Full Citation
Title: Race Matters: Disproportionality of Incarceration for Drug Dealing in Massachusetts
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2000
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI: 10.1177/002204260003000207
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: Many observers have recognized and decried the disproportionate impact on young minority males of harsh sentencing policies for drug dealing. Nationwide, African-Americans and Hispanics constituted 78.2 percent of incarcerated drug offenders in 1996. Their incarceration rates for drug offenses were respectively 17 and 8 times greater than non-Hispanic white rates. The disproportionalities for drug offenses were over twice as wide as the disproportionalities for other types of offenses.1 Scholars have noted the lack of hard data about neighborhood dynamics of arrest and incarceration for drug dealing, but they have nonetheless tended to explain the disproportionate impact on minorities with reference to neighborhood phenomena. This paper uses a mapping of the pre-incarceration residences of drug-dealers incarcerated in state prison in Massachusetts to systematically explore neighborhood and certain other explanations for disproportionate impact.
Url: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002204260003000207
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Brownsberger, William, N
Periodical (Full): Journal of Drug Issues
Issue: 2
Volume: 30
Pages: 345-374
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Crime and Deviance, Housing and Segregation, Other, Race and Ethnicity
Countries: