Leymon 16
case. Drug crimes and their possible effects on prison populations are also important to consider. During
the late 1970’s and early 1980’s the U.S. stepped up legislation and enforcement against possession and
use of drugs. Drug convictions have influenced imprisonment rates, explaining a portion of the nearly
500 percent increase over the period of this study (Inciardi et al., 1996; McShane and Williams, 1997).
Furthermore, it has been shown that African-Americans have shouldered a heavy burden of this stepped
up activity (Baum, 1996; Berndt, 2003; Hamid, 1998; McShane and Williams, 1997).
For the analysis of the separate racial groups, it would have been advantageous to have violent crime
rates, drug crime rates, unemployment, and poverty rates per 1000 for each racial group (e.g., Hispanic
violent crime rate for the Hispanic imprisonment rates analysis). A number of issues made such analyses
impossible. First, a number of states were missing this data across a number of years. Second, a set
standard of racial categorization was not used by individual states, making comparisons difficult; this is
particularly true for Hispanics where states have counted individuals as both ethnic and/or racial groups.
Third, data for separate racial groups is not available for violent crime on a state level and is only
available in the 1990’s for drug crimes. As a result, violent crime rates, drug crime rates, unemployment,
and poverty rates could only be calculated using total state population per 1000. While analysis with this
data is not ideal it does not completely limit the results. Analysis does reveal possible effects from
overall fears of high crime that have been attributed to minorities. For example, if results indicate that in
a state that had high African American arrest rates for violent crime the imprisonment rate is significantly
higher. In this hypothetical situation the results would suggest that the disparity in imprisonment is at
least somewhat associated with hirer rates of arrests for violent crimes among African Americans only
12
.
In analysis with data that collapses across all racial/ethnic groups the results indicate that high overall
arrest rates (e.g. states with more arrests for violent crime) have higher disparities in imprisonment, while
the exact component of the hirer arrest rates cannot be teased out. But in this hypothetical situation the
results would indicate that high arrest rates for violent crime affects African American imprisonment rates
more.
12
Though it is possible that other racial/ethnic groups could have a spill over affect of high arrest rates among them onto
the African American population
Convention