Overrepresentation Of Blacks Research Articles

Why COVID-19 May Be Disproportionately Killing African Americans: Black Overrepresentation among COVID-19 Mortality Increases with Lower Irradiance, Where Ethnicity Is More Predictive of COVID-19 Infection and Mortality Than Median Income

COVID-19 is killing African Americans at a rate 7% to 193% higher than the general population. Understanding why, as well as the reasons behind the wide variation, is paramount to saving lives. Here, we test two potential explanations for this effect. On the one hand, African Americans might be dying more because they have a lower average income (‘the Socioeconomic Hypothesis’). On the other hand, they might be dying more because their skin is more resistant to UV radiation, as we previously showed that COVID-19 infections and deaths decrease with higher irradiance (‘the Irradiance Hypothesis’). The two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive. We show that the overrepresentation of African Americans among COVID-19 deaths shows a significant negative correlation with mean solar irradiance, with a 20% decrease in Global Horizontal Irradiance leading to a 76% increase in the overrepresentation of African Americans amongst COVID-19 deaths. We then show that in Michigan, one of the US states with the lowest irradiance in early April, the % of each county’s population that is black, more than its median income, median age or % of the population above 65 years old, predicts COVID-19 morbidity and mortality rates. These results suggest a susceptibility linked to low irradiance may play a large role in African American vulnerability to COVID-19, and that black populations in (darker) locations with lower irradiance may benefit from sunlight exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exploring the Relationship Between Sports Fandom and the Black Criminal Stereotype

In news media, one stereotype that has continually been perpetuated is the overrepresentation of Blacks as criminals, leading to what many refer to as “the Black criminal stereotype.” Although research suggests that distorted portrayals of criminals in news affect social reality judgments regarding race and crime and provoke stereotypical responses in viewers, limited evidence exists that connects these effects to sport media. However, recent instances involving issues related to race and crime in sport have prompted us to consider the prevalence of a Black criminal stereotype among sport fans. With increased media attention given to off-field transgressions—particularly, violent ones perpetuated by high-profile Black athletes—we are left wondering how such attention may influence fans’ attitudes and beliefs. We explored these issues in an experimental study ( n = 234). Our findings not only revealed evidence of a Black criminal stereotype among sports fans but also that sports fans differ from nonfans in basic attitudes and beliefs about crime and violence in sport. More specifically, the more a participant claimed to be a fan of sports and (more so) combative sports, the more she or he viewed an athlete charged with domestic abuse in a favorable light.

Philadelphia area residents' views on the disproportionate representation of blacks and Hispanics in the criminal justice system

Using open-ended survey questions, this study looks to expand on prior race and crime public opinion research by examining Philadelphia area residents' views as to why they believed Blacks and Hispanics are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. The results reveal that Philadelphia citizens do have distinct opinions, in that a majority of participants discussed several contributing factors. Respondents believed that family influences, economic reasons, and lack of education were top contributing factors to both Black and Hispanic disproportionality. Generally speaking, similarities were found in individual participants' responses to both Black and Hispanic disproportionality questions, with a few notable exceptions. White respondents were significantly more likely to believe that economic factors contribute to the overrepresentation of Blacks in the criminal justice system. Finally, participants' answers to the Black and Hispanic questions did not differ based on the race of the respondent.

Are Blacks and Hispanics Disproportionately Incarcerated Relative to Their Arrests? Racial and Ethnic Disproportionality Between Arrest and Incarceration.

