NCJ Number
85545
Journal
Urban League Review Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (Fall 1981) Pages: 46-54
Date Published
1981
Length
9 pages
Annotation
An examination of criminal victimization and criminal justice dispositions with respect to race and sex shows that black males suffer the most.
Abstract
Sexism refers to 'attitudes and behaviors that discriminate against persons of one sex and are founded on rigidly assigned beliefs and opinions concerning sex role differences.' The primary assumption of a sexism perspective has been that men have perpetuated and benefited from precise sex role definitions while women have suffered under exploitation by men. While this perspective may be true generally in the socioeconomic area, it does not hold in the areas of criminal victimization and criminal justice dispositions. Statistics from the 1978 National Crime Survey show that males were victimized by violent crimes 100 percent more often than females. For other types of crime against persons, men were victimized 120 percent more often than women. When data are analyzed by sex and race, white males were found to be victims of homicide 300 percent more often than white females; black males were victims of homicide 446 percent more often than black females. A similar pattern exists for the black males rates of victimization for other crimes. Further, criminal justice statistics reveal that not only is the ratio of males to females in American prisons quite high but also that when females are arrested for a crime, they are less likely to be convicted. Black males are disproportionately arrested and are also disproportionately sentenced to and imprisoned for more years for the same offense than white males, black females, or white females. The validity of the data is assessed, and 38 notes are listed.