Running Head: CRIME IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY

Crime in the Black Community: A Review of the Literature

Ayana Isis Gay
Hampton University

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Abstract

Crimes in the black community happen at an alarming rate. Most urban impoverished
areas have a surplus of African Americans in them. Examples of these communities include
Watts and Compton in Los Angeles as well as Harlem in New York City. This Literature Review
will discuss the factors that attribute to crimes in the black community as well as dispel myths.
Statistical data has been collected to help show relation between crimes in the black community
and what people believe is the catalyst.

Crimes in the black community

Crime in the Black Community: A Review of the Literature

Crime in the Black Community are offenses that take place in predominately AfricanAmerican populated neighborhood. Areas known as Black Communities are areas in New York,
Chicago and Baltimore. Some of these crimes are domestic violence, gang violence, gun
violence and drug trade. Gang Violence includes mob activity, robberies and gang shout-outs.
Gun violence including possession of a firearm without proper paper work. Drug trade refers to
the possession of a controlled substance as well as many times the intent to sell a controlled
substance.
Gang violence and gun violence in the black community happens because of tension,
vengeance and unsettled disputes. The drug trade in black communities is a result of addiction,
poverty, as well as greed or a dream of moving to a better area. Throughout this literature review
many different viewpoints and facts will be given in order to better understand this topic. More
specifically the review will discuss the types of crimes, causes, and affects of crimes. These
issues plague the black community but to further understand these problems we must first figure
out the answers to these four questions listed below:
1. What type of crimes occur the most in black communities and why?
2. Does gentrification make crime go up or down?
3. Why are crimes in the black communities such a controversial topic today?
4. What can be done or has been done to prevent crimes in the black community?
The following review will provide information on the awareness of crimes within Black
Communities being an on going issue. The review will also speak on crimes are affecting
the Black Community as a whole.
What type of crimes occur the most in black communities and why?

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When studying crimes in the Black community you must be able to detect and understand
the type of crimes committed most within the community itself.
According to the survey I have taken using survey monkey, I have found that most people
believe that gun violence is the most occurring crime in black communities. I have also
discovered that people believe gang violence is the second most occurring crime. The margin for
the two types is very slim. Together they trump all of the other crimes. Based on my survey I
found that people believe males commit most of the crimes within the lack of the community.
The type of crime committed by a person can be triggered by many things. For instance, a young
male growing up in a low income household is more likely to sell drugs, join a gang and commit
crimes. Males are believed to also commit more of the crimes because they are known for

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showing more aggression. According to the United States Department of Justice, Men commit
more acts of violence than women. The U.S. Department of Justice sponsored a National Crime
Victimization Study in 2007. This evaluation found that 75.6 percent of all offenders were male
and only 20.1 percent were female. In the remaining cases, the victim wasn't able to identify the
gender of the offender. According to these results, men commit violent crimes more than three
times as often as women.
Does gentrification make crime go up or down?
Gentrification has consistently and continuously spread in black communities over the recent
years. The term gentrification is defined as the process of renewal and rebuilding the influx of
middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.
Many black communities experience gentrification. According to the article, Does Gentrification
Lower your Crime: A Look at Granger-Causality in Washington D.C . There was a study done
in Washington D.C trying to figure out whether gentrification makes crime rates go up or down.
There have been numerous theories saying that gentrification can make crimes go up and down.
According to McDonald, in (1986) talks about five potential reasons why crime rates drop with
gentrification and four potential reasons why they might rise, along with one reason why it might
stay stagnate. The reasons they might drop are as follows: (1) affluent neighborhoods have, on
average, less crime than impoverished neighborhoods, (2) revitalization at the hands of the new
residents can pull up instead of push out the former residents, (3) new residents are more
cognizant of the crime problem and establish initiatives to combat crime, for example, the
neighborhood watch, (4) affluent residents usually have more political influence which leads to
more funding devoted to the police department. the displacement of the poor residents can lead
to the individuals responsible for committing the crimes to be displaced. McDonald (1986) also

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gives several reasons why gentrification might not lead to a decrease in crime: (1) when
individuals are displaced, they may only be displaced to adjacent blocks or neighborhoods which
hardly prevents them from committing crime in their old neighborhood, especially with an influx
of attractive targets, (2) if gentrification is drawn out over a long period of time, there will be a
very apparent income-gap between residents which suggests an increase in violent crime, (3)
gentrification in cohesive ethnic neighborhoods rather than disorganized ghetto
neighborhoods may lead to the breakdown of natural order in the communities, (4) gentrification
can cause community conflicts which, on some occasions, results in criminal activity, and (5) it
may not have any effect at all. Most of these theorized effects occur at the onset of
gentrification. As time goes on, it appears that the end-result of a fully gentrified neighborhood
will have lower crime rates.
These reasons explain some of the results in the data that was collected for this literature review.

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According to the poll, 60% of the people surveyed believe that gentrification attributes to crimes
in black communities. This makes gentrification a big factor on the crimes in the clack
communities.
Why are crimes in the black communities such a controversial topic today?
Crimes in the black communities are such a controversial topic today because the black
community have expressed anger and up roar on many issues with in the black community itself.
Some issues are police brutality, gun violence, gang violence, racial discrimination and the stop
and frisk policies. The topic of crimes in the black community relate to other issues black
communities face directly. Crimes are controversial due to the drastically growing offenses in the
recent years. There also has been a lot of anger and expression on how black people feel the
justice system treat them in response to crimes. This topic is also so controversial blacks are seen
in a negative way when it comes to the criminal justice system. Many people dont feel protected
by the law in place. They feel as though the justice system works against them. The topic is so
controversial social media and headlines are projected so everyone is aware of this issue.
Unfortunately, many of crimes that occur in the black community are black on black crimes. This
is problematic because black people should be uplifting one another instead of killing and
bringing each other down. In the survey I had distributed,60% of people believe most of the
crimes are black on black crimes while 20 % said they dont believe most crimes within the

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black community are black on black crimes. The rest were unsure.

What can be done or has been done to prevent crimes in the black community?
In order to prevent crimes in the black community many changes and efforts must be made.
Some of the efforts that have been made is built up organizations, programs and other resources

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offered with in the black community to stop blacks from committing crime. The organization
Black Lives Matter is a chapter-based national organization working for the validity of Black
life. This is an example of a way we can prevent less crimes by making an awareness of why
blacks are important in this world. An example of a website is preventcrime.com. The goal of
this website is to expand the scope and services of the National Conference on Preventing Crime
in the Black Community. It is designed to foster collaboration, communication and action among
practitioners by sharing innovative ideas, research and study of crime, causative factors and
prevention strategies unique to the Black community. It will profile national initiatives and
community strategies that have been successful in reducing violence and other inappropriate
behavior. Special attention is directed toward positive approaches to the problems associated
with juvenile crime. Resources for training, development and enhancement of crime prevention
initiatives are included. Other ways one can prevent crimes is educating our youth and getting
them involve with activities to prevent them from getting into criminal activity.

Conclusion
Crimes in the Black Community is an on-going issue within the Black Community itself.
Through out this literature review, it is evident the crimes will always be present but can become
under more control. The Black community must make more efforts in preventing criminal
activity. Based on my survey and results found we are able to further understand the dynamic of
crimes in black community looks like.

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References

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cvus0702.pdf
http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1391&context=parkplace
https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/Xxmd5wef6Aq9UbaKNSDxKkyXabfi0EG4fWJ4oDIX
fbM_3D
http://www.preventblackcrime.com