Blacks,Crime,and American Culture

Abstract

Attempts to understand crime patterns among blacks in the United States have systematically failed to consider the impact of slavery and resultant racist policies on black self-esteem. This paper explores the thesis that cultural domination was fundamentally more damaging than economic domination to black self-esteem. The ruth less attacks on blacks and black culture, usually justified by legal interpretations by whites, destroyed their faith that justice could be secured in this society. Data is pre sented which indicates that social inequalities have been perpetuated under the law and blacks were aware of this. Indeed, the law appears as a major instrument of racial oppression and, historically, many blacks have resisted oppression through illegal acts. Economic oppression of blacks under the law and their resistance created the condi tion in which the connection between crime and punishment lost the power to constrain antisocial acts. Blacks often secretly admired resistance, particularly those who felt op pressed, while whites developed extreme paranoia that blacks were out to take their lives and property. The euphemism "crime in the streets" is the perpetuation of this paranoia. The records show that blacks mainly victim ize blacks. Chances are far greater for a white to be victim ized by another white than by a black. The predominant crime pattern among blacks is against property, and the rate is not significantly higher than for whites. In crime against persons, black rates are higher than white rates.