Crime, Youth Unemployment, and the Black Urban Underclass

There is now a wealth of data demonstrating a strong relationship (in the United States, at least) between unemployment and contact with the criminal justice system. Black youth are disproportionately represented in both categories. Until the current period, most youth simply “matured” out of a life of crime. However, we are witnessing a new development of a deep bifurcation of the social structure and a corresponding development of a possible permanent “underclass.” Our previous assumptions about the life cycle, the market economy, and employment prospects must be reconceptualized if we are to address this concern with any success. In particular, programs of “crime reduction” must address the structural transformations that have so altered the unemployment differences between Black and White youth.