Progress Toward Racial Equality and Reduction of Black Criminal Violence

• NCJ Number: 109218
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 15 Issue: 6 Dated: (1987) Pages: 437-459
• Author(s): R L Austin
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 23 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Trends in racial inequality and in black involvement in violence were examined to determine whether black progress toward equality and the Black Power Movement could have contributed to a reduction in black violence.

Abstract

The belief that egalitarian trends and the Movement could have ameliorative effects on violence is supported by subcultural theories, Fanon's Colonial Model, and other social scientific statements. The trends are consistent with the belief, structural changes indicated by educational and political progress being closely associated with violence reduction. But cultural change seems important too because, despite a period of black economic progress, no violence reduction occurred before an improvement in black self-concept. Indeed, the earliest black income and occupational gains were associated with several years of increasing black violence. Thus, the purely structural explanation of Blau and Blau (1982) and their emphasis on economic progress are questionable. In addition, Skogan's (1979) demographic explanation of the decrease in black violence in the early 1970's is shown to lack merit. (Author abstract)