Three Strikes Polices, Essay Example

All governments are seeking for a method, which can decrease level of incarceration in the country. In order to find them, researches have to find out first, what causes appearance of new crimes.

The same situation is in USA. Since year 1970, amount of people incarcerated in local and federal prison and jail has increased by nearly 500% (Mauer M., King R. S, July 2009). One of the main reasons is the serious disproportion in racial composition. Amount of blacks and Hispanics grows permanently. Concerning Blacks, every third black male can be incarcerated (King R. S., Mauer M., Young M. C. 2005). Black females have lower rate, but they still are more likely to be sentenced than white females. The same situation is with Hispanics: one of six male have a possibility of being incarcerated. For females this proportion is 1-to-45 (Jankowski L. W. 1992.). For whites these ratios are substantially lower.

Thus, the disparity exists, but needed to be analyzed more thorough. The data for the analysis was get from different sources. Population structure for given states was get from U.S. Census (Tab. 1). Amount of inmates per 100,000 was get from U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (Tab 2.).

As it seen in the Tab. 1, chosen states have different levels of disparity. For example, there are 26.4% of Blacks in Alabama and only 0.6% for Wyoming. The same situation is with Hispanics – the part of Hispanic population differs for those states. Population structure is presented in relative values. While performing an analysis, amount of people of each particular race cannot give the right result. Thus, the percentage rate was chosen.

Tab. 1

Amount of jail and prison inmates was given in person per 100,000 of population. Racial disparity can be clearly seen here. Amount of sentenced Blacks is considerably higher than number of sentenced whites. Amount of sentenced Hispanic is also higher than the number of white inmates, but the difference is not as substantial as difference in number of white and black inmates (Tab. 2).

Tab. 2

To perform the first part of analysis, the relation between Blacks’ and Whites’, Hispanics’ and Whites’ numbers of sentences should be calculated. The results are shown in the Tab. 3. As we can see, relation of number of black inmates to the number of white inmates is high for all states. Some of them have this value lower, than national (Alabama, Florida and Indiana). Other states have this relation higher than national.

The same ration for Hispanics is more than one too, but this value is substantially lower than the relation between black and white inmates. This value for Florida is 0.65 – amount of sentenced Hispanics is lower than number of sentenced Whites.

This analysis shows that fewer Whites are usually sentenced in most of states. The highest ration is for Blacks, Hispanics are more likely to be incarcerated, but the difference is not as substantial as for Blacks. The value for Hispanics is between 1 and 2 for the majority of states – the difference should be taken into consideration, but is not very substantial. For another race such value can be acceptable – the minority can have higher incarceration rate due to several reasons: display of racism, lower level of education and lower standard of living.

Nevertheless, these ratios don’t depend on the population structure. The lowest Black-to-Whites ratio has Alabama, which has the highest part of Blacks (26.4%). States, which have the highest Blacks-to-Whites ratio, New Hampshire and Vermont, have 1.0% and 0.6% respectively. Thus, considerable amount of Blacks doesn’t mean, that amount of them, who are incarcerated will be higher, than in states, where part of Blacks is not substantial. The same is true for Hispanics and Latinos.

Tab. 3

The second part of analysis includes analysis of dependence of amount of inmates on the structure of population. For the analysis Excel and function LINEST was used.

The input data is total amount of sentenced people (Tab. 2) and values, representing population structure. In this case population of the states doesn’t have any influence on the result, as all input values are ratios. Amount of incarcerated people was calculated per 100,000 people, values, representing population structure are ratios too.

The results of the analysis are represented in the Tab. 4. Amount of sentenced people can be represented with the following equation:

Y = -334 666 + 2 301 463×X1 + 955 651×X2 + 338 299×X3,

Where Y – amount of incarcerated people in the state, X1 – part of Whites in the state, X2 – part of Blacks in the state, X3 – part of Hispanics and Latinos in the state.

R² for this regression equals 0.728 – this value is substational for this analysis. So, ration can describe relation between percentage of people of each particular page and amount of incarcerated people quite accurately.

Tab. 4

Results of the analysis are quite unexpected. The highest ratio is for Whites – 2 301 463, the lowest for Hispanics and Latinos – 338 299 and for Blacks this value equals 955 651. Thus, the assumption that high percentage rate of Blacks in the state doesn’t mean high amount of crimes, is corroborated. People of another race are undoubtedly more likely to commit crimes. But now the educational level of different races and their standard of living equalizes. The reason of the existing disparity is not connected with standard of living or level of education. The reason can be easily found – discrimination.

There is evidence of discrimination of Blacks, Hispanics and Latinos concerning sentences. They are far more likely to be discriminated concerning decision whether to be incarcerated or not. The y are more likely to be sentenced more severe than white criminals. White criminals are more likely to hire attorney, which results in less severe sentence (Kansal T., Mauer M. 2005.). All these facts causes the disparity between number of sentenced people of each race.

References

Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005. Retrieved July 25, 2009, from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/pjim05.htm

U.S. Census Data. Retrieved July 25, 2009, from http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/data/

Reducing racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System. Retrieved July 25, 2009, from http://sentencingproject.org/Admin/Documents/publications/rd_reducingracialdisparity.pdf

Kansal T., Mauer M. 2005. Racial Disparity in sentencing: A Review of the literature. Retrieved July 25, 2009, from http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/disparity.pdf

Mauer M., King R. S. July 2007. Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration By Race and Ethnicity. Retrieved July 25, 2009, from http://www.sentencingproject.org/detail/publication.cfm?publication_id=167

King R. S., Mauer M., Young M. C. 2005. Incarceration and crime: A Complex Relationship. The Sentencing project.

Jankowski L. W. 1992. Correctional Populations in the United States, 1990. Bureau of Justice Statistics.