Race, Politics, and the Law
Statistics
Race, Politics, and the Law
Imprisonment
Sixty-four percent of prison inmates belonged to racial or ethnic minorities in 2001
Prevalence of Imprisonment, 2001
20.0%
15.0%
Men
Women
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
Blacks
Whites
Race, Politics, and the Law
Lifetime Chances of Imprisonment
35
Percent Chance of
Imprisonment
30
25
White
20
Black
15
Hispanic
10
5
0
1974
1979
1986
1991
1997
Year
Race, Politics, and the Law
2001
Crime Victimization—Black/White
 Per every 1,000 persons in that racial group, 28
blacks, 23 whites and 15 persons of others
races sustained a violent crime.
• Rates of simple assault, rape, and sexual
assault were similar across racial lines.
 Per 1,000 households in each category, 174
black and 158 white households were victims of
a property crime overall; 41 black and 26 white
households were burglarized.
Race, Politics, and the Law
Crime Victimization—Hispanic
• Violence against Hispanics age 12 or older most
often took the form of simple assault (58%).
• Hispanic persons age 12 or older experienced
12% of all violent crime and made up 12% of the
population.
• Hispanics were victims of overall violence at
about the same rate than non-Hispanics. There
were no differences between Hispanics and nonHispanics for other violent crimes.
 Hispanic households were over twice as likely to
have a motor vehicle stolen than non-Hispanic
households.
Race, Politics, and the Law
Crime Victimization, Continued
• Between 1993-98,
American Indians
experienced violence
at rates more than
twice that of blacks, 2
1/2 times that of
whites, and 4 1/2
times that of Asian
Americans.
Murder Victimization
Rate, 2000
Asian,
Pacific,
&
Native,
2%
Black,
49%
Race, Politics, and the Law
White,
49%
Hate Crimes
9,726 hate crime incidents were reported to law enforcement in 2001
Offenses
Against
Persons
Offenses
Against
Property
Crimes Against
Society
Race, Politics, and the Law
Hate Crimes, Continued
Sexual Orientation
14%
Disability
0%
Bias of Hate Crimes in 2001
Race
45%
Ethnicity
22%
Religion
19%
Race, Politics, and the Law
Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes
• The number of anti-Semitic incidents reported to the
Anti- Defamation League in 2001 was 1,432.
39%
Harrassment
Vandalism
61%
Race, Politics, and the Law
Death Row Inmates
Race, Politics, and the Law
People Executed
6% 2%
34%
Black
White
Hispanic
Other
58%
Race, Politics, and the Law
The Victims of those Executed
Persons Executed for Interracial Murders
White Defendant / Black Victim (12)
Black Defendant / White Victim (189)
Race, Politics, and the Law
Voting Rates, Congressional
Race, Politics, and the Law
Voting Rate, 2000 Presidential
Race
White, Non- Black
Hispanic
Asian/Pacific Hispanic
American
Percent
71.6
Registered
to Vote
67.5
52.4
57.3
Percent
Voted
56.8
43.3
45.1
68.1
Race, Politics, and the Law
Black Statewide Elected Officials (2001)
• The District of Columbia has a black
population that is 56.2% of the total, while
58.6% of elected officials are black
• Other states with significant percents of
black elected officials are Alabama (16.7),
Louisiana (13.9), Mississippi (18.9), and
South Carolina (13.7) (all below the
percent in the population)
• Blacks are 7.9% of state senators/reps
Race, Politics, and the Law
Elected Officials, Continued (2001)
• There are 451 Black mayors
• There are 22 Black statewide court judges
• Currently, there are 39 black congress
people (majority-minority districts?)
• There are 25 Latino/a members of the
House currently
• There is 1 Latino governor (New Mexico)
Race, Politics, and the Law
Asian/Pacific American Elected
Officials
• In 2000, 73 Asian Americans served in
state legislatures, mostly in Hawaii [also in
Washington (3), California (3), Arizona (1),
Minnesota (1), and New Hampshire (1)]
• Five representatives and (Hawaii’s) two
senators of Asian descent served in the
previous 107th Congress
Race, Politics, and the Law
Employment Discrimination
• In 2003, approximately 30,000 charges
filed with the EEOC based on race, while
8,500 were based on national origin
Race, Politics, and the Law
Racial Profiling: New York
• Between January 1998 through March 1999, 84
percent of the almost 175,000 people “stopped
and frisked” by the NYPD were black or
Hispanic, despite the fact that these two groups
comprised less than half of the City’s population.
• Stops of minorities were less likely to lead to
arrests than stops of white New Yorkers – the
police arrested one white New Yorker for every 8
stops, one Hispanic New Yorker for every 9
stops, and one black New Yorker for every 9.5
stops.
Race, Politics, and the Law
Racial Profiling: U.S. Customs
• 2000: U.S. Customs Service found that black,
Asian and Hispanic female U.S. Citizens were 49 times more likely than white female U.S.
citizens to be subjected to X-rays after being
frisked or patted down.
• While black female U.S. citizens were nine times
more likely than white female U.S. citizens to be
subjected to x-ray searches by the Customs
Service, these black women were less than half
as likely to be found carrying contraband as
white females.
Race, Politics, and the Law
Arabs
• The number of reported anti-Islamic crimes
increased from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001
• The number of plaintiffs with Arab or Muslim
names charged in the heavily-Arab city of
Dearborn, Michigan, has jumped 9.3 percent in
the two years since the attacks on the United
States
• At the same time, charges against people
without Arab or Muslim names dropped 6.7
percent, according to an analysis of 100,000
district court records by the daily
Race, Politics, and the Law
Welfare
Distribution of AFDC/TANF Families by Race 1985 – 1999
Race of Parent
Fiscal
Year
1998
White
32.7
AfricanAmerican
39.0
Hispanic
22.2
1999
30.5
38.3
24.5
Asian
3.4
NativeAmerican
1.5
Unknown
1.3
3.6
1.5
1.6
1997 data is for October 1996–June 1997 only, due to the transition from AFDC to TANF
Race is determined based on the race of the adult recipient; in child-only cases, race is determined based on the
youngest child in the unit. Source: Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and
Families, Characteristics and Financial Circumstances of TANF Recipients, 1998, and earlier reports.
Race, Politics, and the Law