An overwhelming majority of studies examining the relationship between race and criminality uses racial composition as a proxy for cultural context or simply race effects without actually specifying what it may or may not be capturing. This ambiguous operationalization neglects the dynamic nature of race/class stratification and the more general patterning of opportunity and spatial concentration. Inroads toward a better understanding of race/racial concentration and its relation to violence and criminological outcomes more generally can be made with an alteration of the current conceptual landscape. This article facilitates the reconceptualization process by critically examining current research and presenting a conceptual framework illustrating that race effects on violence are linked to very tangible macrostructural, normative, and recursive dynamics that are sensitive to the local and historical context within which most African Americans reside.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alba, R. D.
, Logan J. R., & Bellair, P. E. (1994). Living with crime: The implications of racial/ethnic differences in suburban location. Social Forces, 73, 395-434.
2.
Alex-Assenoh, Y.
(1995). Myths about race and the underclass: Concentrated poverty and underclass behaviors. Urban Affairs Review, 31, 3-19.
3.
Anderson, E.
(1990). Streetwise: Race, class and change in an urban community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
4.
Auletta, K.
(1982). The underclass. New York: Random House.
5.
Blalock, H. M.
(1967). Toward a theory of minority group relations. New York: John Wiley.
6.
Blau, J. R.
, & Blau, P. M. (1982). The cost of inequality: Metropolitan structure and violent crime. American Sociological Review, 47, 114-129.
7.
Bonacich, E.
(1972). The theory of elite antagonism: The split labor market. American Sociological Review, 37, 547-559.
8.
Bonacich, E.
(1976). Advanced capitalism and black/white race relations in the United States: A split labor market interpretation. American Sociological Review, 41, 35-51.
9.
Bourdieu, P.
(1977). Reproduction in education. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
10.
Braithwaite, J.
(1979). Inequality, crime and public policy. London: Cambridge University Press.
11.
Brown, C.
, & Boswell, T. (1995). Strikebreaking or solidarity in the great steel strike of 1919: A split labor market, game-theoretic, and qca analysis. American Journal of Sociology, 100, 1479-1519.
12.
Brownfield, D.
(1986). Social class and violent behavior. Criminology, 24, 421-438.
13.
Bruce, M. A. (1997). Boys to men: Inequality dynamics, spatial context, and behavioral strategies among adolescent males. Dissertation. North Carolina State University.
14.
Bruce, M. A.
, Roscigno, V. J., & McCall, P. L. (1998). Structure, context, and agency in the reproduction of Black-on-Black violence. Theoretical Criminology, 2, 29-55.
15.
Burr, J. A.
, & Mutchler, J. E. (1993). Ethnic living arrangements: Cultural convergence or cultural manifestation. Social Forces, 72, 169-179.
16.
Bursik, R. J.
(1988). Social disorganization and theories of crime and delinquency. Criminology, 26, 519-551.
17.
Bursik, R. J.
, & Grasmik H. G. (1993). Neighborhoods and crime. New York: Lexington Books.
18.
Corzine, J.
, Corzine, L. H., & Creech, J. C. (1988). The tenant labor market and lynching in the south: A test of split labor market theory. Sociological Inquiry, 58, 261-278.
19.
Corzine, J.
, Creech, J. C., & Corzine, L. H. (1983). Black concentration and lynching in the south: Testing Blalock's power threat hypothesis. Social Forces, 61, 774-809.
20.
Curtis, L. A.
(1975). Violence, race and culture. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.
21.
DiMaggio, P.
(1982). Cultural capital and school success: The impact status culture participation on the grades of U.S. high school students. American Sociological Review, 47, 189-201.
22.
DuBois, W.E.B.
(1899). The Philadelphia Negro: A social study. New York: Benjamin Blom.
23.
Elkins, S.
(1959). Slavery. New York: Grossett and Dunlap.
24.
Ellis, L.
(1990). Introduction: The nature of the biosocial perspective. In L. Ellis & H. Hoffman (Eds.), Crime in biological, social, and moral contexts (pp. 3-17). New York: Praeger.
25.
Ellis, L.
, & Walsh, A. (1997). Gene-based evolutionary theories in criminology. Criminology, 35, 229-276.
26.
Falk, W.
, & Rankin, B. (1992). The cost of being Black in the Black belt. Social Problems, 39, 299-313.
27.
Farley, R.
