Race, Social Status, and Criminal Arrest

The Negro-white arrest rate differential for selected years between 1942 and 1965 in a northern industrial community is analyzed with respect to age, sex, and the socioeconomic variables of employment status, occupation, and migration. Although the incidence of recorded Negro crime has greatly increased since 1942 owing to the increase in the Negro population, the rate of Negro crime has decreased. The magnitude of the excess of the Negro over the white arrest rate reflects the wider distribution among Negroes of the lower social class characteristics of unemployment, employment in unskilled and semiskilled occupations, and migration from the rural South. The findings do not support color-caste theories which interpret Negro criminal behavior as a response to racial proscriptions or which construe Negro criminality as a function of racially suppressive law enforcement tactics. (Abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1970. Copyright © 1970 by the American Sociological Association) Racial Differences Racial Factors 1940s 1950s 1960s Black-White Comparison Offender Arrest Adult Arrest Adult Crime Adult Offender African American Adult African American Crime African American Offender Caucasian Adult Caucasian Crime Caucasian Offender Social Class Class Factors Sociocultural Factors Socioeconomic Factors Employment Factors Unemployment Factors 07-02