Do large racial and ethnic disparities in prison populations reflect systematic racial and policy discrimination in the criminal justice system, or do they reflect disproportionate involvement of blacks and Hispanics in "serious" or street crime? Our investigation of this question keys off the approach initiated by Alfred Blumstein is his pioneering studies on the topic. While yielding important findings, there are, however, substantial gaps in the empirical literature on the racial disproportionality issue. We attempt to fill those gaps by (1) using both data on prison admission as well as in-stock prison populations, (2) presenting more recent racially and ethnically disaggregated arrest and incarceration data from Pennsylvania for 2003-2007, and (3) including Hispanic offenders in our racial and ethnic disproportionality comparisons. Our results indicate, first, that the representation of blacks, whites, and Hispanics among offenders admitted to state prison and in the prison population corresponds closely to their representation in arrest statistics. Second, using arrests as a marker of violent offending, the overrepresentation of blacks among offenders admitted to state prisons occurs because they commit a disproportionate number of frequently imprisoned (i.e., violent) crimes. Third, for those offenses where there is a within-race difference between arrest and incarceration representation, Hispanics experience the greatest disadvantage. Fourth, failing to account for Hispanics in white and black estimates tends to inflate white proportions and deflate black proportions of arrests, admissions, and prison population estimates, masking the "true" black and white racial disproportionality. We conclude that while there is a need for continued concern with possible racial discrimination in justice system processing, this concern should not distract attention from what arguably is the more important matter-ameliorating the social environmental conditions that foster disproportionate minority (especially black) involvement in violent crime.

Outcomes Associated with Race in Males with Nondialysis-Dependent Chronic Kidney Disease

Blacks are over-represented among dialysis patients, but they have better survival rates than whites. It is unclear if the over-representation of blacks on dialysis is due to faster loss of kidney function or greater survival (or both) in predialysis stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD). We compared predialysis mortality, incidence of end stage renal disease (ESRD), and slopes of estimated GFR (eGFR) in 298 black versus 945 white male patients with moderate and advanced nondialysis-dependent CKD (NDD-CKD) from a single medical center. Mortality and ESRD incidence were compared in parametric survival models, and slopes of eGFR were assessed in mixed-effects models. Blacks had lower crude mortality and higher crude ESRD incidence. The lower mortality in blacks was explained by differences in case mix, especially a lower prevalence of cardiovascular disease, and the higher incidence of ESRD was explained by differences in case mix and baseline kidney function. The slopes of eGFR were similar in blacks and whites. Lower mortality in black versus white patients is also observed in NDD-CKD and can be accounted for by differences in clinical characteristics. Higher mortality of black patients in earlier stages of CKD may result in the selection of a subgroup with fewer comorbidities and better survival in later stages of CKD. The higher crude ESRD rate in blacks appears to result from lower mortality in late stages of CKD, not faster progression of CKD.

Reassessing Political Explanations for Murders of Police

The article discusses how Jacobs and Carmichael, drawing on the racial threat thesis, argue that the overrepresentation of Blacks among felons who murder police is in part explained by Blacks' conscious or unconscious responses to political subordination by the State. In testing this argument, Jacobs and Carmichael find that their key theoretical variable—the presence of a Black mayor—is inversely related to police homicides and injurious assaults across many model specifications. This article describes a limited reanalysis of Jacobs and Carmichael's homicide data and additional analyses with a larger sample of cities. The findings suggest that the significance of the Black mayor variable may have been an artifact of model specification. Instead, there is evidence that Black city council representation may be associated with reduced homicides of police by Blacks. Further research is needed, however, because of the limited explanatory power of the key factors highlighted in past research.

Do Members of Racial Minority Groups Have an Affinity With Serious Crimes? An Empirical Analysis

The overrepresentation of Blacks and Latinos in the arrest statistics is no longer a new finding but whether this trend is due to selective law enforcement or differential involvement in crime needs a more forceful and empirically grounded attention than has so far been proffered. Using data from a large midwestern police department, the total count of 11,293 arrests conducted from January through December 2005 were examined. A higher arrest rate was affirmed for Blacks and Latinos. In addition, the data provided considerable support for existence of zeal in discretional arrest for Blacks and Latinos but only a remote possibility of differential involvement in criminal behavior for the 2 racial minority groups.

Vítimas da cor: homicídios na região metropolitana de São Paulo, Brasil, 2000

The objective of this paper was to analyze the homicide rate by racial/ethnic origin in Greater Metropolitan São Paulo, Brazil, after controlling for schooling, gender, and age. Based on available vital statistics for São Paulo and from the National Census, the homicide rates for blacks and non-blacks in Greater Metropolitan São Paulo in 2000 were calculated for 134 units (38 municipalities and 96 capital districts). In addition, two categories (reference and exposure) were created for each of the following death certificate socio-demographic data: race, schooling, gender, and age. The research used descriptive and logistic regression analyses. Although homicide rates were invariably higher for blacks than for non-blacks, the race variable was not statistically significant when schooling, gender, and age were controlled. The higher homicide rate for blacks in Greater Metropolitan São Paulo results from overrepresentation of blacks both among individuals with low schooling and in the young male population, the principal exposure categories for homicide.

