Deck 3: Race, Ethnicity, Social Structure, and Crime

Question 1

Do you agree with the Kerner Commission's conclusion that we are "moving toward two societies, one black [and] one white"? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

K commission:
The K commission was formed in July 1967 to examine the problems of urban riots that had evolved in some cities of Country A. The commission mentioned about the white racism which was spread and sparked in cities. Commission released its report after conducting a detailed study on racism and riots. The report declared that the nation is moving towards two societies which are separated for B community people and W community people.
Mr. X's opinion is as follows:
Mr. X agreed with K commission's report because in the nineteenth century, Country A had witnessed several types of discriminations based on tribe, color, and caste. During that time many problems were emerged such as racism between W Community people and riots. In this case, Mr. X's opinion is that they had no idea about the consequences of this problem.
The present day scenario of Country A is also somewhat similar to the nineteenth century. However, the level of racism has been reduced than the previous years. In all areas of the society (sports, administration and culture) the people are working together and problems regarding color, race, and tribe are much less in those areas. B Community people and W Community people are participating together in same events and both have been selected to the higher positions of Country A.

Question 2

Explain the difference between income and wealth. How, according to some analysts, does wealth perpetuate inequality?

Answer 2

Income:
Income is the money received by an individual or business from the exchange of goods and services during a period of time. Most of the people receive majority part of their income from salary or wages earned from a job. It simply means the flow of cash or equivalent received from work, capital, or land.
Wealth:
In general, wealth means that tangible or intangible things which are acquired by an individual, family or a group for their betterment. It includes all the assets like home, car, other properties, and savings (stock and bond). Wealth simply means a large amount of money or valuable possession or resources.
Difference between income and wealth:
• Wealth is the value of capital and assets owned but income is the amount earned in certain period from services, sale of goods, and services or profit from investment.
• Wealth takes a huge amount of time to acquire while income can be earned immediately.
• Wealth includes personal properties, cash, real estate, and investments whereas income represents a certain amount of money.
Wealth inequality:
Country A is having a huge gap between middle class people and lower class people. The main reason is that the middle class people are able to save a portion of their earnings each month. However, the lower class people are struggling to survive with what they have earned. The middle class people invest their savings in house, stock, and children education.
The recession has alerted the traditional analysis. The value of the housing properties is going down. Many people have lost their job and they cannot even meet their expected payments. It has affected the middle class to a great extent and their economic status has fallen down.
Conclusion:
Wealth plays an important role in perpetuating inequality. Here, inequality refers to the difference between the income of middle class and lower class people.

Question 3

Explain how residential discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity contributes to crime.

Answer 3

Residential discrimination:
Discrimination means the unequal treatment of a group or a person on the basis of their ethnicity or race. Discrimination is derived from attitude, belief, and ideologies. Residential discrimination means the physical division of two or more group into different neighborhoods. It can also be formed by dividing the population group into different neighborhoods and by shaping the living environment.
Residential discrimination contributes to crime:
Residential discrimination directly affects the crime rates. In Country A, the cities are always segregated by ethnicity, race, and income. Immigrants from other countries and migrants from rural areas are the major cause of crimes in the cities. Racial and ethnic segregation in residential area has resulted from some factors like historic practices of jure segregation, group choice and convert segregation.
Residential segregation leads to the creation of high rate of offenders in one specific area. This leads to two important consequences. First one is the chance for suffering higher rate of theft, robbery and other offenses. The second consequence is that concentration of high rate offenders in an area results in criminal activities like drugs, gangs, and illegal weapon possession in that particular area.
Conclusion:
The educated middle class families are living in good status than the poor educated families and the middle class people are having good job and housing facilities. These factors contribute to the neighborhood deterioration and indirectly cause crimes.
Due to recession, people's better income is moving downwards and economic level of families' declines. In such a situation of poverty and unemployment people tend to get involved in several criminal activities.

Question 4

What is meant by the concepts of human capital and social capital? How do they affect criminal behavior?

Question 5

What has been the impact of the civil rights movement on crime and criminal justice?

Question 6

Which theory of crime do you think best explains the prevalence of crime in the United States?

Question 7

Explain the concept of collective efficacy. What impact does it have on crime in a neighborhood?