Abstract
Criminalization is process of recognition of the act to be criminal, consolidation of its features by the criminal law, and as a result the establishment of a criminal prosecution.
The criminalization of black youth has always been a disputable topic all over the United States of America and for now it still remains unsolved. Finding different points of views of the authors of different articles, while studying this topic, I have clearly understood that there is no common view on this problem.
In the essay I have matched different statistic data and analyzed the tendency of black youth criminalization within the United States of America. Most studies show the real existence of the processes of criminalization in the country. They also display that the biggest part among the arrested males till the age of 23 are black males (30%). However, this tendency is not confirmed by the statistic as to the woman. It shows that racial issue doesn’t have any impact on the situation. That is why I concluded that the criminalization tendency really exists in the American society but it develops without racial impact there-to. And the statistics prove this idea, as well.
The big quantity of the authors, who wrote great articles with unbelievable researches included in this articles, have formed their opinions in the following way: the problem of criminalization of black society is not actually that big, the much more bigger problem is that black are getting arrested by mistake much more frequently than white. For sure, the major cause of this are stereotypes, that were formed during long history of United States of America.
But, unfortunately, not all the black kids are arrested by mistake. Comparing the statistics of white kids involved in crimes and black kids involved in crimes we can observe a terrifying situation. The problem of the criminalization of black youth have never been such a big threat for american society.
According to Harrison whose research, that was actual for the year 2003, twelve percents of afro-american males have been to prison by the age of twenty. It is three times more comparing with Latino juveniles whose number to be in-prisoned by the age of twenty is less then 4 percents. And only 1.5 of white juveniles were in-prisoned after the age of twenty.(Harrison 2003)
On my opinion, criminalization of black youth attracts so much attention not only because the statistics mentioned above but also because the black kids usually commit crimes with much more violence than kids of any other nationality. Of course, this attracts attention of the american society, and due to this black kids involved in crime are strongly criticized.
I have once hear good position related to the topic of criminalization of black youth regarding the problem of violence in the crimes committed by black juveniles stating that black youth is dehumanized to such big measure that that is hard to consider this kids as actually kids. She emphasizes that crimes committed by black children sometimes are so cruel, that it is impossible to believe that it was actually committed by a teenager of even by a kid.(Banks&California n.d.)
On my opinion, criminality among black juveniles is so common and so cruel, because of the environment they live in. This children, who are involved in different crimes, or are going to be involved in them, are raised in the «slums». All over United States of America there a lot of poor regions, where the black and Latino families live. This regions are informally called «ghettos» or «slums». I’m hundred percent sure, that getting raised in such atmosphere, influences children a lot. And sooner or later they become involved in criminality, just because they do not even know, that there is another way how to live.
The word «slums», I consider to be the regions where all the broken family live. And the majority of families, who live in this «slums» are afro-american. Once, I was watching TV and it was news channel, where they described the event, that I have remembered for a long period of time: the boy and his friend, that were only seven years old, killed boy’s infant sister, who was only few months, just because she was crying and they were stressed about it. And it was not just this, after they killed her, they dropped her in the garbage can, and continued playing video games. And here I absolutely agree with the position of the majority of authors who have written articles regarding this theme.
The society in United States of America is unfortunately based on the inequity. The problem is that this problem will not be solved until afro-american families live under the line of poverty. Their kids have just no chance and as a result are getting involved in crimes. American society should figure out this issue as soon as possible, because the statistics of criminalization of black youth is very sad. And it does not change through the generations. (Stahlkopf & Macallair 2008)
For example, in the city of Los-Angeles almost all youth that was sent to adult courts are colored juveniles. By saying almost all, I actually mean unbelievable number - 91%. And this data actually makes me feel like the majority of black youth simply has no idea not only about of what is law, rules and principles of life, they do not know how to live in this society, not putting it under the threat of their own deviance.(Silliman&Women 2002)
According to the recent studies, numbers show that 50% of Afro-Americans of the age younger than 23 were arrested at least one time. While the arrested white men constitute only 40%.(Neal 2013)
The American magazine “Crime and Delinquency” made a research of the data in respect to young people which had been arrested within 1997-2008 period. The authors of the article found the existence of the link between the race and spread of the arrests. The study displayed that till the 18 year age police arrested 22 % of white males, 26% of Lat-in Americans and 30% of black male.(Johnson 2008)
Experts say that the core problem of the tendency of criminalization in the USA that many male people (especially black male) enter into the adult life with a big luggage caused by their contact with the criminal justice system. The experts explain that impact of such tendency may be huge. The data of different states varies as to the age of such young people who become the adults from the point of criminal justice system much younger. The average age of such people in the US is about 16-17 years. In the future most of such males having such a criminal luggage face a lot of problems in the adult life. A criminal record in the biography of the young man may hinder employment, restrict the participations in the elections, prevent a credit loan for education, etc. Such criminal experience may also destroy the family or interpersonal relations. (Boothe 2007)
The recent studies also have the figures as to the racial role of women. According to them, the race has not a big impact on the statistics. Among females till the age of 23 the police arrests 20% of white girls, 18% of Latin Americans and 16% of black women.
References
Stahlkopf, C., M. Males, and D. Macallair. 'Testing Incapacitation Theory: Youth Crime And Incarceration In California'. Crime & Delinquency 56.2 (2008): 253-268. Web.
Harrison, M. (2003). Deadly lessons understanding lethal school violence : Case studies of School Violence Committee (p. 98). Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Silliman, J., & Women, P. (2002). Policing the national body: Sex, race, and criminalization (p. 376). Cambridge, Mass.: South End Press.
Boothe, D. (2007). Why are so many black men in prison? (2nd ed., p. 391). United States: Full Surface Pub.
Johnson, V. (2010). Poverty, regulation, and social justice: Readings on the criminalization of poverty (pp. 412-475). Black Point, N.S.: Fernwood Pub.
Neal, M. (2013). What the Music Said Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture. (pp. 278-303). Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Banks, I., & California, S. (n.d.). Black California dreamin': The crises of California's African-American communities (pp. 115-118).
