Abstract

In the early twentieth century, the eugenics movement exercised considerable influence over domestic US public policy. Positive eugenics encouraged the reproduction of “fit” human specimens while negative eugenics attempted to reduce the reproduction of “unfit” specimens like the “feebleminded” and the criminal. Although eugenics became a taboo concept after World War II, it did not disappear. It was merely repackaged. Incarceration is no longer related to stated eugenic goals, yet incapacitation in prisons still exerts a prophylactic effect on human reproduction. Because minorities are incarcerated in disproportionately high numbers, the prophylactic effect of incarceration affects them most dramatically. In fact, for black males, the effect of hyper-incarceration might be so great as to depress overall reproduction rates. This article identifies some of the legal and extralegal variables that would be relevant for such an analysis and calls for such an investigation.

Highlights

  • At year-end 2014, more than 2.2 million people were incarcerated in US jails and prisons [2], confined at a rate of 698 persons per 100,000 [3]

  • The poor are far more likely to go to prison than are the rich [4]; Males are far more likely to go to prison than are women [5]; and—in particular—minority males are much more likely to go to prison, and for longer periods of time [6], than are white males

  • As explored in this article, the hyper-incarceration of minorities can exert a prophylactic effect on human reproduction rates

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Summary

Introduction

At year-end 2014, more than 2.2 million people were incarcerated in US jails and prisons [2], confined at a rate of 698 persons per 100,000 [3]. Hispanic males are incarcerated at more than twice the rate of non-Hispanic white males and black males are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of non-Hispanic white males [5] Such concentrated hyper-incarceration of minority males can, for example, strain already disadvantaged neighborhoods and drive up—not down—community crime rates [7]. As explored in this article, the hyper-incarceration of minorities can exert a prophylactic effect on human reproduction rates. This article cannot determine whether the hyper-incarceration of minorities—especially black males—is sufficient to depress overall minority fertility rates, Section 5 identifies some of the variables that might be relevant to such an analysis and explains why such an analysis is timely.

Applied Evolution
Tainted Meat
The Color of Mass Incarceration
A Prolegomenon to a New Eugenics
Variables with a Potential Eugenic Effect
The Need for a Study of the New Eugenics
Findings
Conclusions
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