Perceptions: Race as a proxy for crime.

Disclaimer: #SorryWeffer for the back to back blogs.
      
          Mary Pattillo did an ethnographic study on a black middle-class neighborhood referred to as

Groveland. In this neighborhood there are two types of groups that co-exist: the residents who do not engage in criminal activity or delinquency and then those who do such as drug dealers and gang leaders. This study showcased how socially disorganized this neighborhood was because “certain values had been lost.” Pattillo also mentions that these anomalies were explained by neighborhoods lacking “essential ties to public forms of social control, such as police, government bureaucrats, and social service agencies” (Pattillo 1998). This in turn means that low-income communities, which mostly likely are communities of color, tend to be isolated from these resources. Low-income communities also tend to have “weak internal economies and lack sufficient connections to mainstream employment” (Pattillo 1998). These communities are already in a poor state to begin with because they are facing different economical hardships such as low unemployment opportunities and therefore when there is isolation from these resources that can be used, crime will increase due to individuals not having many other options. 

         One of the biggest issues that tends to plague black communities is joblessness. In a study done by Sampson and Wilson, it was concluded that joblessness existed more in black communities. Sampson discussed these patterns as “concentration effects.” Living in areas that are highly impoverished causes concentration effects and therefore that is reflected on various other things such as access to “jobs, job networks, involvement in quality schools, availability of marriageable partners, and exposure to conventional role models” (Sampson and Wilson 1995). Sampson and Wilson stated that macro-structural forces such as cities transforming by joblessness and industrial transformation really hit these low-income communities hard because they were already in a vulnerable state to begin with (1995). Sampson and Wilson also discuss public housing, as a negative effect that has plagued these communities. Public housing has led to “massive, segregated housing projects that have become ghettos for the minorities and disadvantaged” (Sampson and Wilson 1995). 

        

Something worth noting is that white individuals tend to associate crime with blacks. This association therefore assumes that race is a proxy of crime. Association of crime with a certain race can cause false perceptions of that race and is not looking at the context of the situation such as hyper segregation, spatial isolation, joblessness, and so forth. It is important that when looking at things such as the connection between crime and race, that race is not solely looked at but that other factors are looked at, factors that usually plague these different types of communities. Criminal activity and delinquency is not something that is done by a certain race, but exists in a certain neighborhood with a specific racial makeup, due to the context of the neighborhood. So, for example, in a black neighborhood that has undergone public housing policies (redlining, blockbusting, etc.), has dealt with industrial transformation and therefore has an increase in joblessness, and where there are nonexistent resources, these communities will have an increase in crime due to issues regarding access and isolation.