, & Frey, W. H. (1994). Changes in the segregation of Whites from Blacks during the 1980s: Small steps toward a more integrated society. American Sociological Review, 59, 23-45.
28.
Fordham, S.
, & Ogbu, J. U. (1986). Black students' school success: Coping with the burden of acting White. Urban Review, 18, 176-206.
29.
Fusfield, D. R.
, & Bates, T. (1984). The political economy of the urban ghetto. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
30.
Gibbs, J. T.
(1988). Young, Black, and male in America: An endangered species. New York: Auburn House.
31.
Gibbs, J. T.
(1994). Anger in young Black males: Victims or victimizers? In R. G. Majors & J. U. Gordon (Eds.), The American Black male (pp. 127-143). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
32.
Giddens, A.
(1984). The constitution of society. London: Cambridge University Press.
33.
Golden, R. M.
, & Messner, S. F. (1987). Dimensions of racial inequality and rates of violent crime. Criminology, 25, 525-541.
34.
Gottdiener, M.
, & Feagin, J. R. (1988). The paradigm shift in urban sociology. Urban Affairs Quarterly, 24, 163-187.
35.
Grier, W. H.
, & Cobbs, P. M. (1968). Black rage. New York: Basic Books.
36.
Hagan, J.
(1992). The poverty of a classless criminology—The American Society of Criminology 1991 presidential address. Criminology, 30, 1-19.
37.
Hagan, J.
, & Peterson, R. D. (1995). Criminal inequality in America: Patterns and consequences. In J. Hagan & R. D. Peterson (Eds.), Crime and inequality (pp. 14-36). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
38.
Harer, M. D.
, & Steffensmeier, D. (1992). The differing effects of economic inequality on Black and White rates of violence. Social Forces, 70, 1035-1054.
39.
Hargreaves, D. H.
(1967). Social relations in secondary school. London: Tinling.
40.
Hawkins, D. F.
(1985). Black homicide: The adequacy of existing research for devising prevention strategies. Crime and Delinquency, 31, 83-103.
41.
Hawkins, D. F.
(1987). Beyond anomalies: Rethinking the conflict perspective on race and criminal punishment. Social Forces, 65, 719-766.
42.
Hawkins, D. F.
(1995). Ethnicity, race and crime: A review of selected studies. In D. F. Hawkins (Ed.), Ethnicity, race and crime: Perspectives across time and place. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
43.
Herrnstein, R. J.
, & Murray, C. (1994). The bell curve. New York: Free Press.
44.
Higginbotham, Jr., A. L.
(1978). In the matter of color. New York: Oxford University Press.
45.
Jaynes, G. D.
, & Williams, R. M. (1989). A common destiny. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
46.
Jencks, C.
(1994). Rethinking social policy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
47.
Kasarda, J. D.
(1989). Urban industrial transition and the underclass. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 501, 26-47.
48.
Kasarda, J. D.
(1990). City jobs and residents on a collision course: The urban underclass dilemma. Economic Development Quarterly, 4, 313-319.
49.
Keiser, R. L.
(1979). The vice lords: Warriors of the streets. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
50.
Kirshenman, J.
, & Neckerman, K. M. (1990). We'd love to hire them but...: The meaning of race for employers. In C. Jencks & P. Petersen (Eds.), The urban underclass. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
51.
LaFree, G.
, Drass, K. A. & O'Day, P. (1992). Race and crime in postwar America: Determinants of African American and White rates, 1957-1988. Criminology, 30, 157-188.
52.
Land, K.
, McCall, P. L., and Cohen, L. E. (1990). Structural covariates of homicide rates: Are there any invariates across time and social space?American Journal of Sociology, 95, 922-963.
53.
Lichter, D.
(1989). Race employment hardship and inequality in the American nonmetropolitan south. American Sociological Review, 54, 436-446.
54.
Lieberson, S.
(1980). A piece of the pie: Black and White immigrants since 1980. Berkeley: University of California Press.
55.
Liebow, E.
(1967). Talley's corner. Boston: Little, Brown.
56.
Liska, A.
, Logan, J. R., & Bellair, P. E. (1998). Race and violent crime in the suburbs. American Sociological Review, 63, 27-38.
57.
Logan, J.
, & Molotch, H. (1987). Urban fortunes: The political economy of place. Berkeley: University of California Press.
MacLeod, J.
(1995). Ain't no making it. Boulder, CO: Westview.
60.
Majors, R.
