The Incarceration Boom and African Americans: Causes and Consequences

• In Event: Toward a Black Criminology

Abstract

This research discusses the increased use of incarceration in the United States since the early 1970s. Specifically, it discusses the causes and consequences of the incarceration boom as well as how they vary by race. This research argues that political motivated changes in criminal justice policies and practices exacerbated racial differences in imprisonment, which in turn negatively affected black life chances in prosocial realms. The end result of these policy changes was greater imprisonment for both blacks and whites but little change in crime rates.

Author

• Ojmarrh Mitchell, University of South Florida