Policing Diversity — Managing Complaints against the Police

This study takes a critical perspective in examining public attitudes towards police stop-and-search powers and, more particularly, police misconduct. It shows how police accountability works through the formal and complex system of complaints against police. It shows a system designed to favour the police against the citizen. In the eyes of some citizens this has tended to reduce the legitimacy of the complaints process, which has led to its under use. Certain police practices and services appear to impact more on diverse sections of the public than it does on the white community. It shows how aberrant police behaviour exposes some of the sociological issues such as black over-representation in public dissatisfaction and complaint statistics. The research also highlights the hidden figure of police deviance and misconduct. This study acknowledges future changes in complaints management proposed by the Home Secretary, David Blunkett MP. However, these proposals do not appear to go far enough. The complaints process is beset with a number of significant problems which include inaccessibility, complication and inequality. The study suggests, as the way forward, a model of ‘good practice’ using a pragmatic approach, which is customer-focused and overcomes many of the problems that allow for easy access, simplification and informality. The principle of civil libertarian ideals prevails, satisfying the legal notion, ‘justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done’.

Black role portrayals in South African television advertising

Limited research has been done to examine the role portrayals of blacks in South African television advertising. This article gives an aggregate picture through content analysis, of the image of blacks that television advertising presented to South African audiences in the mid‐1990s. There appears to have been a significant overrepresentation of blacks in professional/semi‐professional occupations and a significant under‐representation of blacks in low‐skilled occupations. Blacks were observed to be speaking English more than any other language. Blacks were also portrayed in aspirational roles rather than in more likely socially realistic ones.

Crimes and Punishment: Blacks in the Army’s Criminal Justice System

Are Blacks discriminated against in U.S. Army courts-martial? This article reviews the literature and presents original research to address this question. Other topics examined include the overrepresentation of Blacks in the Army courts-martial and soldiers’ perceptions of the fairness of the justice system. I examined all aggravated assault charges heard in Army courts-martial during a 6-year period and found several striking differences. White defendants are far more likely to have a pretrial agreement (i.e., plea bargain) than are Blacks (69% vs. 51%), and hence, Whites are more likely to plead guilty (87%) than are Blacks (72%). These same patterns are found when all courts-martial, regardless of offense, are analyzed for the same 6-year period. Once a defendant enters the Army courts-martial system, there is no statistical evidence of discrimination. If discrimination occurs in this process, it will occur where commanders have greater discretion (e.g., for less serious offenses, prior to deciding on courts-martial). Suggestions for further research are offered.

Race and crime: An international dilemma

The overrepresentation of blacks in U.S. crime statistics has existed since the turn of the twentieth century. The census of 1910 showed more blacks than whites in jail, in the north as well as in the south. Official figures from the 1930s through the 1950s showed that the number of blacks arrested for crimes of violence in proportion to the number of whites ranged from 6:1 to 16:1. These statistics have not improved in the interim. Breaching a long taboo, liberals from Bill Clinton to Jesse Jackson have recently made it respectable to theorize about “black-on-black” crime. Conservative magazines like the National Review have also begun to discuss aspects of the race/crime link (see “Blacks… and Crime,” May 16, 1994; “How to Cut Crime,” May 30, 1994). What is yet to be acknowledged, however, is the international generalizability of the race/crime relationship. The matrix found within the United States, with Asians being most law-abiding, Africans least, and Europeans intermediate, is to be observed in other multiracial countries like Britain, Brazil, and Canada. Moreover, the pattern is revealed in China and the Pacific Rim, Europe and the Middle East, and Africa and the Caribbean. Because the “American dilemma” is global in manifestation, explanations must go well beyond U.S. particulars. I emphasize at the outset that enormous variability exists within each of the populations on many of the traits to be discussed. Because distributions substantially overlap, with average differences amounting to between 4 and 34 percent, it is highly problematic to generalize from a group average to a particvular individual. Nonetheless, as I hope to show, significant racial variation exists, not only in crime but also in other traits that predispose to crime, including testosterone, brain size, temperament, and cognitive ability.