, & Billson, J. M. (1992). Cool pose: The dilemmas of Black manhood in America. New York: Touchtone.
61.
Marable, M.
(1983). How capitalism underdeveloped Black America. Boston: South End.
62.
Massey, D. S.
(1990). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass. American Journal of Sociology, 96, 329-357.
63.
Massey, D. S.
, & Denton, N. A. (1993). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
64.
Massey, D. S.
, & Denton, N. A. (1987). Trends in the residential segregation of Blacks, Hispanics and Asians: 1970-1980. American Sociological Review, 52, 802-825.
65.
Massey, D. S.
, & Gross, A. B. (1991). Explaining trends in residential segregation, 1970-1980. Urban Affairs Quarterly, 27, 13-35.
66.
Messerschmidt, J.
(1986). Capitalism, patriarchy, and crime. Totwa, NJ: Rowan and Littlefield.
67.
Messerschmidt, J. W.
(1993). Masculinities and crime. Lanham, MD: Roman and Littlefield.
68.
Messner, S. F.
(1982). Poverty, inequality, and the urban homicide rate: Some unexpected findings. Criminology, 20, 103-114.
69.
Messner, S. F.
, & Golden, R. M. (1992). Racial inequality and racially disaggregated homicide rates: An assessment of alternative theoretical explanations. Criminology, 30, 421-445.
70.
Mills, C. W.
(1959). The sociological imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
71.
Mills, C. W.
(1963). Two styles of social science research. In I. L. Horowitz (Ed.), Power, politics, and people: The collected essays of C. Wright Mills. New York: Ballantine.
72.
Moffit, T. R.
(1990). The neuropsychology of juvenile delinquency: A critical review. In M. Tonry & N. Morris (Eds.), Crime and Justice: A Review of Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
73.
Moltoch, H.
(1988). Strategies and constraints of growth elites. In S. Cummings (Ed.), Business elites and urban development, (pp. 25-47). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
74.
Moynihan, D. P.
(1965). The Negro Family. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor.
75.
Nicholson, D.
(1995). On violence. In D. Belton (Ed.), Speak my name (pp. 28-34). Boston: Beacon Press.
76.
Ogbu, J.
(1978). Minority education and caste: The American system in cross-cultural perspective. New York: Academic Press.
77.
Olzak, S.
(1992). The Dynamics of Ethnic Competition and Conflict. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
78.
Patterson, O.
(1999). Rituals of blood. Washington, DC: Civitas/Counterpoint.
79.
Peterson, R. D.
, & Krivo, L. J. (1993). Racial segregation and Black urban homicide. Social Forces, 71, 1001-1026.
80.
Phillips, C. D.
(1987). Exploring relations among forms of social control: The lynching and execution of Blacks in North Carolina. Law and Society Review, 21, 361-374.
81.
Pinkney, A.
(1975). Black Americans. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
82.
Reich, M.
(1981). Racial inequality: A political economic analysis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
83.
Roscigno, V. J.
(1995). The social embeddedness of racial educational inequality: The Black-White gap and the impact of racial and local political-economic contexts. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 14, 137-168.
84.
Roscigno, V. J.
(1998). Race, institutional linkages, and the reproduction of educational disadvantage. Social Forces, 76, 1033-1060.
85.
Roscigno, V. J.
, & Bruce, M. A. (1995). Racial inequality and social control: Historical and contemporary patterns in the U.S. South. Sociological Spectrum, 15, 323-349.
86.
Roscigno, V. J.
, & Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (1994). Racial politics in the contemporary South. Social Problems, 41, 585-607.
87.
Rowe, D. C.
, & Osgood, W. (1984). Heredity and sociological theories of delinquency: A reconsideration. American Sociological Review, 49, 526-540.
88.
Sampson, R. J.
(1985). Race and criminal violence: A demographically disaggregated analysis of urban homicide. Crime and Delinquency, 31, 47-82.
89.
Sampson, R. J.
(1987). Urban Black violence: The effect of male joblessness and family disruption. American Journal of Sociology, 93, 348-382.
90.
Sampson, R. J.
, & Wilson, W. J. (1995). Toward a theory of race, crime and urban inequality. In J. Hagan & R. D. Peterson (Eds.), Crime and inequality. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
91.
Sellin, T.
(1938). Culture, conflict and crime. New York: Social Science Research Council.
92.
Semyonov, M.
