McGowan: Crime — Inequities? What Inequities
by Richard McGowan, Ph.D.
When my boys attended North Central High School in the 1990s, the principal of the school and subsequent Butler honorary-degree-holder Dr. Eugene White called a special assembly. The assembly was special because Dr. White, a black man, required only black, male students to attend. He had seen the data about the behavior of black boys and he wanted it addressed at his school. What was plain to Dr. White was that black boys involved themselves in asocial behavior more than white boys.
Dr. White’s message is still timely. The data show little change over the past 25 or so years. The Center for Disease Control lists homicide as the leading cause of death in 2021 for black males age 1-19. FBI crime data for 2019, the last year before COVID hit, show that there were 6,578 victims of homicide, including 3,299 white victims and 2,906 black victims. Of the latter victims, 2,574 or 88.5 percent were murdered by a black offender. Arrest-related deaths, deaths by way of law enforcement, are the least of the worries we have as a society. It also appears that blacks are disproportionately more murderous than whites inasmuch as blacks comprise 13 percent of the population but commit 39 percent of the homicides.
Does that disproportion hold for juvenile crimes? The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquent Prevention, housed in the U.S. Department of Justice, has helpful data on “Youth Arrest Rates by Offense and Race.” The latest data, from 2020, show that the arrest rate for white juveniles was 5,680 per 100,000 persons 10-17 year old. The corresponding rate for black juveniles was 6,380 arrests. For violent crimes — murder, robbery, aggravated assault and rape — whites were arrested at a rate of 63.2 per 100,000 white juveniles 10-17 whereas blacks had a rate of 273.5 per 100,000 black juveniles 10-17.
This data can be found in a report entitled “Racial and Ethnic Fairness.” A conclusion warranted by the data is that black juveniles are more asocial — unless you assume that law enforcement agencies, whose agents do the arresting, are massively racist. Another conclusion, one which aligns with the FBI data on homicides by race of victim and offender and the Center for Disease Control data on leading causes of death for black males ages 0-19, is that black juveniles are more asocial than white juveniles. The disparity can be accounted for by the disparity between black and white offenders regarding violent offense — rape, murder and non-negligent homicide, robbery and aggravated assault.
Ignoring this data, the Indianapolis Star ran an article in early June entitled “Indiana’s Juvenile Detention Centers Disproportionately Detain Black Boys.” The article stated that, “There are more than 515,000 white youth and more than 93,000 Black youth younger than 18 in the state. While the rate of arrests is relatively the same across racial lines, Black youth charged with a crime have a 30 percent chance of being detained compared to 15 percent of white youth, according to the 2022 Indiana Juvenile Justice Racial and Ethnic Plan.”
The article went on to say that, “There have been challenges tackling disparities in the juvenile justice system for decades and city officials, state lawmakers and local organizations’ next tasks have been trying to eliminate these inequities.” The article also stated that “What is unknown in the data set examined by the plan is what specific crimes were committed, which would impact detention rates,” as though the data were not available. Unless Indiana’s youth are significantly different than the nation’s youth, the data, above, show black youths commit significantly more violent offenses, the kind that merits detention.
The data are readily available but finding it requires a bit of work; that, and the data interfere with the narrative that the system is “racist.” I will concede that it is easier to write an article that follows popular but unfounded ideas. I will not concede, however, that Dr. White was a racist. Further, if the system is racist, because of a 15 percent difference in detention rates between black and white boys, then the system is decidedly and abjectly sexist.
The Indiana Juvenile Justice Plan 2021-2024 notes that “around 73 percent of youth referrals to juvenile court were male and the remaining 27 percent were female. Of delinquent offenses, around 76 percent were male referrals.” That huge disparity, over 45 percent, went unremarked in the Star’s article about disparities involving race. Ignoring those data suggests that no one is “trying to eliminate these inequities” as the newspaper charged.
The state government, journalists and those who manage media outlets should have noted that larger disparity. Maybe it is too much to ask that the state government, journalists and news media do inclusive reporting and fact-checking. Maybe it is too much to ask that the Indianapolis Star print all the news that is fit to print.
Richard McGowan, Ph.D., an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, has taught philosophy and ethics cores for more than 40 years, most recently at Butler University. Research citations for Dr. McGowan’s articles are available at www.inpolicy.org.
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Resources
race of victim and offender
sex of offender
https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/statistical-briefing-book/crime/faqs/ucr_table_2
juvenile crime data by race
Racial and ethnic fairness
https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/statistical-briefing-book/special_topics/faqs_fairness/qa11501
Youth offense rates by offense and race
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/tables/table-43
arrests by race and offense
Indiana’s juvenile detention centers disproportionately detain Black boys
Indianapolis Star
Indiana juvenile detention rates for Black youth
There are more than 515,000 white youth and more than 93,000 Black youth younger than 18 in the state. While the rate of arrests is relatively the same across racial lines, Black youth charged with a crime have a 30% chance of being detained compared to 15% of white youth, according to the 2022 Indiana Juvenile Justice Racial and Ethnic Disparities Plan.
There have been challenges tackling disparities in the juvenile justice system for decades and city officials, state lawmakers and local organizations’ next tasks have been trying to eliminate these inequities.
What is unknown in the data set examined by the plan is what specific crimes were committed, which would impact detention rates.
https://www.in.gov/cji/files/IN-FY22-RED-Plan-Final-7.18.22.pdf
https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/r-ed-databook/asp/display.asp?display_in=3
See Table 6 in the appendix for more information. Around 73% of youth referrals to juvenile court were male and the remaining 27% were female. Of delinquent offenses, around 76% were male referrals and around 24% were status offenses.Aug 3, 2021
Indiana Juvenile Justice Plan 2021-2024 – IN.gov
IN.gov
https://www.in.gov › cji › behavioral-health › files
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