Pubdate: Mon, 17 Jul 2000
Source: Business Week (US)
Copyright: 2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Contact:  1221 Avenue of the Americas, 43rd Floor, New York, NY 10020
Fax: (212) 512-6458
Website: http://www.businessweek.com/
Section: Economic Viewpoint
Page: 26
Author: Gary S. Becker
Note: Mr. Becker is a 1992 Nobel laureate, who teaches at the University of 
Chicago and is a Fellow of the Hoover Institiution.

TOUGH JUSTICE IS SAVING OUR INNER CITIES

Reality: A Young Minority Male Is Far More Likely To Be Jailed Than A White 
One, But Blacks And Hispanics Have Benefited Most From Lower Crime.

The sharp decline in crime in America since 1980 has benefitted almost 
everyone by improving personal safety in homes, at school, and on 
sidewalks, buses, and subways. But the inner city poor, living in 
neighborhoods that typically suffered from high rates of violent crime, 
have by far been helped the most.

The much improved quality of life in inner cities is the driving force 
behind the housing boom in downtowns across the country. Private houses and 
apartment buildings in black and other minorityinhabited neighborhoods are 
being renovated and better maintained because their market worth has risen 
greatly, largely in response to the improved safety. Middleclass families 
of all colors and ethnicities are moving to these neighborhoods that are 
close to jobs and still have cheaper housing than other areas.

This improvement is obvious on the South Side of Chicago, where I live. 
During the 1960s and '70s, when crime was high and rising rapidly, many 
houses in this section of Chicago were abandoned and subsequently burned 
down. But new houses are rising on empty lots and are selling briskly at 
elevated prices in a housing boom the likes of which has not been seen in 
this part of Chicago for more than half a century. Goodquality supermarket 
chains and other businesses have opened new stores in areas they once 
avoided. Neighborhood morale has improved, along with safety and property 
values.

APPREHENSION

Crime fell in the U.S. even as it rose sharply in Europe during the past 20 
years. This is partly because America has enjoyed a long period of 
prosperity with low unemployment. However, another key difference is the 
American criminal justice system's greatly increased rate of apprehension, 
conviction, and imprisonment of persons guilty of committing robberies, 
assaults, and other felonies. Most European nations, by contrast, continued 
to reduce their imprisonment rates during this period.

The increased tendency to incarcerate criminals has resulted in 2 million 
Americans behind bars.  Most prisoners are younger men, with 
disproportionate representation among blacks and Hispanics. It is a 
disturbing commentary on the tensions in the social fabric that black men 
are imprisoned at eight times the rate of white men.

Not surprisingly, this has led to accusations of racism on the part of 
police and courts, charges that have been fueled by documented cases of 
police brutality and harassment of blacks and Hispanics.  But 
notwithstanding these terrible episodes, life in inner city neighborhoods 
is much better than in the past, when police paid little attention to 
crimes committed against blacks.

In fact, increased police enforcement particularly benefits minorities, 
because the vast majority of violent and property crimes are committed 
against persons of the same race and ethnicity. Criminals seldom travel far 
to find homes to burglarize, and violent crimes tend to be committed 
against friends and family members. So inner city blacks and Hispanics are 
the main victims of crimes, as confirmed by the federal Crime & 
Victimization Survey.

Since crime in the inner city is much higher than elsewhere, fair police 
enforcement would require more intensive police effort in these 
neighborhoods than elsewhere. This means that even in the best of worlds, 
blacks and other minorities are more likely to be stopped and searched for 
guns, stolen property, and drugs.

REASONABLE CRITERIA

Of course, even the best of worlds won't be ideal. Many subtle forms of 
police discrimination are hard to document, and police enforcement 
sometimes goes too far. One way to objectively assess the validity of 
charges of excessive harassment of minorities and unfair "racial profiling" 
is to examine how often police find incriminating evidence on blacks who 
are stopped. An unfair pattern of police behavior would be indicated if 
stops of blacks less frequently find evidence of crimes, compared with 
whites who are stopped. That would imply the police should be stopping more 
whites and fewer blacks. But if stops of blacks and whites uncover evidence 
at about the same rate, that suggests the police are using reasonable 
criteria for deciding whom to stop and search.

Economists at the University of Pennsylvania used this test to determine 
whether the Maryland State Police discriminated in deciding which cars to 
stop and search for illegal drugs. The research concluded that although 
black drivers were more often stopped, the police more frequently found 
drugs in their cars than in searched cars driven by whites. So the police 
do not appear to have unfairly profiled black drivers. With the appropriate 
safeguards, such as making sure all stops are reported, police stop 
andsearch procedures in other states and cities could be evaluated along 
similar lines.

It is highly lamentable that blatant examples of police discrimination 
accompanied the steep decline in American crime rates. But on the whole, 
law-abiding blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities have been the major 
beneficiaries of more proactive police and court procedures.
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