Crime and Incarceration

Crime and Incarceration

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The Crime and Incarceration dimension is constructed using five indicators: the Violent Crime Arrests Gap, the Property Crime Arrests Gap, the Incarceration Gap, the Homicide Fatalities Gap, and the Firearm Fatalities Gap, which capture racial disparities in exposure to violence, policing practices, and involvement with the criminal legal system across places.

Why are the Crime and Incarceration Important to the Structural Racism and Discrimination (SRD) Index?

Crime and incarceration reflect core mechanisms through which structural racism and discrimination are produced and maintained within the criminal legal system1,2,3. Racialized patterns of policing, differential enforcement of laws, and unequal sentencing practices have resulted in disproportionately higher arrest and incarceration rates for Black communities, independent of individual behavior alone4,5,6. These systemic disparities increase exposure to violence, disrupt family and community stability, and generate long-term social and economic consequences2,3,6.

Inequities in crime and incarceration also interact with other dimensions of structural racism captured in the SRD Index. Higher rates of arrest, incarceration, and violent fatalities are closely linked to residential segregation, concentrated poverty, limited economic opportunity, housing instability, and restricted access to healthcare and education7,8,9,10. As a result, the criminal legal system serves as a powerful pathway through which structural disadvantage becomes spatially concentrated and reproduced across generations.

How are the Crime and Incarceration Calculated?

The Crime and Incarceration dimension is calculated using five indicators: Violent Crime Arrests Gap, Property Crime Arrests Gap, Incarceration Gap, Homicide Fatalities Gap, and Firearm Fatalities Gap. Each indicator is first computed as a crime and incarceration gap measure and then standardized to ensure comparability across counties.

STEP 1: Indicator standardization

The violent crime arrests gap, property crime arrests gap, incarceration gap, homicide fatalities gap, and firearm fatalities gap indicators are converted into Z scores after adjusting for outliers using top and bottom coding, following the SRD Index methodology.

STEP 2: Reversing the Z-Scores

The Z-scores for all indicators were not reversed. A higher Z-scores for the violent crime arrests gap, property crime arrests gap, incarceration gap, homicide fatalities gap, and firearm fatalities gap indicators contributes to a higher value or score of the SRD index.

STEP 3: Dimension score calculation

The Crime and Incarceration Z score is calculated by taking the average of the four indicator Z scores:

Crime and Incarceration Z score = (Z12 + Z13 + Z14 + Z15+ Z16) / 5

where Z12 represents violent crime arrests gap, Z13 represents property crime arrests gap, Z14 represents incarceration gap, Z15 represents homicide fatalities gap, and Z16 represents firearm fatalities gap

STEP 4: Ranking

The Crime and Incarceration Z scores are then converted into rank scores, where a higher score indicates a greater impact of racism and discrimination within this dimension.

References

  1. Rucker, J. M., & Richeson, J. A. (2021). Toward an understanding of structural racism: Implications for criminal justice. Science, 374(6565), 286-290.
  2. Lee, H. (2024). How does structural racism operate (in) the contemporary US criminal justice system?. Annual Review of Criminology, 7(1), 233-255.
  3. Brewer, R. M., & Heitzeg, N. A. (2008). The racialization of crime and punishment: Criminal justice, color-blind racism, and the political economy of the prison industrial complex. American Behavioral Scientist, 51(5), 625-644.
  4. Kamalu, N. C., Coulson-Clark, M., & Kamalu, N. M. (2010). Racial disparities in sentencing: Implications for the criminal justice system and the African American community. African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies, 4(1), 2.
  5. Pettit, B., & Gutierrez, C. (2018). Mass incarceration and racial inequality. American journal of economics and sociology, 77(3-4), 1153-1182.
  6. Beck, A. J., & Blumstein, A. (2018). Racial disproportionality in US state prisons: Accounting for the effects of racial and ethnic differences in criminal involvement, arrests, sentencing, and time served. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 34(3), 853-883
  7. Williams, D. R., & Collins, C. (2001). Racial residential segregation: a fundamental cause of racial disparities in health. Public health reports, 116(5), 404.
  8. Massey, D. S. (1994). Getting away with murder: Segregation and violent crime in urban America. U. Pa. L. Rev., 143, 1203.
  9. Krivo, L. J., Peterson, R. D., & Kuhl, D. C. (2009). Segregation, racial structure, and neighborhood violent crime. American journal of Sociology, 114(6), 1765-1802.
  10. Anderson, L. M., Charles, J. S., Fullilove, M. T., Scrimshaw, S. C., Fielding, J. E., Normand, J., & Task Force on Community Preventive Services. (2003). Providing affordable family housing and reducing residential segregation by income: a systematic review. American journal of preventive medicine, 24(3), 47-67.