Evaluation and Risk Reduction Projects in Ethnic and Racial Minority Communities

Abstract The purpose of this article is to describe basic program evaluation principles designed to improve implementation of AIDS risk reduction programs targeted to ethnic and racial minority communities. Overrepresentation of Blacks and Hispanics among reported AIDS cases demonstrates the need for effective AIDS prevention programs that are scientifically sound, ethnicly acceptable, and culturally sensitive. Health educators also must become aware of subgroups within Black and Hispanic communities when targeting educational interventions. This complex cultural web presents a formidable challenge for program evaluation. While summative evaluation ultimately will be valuable, it may be premature now. It is incumbent for AIDS education program planners to ensure that rigorous summative evaluations are not administered in a premature effort to eliminate direct federal funding of minority community based strategies to stop the spread of HIV infection.

Urban Psychiatric Commitments: Disability and Dangerous Behavior of Black and White Recent Admissions

Nationally black patients are overrepresented in public psychiatric institutions and are more likely than white patients to be committed involuntarily. This study of patients from 12 treatment units in the Chicago area, where these patterns were also true, compared the functioning of 227 acute admissions grouped by race (white or black) and admission status (voluntary or involuntary). Patients were assessed by highly trained independent observers using objective measures of dangerous behavior and disability levels, the relevant classes of functioning based on common principles underlying commitment statutes. No evidence was found that racial bias and discrimination in commitment and retention decisions would account for the overrepresentation of blacks among involuntary commitments to public institutions. Rather, the same factors that account for the overrepresentation of blacks compared with whites among all admissions may also explain their overrepresentation among the involuntarily confined. Changes in treatment programming and assessment practices are suggested.

Involuntary commitments to public mental institutions: Issues involving the overrepresentation of Blacks and assessment of relevant functioning.

Involuntary commitments to public mental institutions: Issues involving the overrepresentation of Blacks and assessment of relevant functioning.

THE COURT DISPOSAL AND REMANDS OF WHITE, AFRO-CARIBBEAN, AND ASIAN MEN (LONDON, 1983)

This is an analysis of the outcome of prosecutions of white, black, and Asian males aged 17—25 in London in 1983, and also of remands by the police, the magistrates, and the Crown Court. Of those dealt with in the magistrates' courts, differences between the races regarding offences, acquittals, and sentences are small. Crown Court data also revealed only slight differences between blacks and whites. However, a higher proportion of blacks than whites were tried and sentenced in the Crown Court, pos sible reasons for which are discussed. The overall outcome was that a higher proportion of blacks than whites was acquitted, and also more received custodial sentences. At each stage of the proceedings more blacks than whites or Asians were remanded in custody (as opposed to bail) by the police and the courts. These findings may account for the reported over-representation of blacks in custody.

Race and Sentence Severity

The fact that race is related to the severity of punishment meted out by the American criminal justice system has been known for some time (see Piliavin and Briar, 1964; Ferdinand and Luchterhand, 1970; Thornberry, 1973; Carroll and Mondrick, 1976; Gibson, 1978; Uhlman, 1979; Petersilia, 1983; Terry, 1967; Black, 1970; Black and Reiss, 1970; Green, 1964; Hagan, 1974; Clarke and Koch, 1976; Hindelang, 1978). For example, although Blacks make up only about 12% of the American population, they make up about 48% of the American prison population (see Petersilia, 1983). However, what has been and still is under some dispute is whether or not race is merely correlated with these results or whether race causes these results. Defenders of the American criminal justice system maintain that the overrepresentation of Blacks in the prison population can be explained solely on the basis of the Black proportion of the arrestee population; Blacks constitute a disproportionate segment of the prison population because they commit a disproportionate number of serious crimes (see Blumstein, 1982). Even if we assume that the number of Black arrestees is strictly proportional to the number of Black criminals, a position very difficult to prove one way or the other, once

Prison Populations: A System out of Control?

