Study: Nearly Half Of Black Men Arrested By Age 23

White men are arrested to the tune of 38% by the same age. The study pertains to non traffic-related crimes.

One of the authors of the study published this month in the journal “Crime & Delinquency” said the statistics could be useful in shaping policy so that people aren’t haunted by arrests when they apply for jobs, schools or public housing.

“Many, many people are involved with the criminal justice system at this level,” said Shawn Bushway, a University at Albany criminologist. “And treating them all as if they’re hardened criminals is a serious mistake.”

The peer-reviewed estimates didn’t rely on arrest records but instead on an annual federal Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of about 7,000 young people who answered questions each year from 1997 to 2008 on a range of issues — including if they had ever been taken into custody for something other than a traffic offense. Self-reported crimes ranged from underage drinking to violent assaults.

The authors found that by age 18, 30 percent of black men, 26 percent of Hispanic men and 22 percent of white men have been arrested. By 23, those numbers climb to 49 percent for black men, 44 percent for Hispanic men and 38 percent for white men.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.