. Richard MaGahey concludes the volume with comments on the current status of research in the field.This volume captures the emerging tension within scholarship on race and crime, and provides both a reflective vision of work in this area as well as state-of-the-art research by leading scholars.

The relationship between crime and the economy has received too little attention from researchers. This volume remedies that deficit, resurrecting several classic writings on this elusive topic by and about blacks, and presenting new contributions by researchers at the frontier of work on the subject. Among the landmark articles included are W.E.B. Dubois' famous examination of crime in Philadelphia, an analysis of black criminal behavior by Walter Willcox, who was chief statistician of the Census Bureau at the time he wrote this essay, and excerpts from the ninth Atlanta Conference on Negro Crime. The frontier articles use quality microdata to understand particular aspects of criminal justice processes. They address the relationship between employment and criminal behavior, trade-offs among education, employment, and crime, and the link between overall economic conditions and rates of incarceration. Among the authors represented in the landmark research articles are Harold Votey and Llad Phillips, Richard Freeman, David Good and Maureen Pirog-Good, Dario Melossi, and Samuel Meyers and William Sabol. Richard MaGahey concludes the volume with comments on the current status of research in the field. This volume captures the emerging tension within scholarship on race and crime, and provides both a reflective vision of work in this area as well as state-of-the-art research by leading scholars.

THE JANUS-FACE OF RACE: REFLEC- TIONS ON ECONOMIC THEORY Patrick L. Mason and Rhonda Williams Many economists are willing to accept that race is a significant factor in US eco nomic and social affairs. Yet the professional literature displays a peculiar schizo phrenia when faced with the task of actually formulating what race means and how race works in our political economy. On the one hand, race matters when the dis cussion is focused on anti-social behavior, social choices, and undesired market outcomes. Inexplicably, African Americans are more likely to prefer welfare, lower labor force participation, and unemployment. On the other hand, race does not matter when the subject of discussion is economically productive or socially accept able activities and legal market choices (for example, wages and employment). This Janus-faced construction of race is maintained by economists' stubborn ad herence to the market power hypothesis. The market power hypothesis asserts that racial discrimination and market competition are inversely correlated. Discrimina tory behavior will persist only in those sectors of society where the competitive forces of the market are least operative. When applied to the labor market, the mar ket power hypothesis suggests that pre- and post-labor market decisions represent disjoint sets. On average, members of a disadvantaged social group may accumulate a lower amount of or a lower quality of productive attributes because of discrimina tion in marital, residential, or school choice, or because of substantial animosity in day-to-day interpersonal relations with members of a privileged group.

Brendan O’Flaherty brings the tools of economic analysis—incentives, equilibrium, optimization—to bear on racial issues. From health care, housing, and education, to employment, wealth, and crime, he shows how racial differences powerfully determine American lives, and how progress in one area is often constrained by diminishing returns in another.

Brendan O’Flaherty brings the tools of economic analysis—incentives, equilibrium, optimization—to bear on racial issues. From health care, housing, and education, to employment, wealth, and crime, he shows how racial differences powerfully determine American lives, and how progress in one area is often constrained by diminishing returns in another.

This book on crime and justice is motivated primarily by the idea that individual behaviour is influenced both by self-interest and by conscience, or by a sense of community responsibility. Forst has assembled a collection of authors who are writing in four parts: (1) the philosophical foundations and the moral dimension of crime and punishment; (2) the sense of community and the way it influences the problem of crime; (3) on offenders and offences; and (4) on the response of the criminal justice system.