The
journal Crime & Delinquency published the study Monday, which found
that 49 percent of African-American males and 40 percent of Caucasians
had been arrested by 23.
The
authors, led by criminologist Robert Brame from the University of South
Carolina, also wrote that 44 percent of Hispanic males were taken into
police custody by the same age, “which can hurt their ability to find
work, go to school and participate fully in their communities,” they
wrote in a press release.
Researchers
began tracking 7,000 young men between the ages of 12 and 17 from 1997
to 2008. They excluded traffic offenses but did note arrests for crimes
ranging from truancy to violent assaults.
“By age 18, 30 percent of black males, 26 percent of Hispanic males and 22 percent of white males have been arrested,” the scholars determined. Those numbers increased drastically by over the next five years, something that was unique to males.
“While the prevalence of arrest increased for females from 18 to 23, the variation between races was slight,” the team wrote. “At age 18, arrest rates were 12 percent for white females and 11.8 percent and 11.9 percent Hispanics and black females, respectively. By age 23, arrest rates were 20 percent for white females and 18 percent and 16 percent for Hispanic and black females, respectively.”
The
study builds on a previous study published in the journal Pediatrics in
2012, and both studies provide the first look since the 1960s at the
massive scope of the criminal justice system and its data showing that
one-in-three Americans are arrested by age 23.
The
motivation behind the study was the swelling American prison population
which, while it seems to have reached a plateau, is higher than any
other developed nation. Previous studies have shown that even if an
individual is never charged or imprisoned, merely being arrested
increases the chances that they will be arrested again in the future.
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