The dramatic rise in prison populations characteristic of the last fifteen years results from no single cause. The politicization of imprisonment policy, which began in the 1970s, and the changing age composition of the American population due to the postwar baby boom are important factors. One of the most troublesome aspects of prison populations is the overrepresentation of blacks. This cannot be explained solely or predominantly by racial discrimination in the criminal justice system: the bulk of the differential presence of blacks in prison appears to result from their differential involvement in those kinds of crime for which prison sentences are often imposed. Three basic approaches exist for relieving prison crowding. First, offenders can be diverted from prison by sentencing them to nonincarcerative punishments (a "front-door" approach). Second, prison sentences can be shortened, by a variety of mechanisms (a "back-door" approach). Third, prison capacity can be increased by constructing more facilities. States that are formulating strategies to alleviate prison crowding should consider a mixture of these approaches.

Life support for ailing hypotheses: Modes of summarizing the evidence for racial discrimination in sentencing.

A recent review concluded that the weight of available evidence contradicts a hypothesis of widespread overt racial discrimination in sentencing in the United States. Yet brief summaries of this body of research, found in textbooks, monographs, and the literature review sections of journal articles, commonly conveyed the opposite impression, sustaining an image of extensive support for the hypothesis. These summaries are examined to determine how this misleading impression was conveyed. Five common practices are identified: 1. Selective Citation: A biased selection of studies were reviewed or cited. 2. Letting the Evidence Speak for Itself: Overrepresentation of blacks in prison or among the executed relative to their share of the population was noted, with readers left to draw their own conclusions. 3. The Mixed Bag: Impressive lists of studies supposedly supporting a discrimination hypothesis were padded, by lumping together studies concerning a variety of criminal justice processes besides sentencing, and various legally irrelevant defendant traits besides race. 4. Research Democracy-All Studies are Created Equal: Equal weight was implicitly given to all studies regardless of methodological rigor, in a field where it was the least rigorous studies which were most likely to support the discrimination hypothesis. 5. Magnanimous Neutrality: The available evidence was described as mixed or ambiguous, which, while technically accurate, was a misleading description of evidence which largely contradicted the discrimination hypothesis.

Racial Identity, Length of Incarceration, and Parole Decision Making

Previous research has disclosed significant differences in the severity of sentences imposed on black and white offenders. This study investigated racial differences in black-white sentence patterns at the final stage of the criminal justice process, focusing on the actual amount of time served and the frequen cy of parole in a sample of 958 youthful offenders from a cohort of 1,345 consecutive admissions to a federal correctional institution. No racial differences were found in the actual amount of time served, but a significantly higher percentage of whites than blacks were granted parole. Blacks who were granted parole served a smaller portion of their sentences than did whites who were granted parole, but nonparoled blacks served a greater portion than did nonparoled whites. Discriminant function analysis did not show race to be significantly associated with decision to grant parole; instead, the primary factor was the entry sentence, with offenders sentenced to relatively short terms (less than eighteen months) being paroled less fre quently than those with longer terms. Since blacks were more likely to have the shorter sentences, the racial difference in percentage granted parole was partly attributable to the severity of the sentence imposed originally. Examination of thirteen offender variables reflecting personal and social history, legal factors, and institutional adjustment measures revealed signifi cant differences between paroled and nonparoled inmates but not between racial groups. Further discriminant analysis of factors associated with parole within black and white subsamples indicated that, of the thirteen variables examined, entry sentence, violence of offense, and adult maladjustment and deviance were significantly associated with likelihood of parole for both racial groups. Institutional adjustment also appeared to play an important role in decisions regarding blacks, while variables relating to personal and social ad justment before incarceration seemed to be more important among whites. It is speculated that the observable overrepresentation of blacks in penal and other correctional institutions is attributable to decisions made earlier in the criminal justice process, rather than to biased parole-granting procedures, at least in this federal institution. Further research on possible interaction of social deficits and criminal justice decision making instead of race and sen tence severity is suggested.