, & Cohen, Y. (1990). Ethnic discrimination and the income of majority-group workers. American Sociological Review, 55, 107-114.
93.
Shaw, C. R.
, & McKay, H. D. (1945). Juvenile delinquency and urban areas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
94.
Shihadeh, E.S.
, & Steffensmeir, D.J. (1994). Economic inequality, family disruption and urban Black violence: Cities as units of stratification and social control. Social Forces, 73, 729-751.
95.
Shoemaker, D.
(1984). Theories of delinquency: An examination of delinquent behavior. New York: Oxford University Press.
96.
Squires, G.
, DeWolfe, R., & DeWolfe, A. S. (1979). Urban decline or disinvestment: Uneven development, redlining and the role of the insurance industry. Social Problems, 27, 79-95.
97.
Squires, G.
, Valez, W., & Taeuber, K. E. (1991). Insurance redlining, agency location, and the process of urban disinvestment. Urban Affairs Quarterly, 26, 567-588.
98.
Staples, R.
(1986). The masculine way of violence. In D. F. Hawkins (Ed.), Homicide among Black Americans. New York: University Press of America.
99.
Steinberg, S.
(1998). The liberal retreat from race during the post-civil rights era. In W. Lubiano (Ed.), The house that race built. New York: Vintage.
100.
Sutherland, E. H.
(1934). Principles of criminology. Chicago: Lippincott.
101.
Sutherland, E. H.
, & Cressy, D. R. (1978). Criminology. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
102.
Swidler, A.
(1986). Culture in action: Symbols and strategies. American Sociological Review, 51, 273-286.
103.
Szymanski, A.
(1976). Racial discrimination and White gain. American Sociological Review, 41, 403-414.
104.
Taylor, R.
(1979). Black ethnicity and the persistence of ethnogenesis. American Journal of Sociology, 84, 1401-1423.
105.
Tienda, M.
, & Lii, D. (1987). Minority concentration and earnings inequality: Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians compared. American Journal of Sociology, 93, 141-165.
106.
Tomaskovic-Devey, D.
(1993). Gender and racial inequality at work. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
107.
Tomaskovic-Devey, D.
, & Roscigno, V.J. (1996). Racial economic subordination and White gain in the U.S. South. American Sociological Review, 61, 565-589.
108.
Tomaskovic-Devey, D.
, & Roscigno, V. J. (1997). Uneven development and local inequality in the U. S. South: The role of outside investment, landed elites, and racial dynamics. Sociological Forum, 12, 565-597.
109.
Tomaskovic-Devey, B.
, & Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (1988). The social structural determinants of ethnic group behavior: Single ancestry rates among four White American ethnic groups. American Sociological Review, 53, 650-659.
110.
Turk, A.
(1982). Social control and social conflict. In J. Gibbs (Ed.), Social control: Views from the social sciences. Beverley Hills, CA: Sage.
111.
Wacquant, L.J.D.
, & Wilson, W. J. (1989). The cost of racial and class exclusion in the inner city. Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science, 501, 8-25.
112.
Wardell, M.
, & Zajicek, A. M. (1995). Social problems: Pathways for transcending exclusive sociology. Social Problems, 42, 301-317.
113.
West, C.
(1993). Race matters. Boston: Beacon Press.
114.
Willhelm, S. M.
(1971). Who needs the Negro. New York: Anchor.
115.
Willis, P.
(1981). Learning to Labor. New York: Columbia University Press.
116.
Wilson, C. A.
(1992). Restructuring and the growth of concentrated poverty in Detroit. Urban Affairs Quarterly, 28, 187-205.
117.
Wilson, J. Q.
, & Herrnstein, R. J. (1985). Crime and human nature. New York: Simon and Schuster.
118.
Wilson, W. J.
(1978). The declining significance of race. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
119.
Wilson, W. J.
(1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass and public policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
120.
Wilson, W. J.
(1996). When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor. New York: Knopf.
121.
Wolfgang, M. E.
, & Cohen, B. (1970). Crime and race: Conceptions and misconceptions. New York: Institute of Human Relations Press.
122.
Wolfgang, M. E.
, & Ferracuti, F. (1967). The subculture of violence: Toward an integrated theory in criminology. London: Tavistock.
123.
Yancey, W.
, Ericksen, E. P., & Juliani, R. N. (1976). Emergent ethnicity: A review and reformulation. American Sociological Review, 41, 391-403.
