Black Women, Crime and Crime Prevention

• NCJ Number: 75238
• Author(s): E L Scott
• Date Published: 1978
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Eric Document Reproduction Service; Not Available Through National Institute of Justice/NCJRS Document Loan Program
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Paper presented at the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, Jackson, Mississippi, April 1978.

Annotation

This paper argues that crime among black women is related to economic conditions and that black women can serve as a potential resource for crime prevention programs.

Abstract

Crime statistics show that outside of the misdemeanors of drunkenness and disorderly conduct, black women tend to be arrested for larceny and prostitution, both economic crimes. The fact that black women are at the bottom of the economic ladder lends more support to the economic theory of crime causation. Despite attempts of some authors to explain black crime through the theory of aggression, statistics indicate that black female criminality is substantially less violent than black male criminality. Studies also suggest that the victimization rate for black females is much less than the rate for black males but is much greater than the rate for white females. The two most prominent areas of victimization are rape and spouse abuse. Several programs initiated or supported by black women (the Multi-Area Rape Crisis Council of Atlanta and the Coalition of Concerned Women of Chicago) demonstrate that crime prevention is not the exclusive domain of the police and that black women are interested in participating in crime prevention programs. However, as long as black women are situated on the bottom rung of the economic ladder, are heads of households, and are subjected to racial oppression, they will continue to commit economic crimes. Two tables and 31 references are included. (ERIC abstract modified)