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Racial Disproportionality in Prison

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Race and Social Problems

Abstract

Incarceration has been a major growth industry in the United States over the past 40 years, and the United States is now the world leader in incarceration. African Americans have been most affected and are greatly overrepresented in jails and prisons. A major contributor to the growth in imprisonment has been changes in drug policies and drug laws, such as mandatory sentences for drug offenses. These laws had little effect on drug abuse or crime, but they did fill prison cells. Because of the detrimental effects that high incarceration rates have on a community and on tight state budgets, it is important that the political and criminal justice systems find innovative ways to reduce prison rates and do so without increasing crime.

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Suggested Readings

  • Blumstein, A. (1993). Making rationality relevant—The American Society of Criminology Presidential Address. Criminology, 31(1), 1–16.

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  • Carson, E. A., & William, J. S. (2012, December). Prisoners in 2011 (Bureau of Justice Statistics Report No. NCJ 239808).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Alfred Blumstein

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  1. Alfred Blumstein
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Correspondence to Alfred Blumstein .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center on Race and Social Problems, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Ralph Bangs

  2. Center on Race and Social Problems, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Larry E. Davis

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Blumstein, A. (2015). Racial Disproportionality in Prison. In: Bangs, R., Davis, L. (eds) Race and Social Problems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0863-9_12

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