African American Incarceration Sociology

ABSTRACT: The topic of incarceration often relates to conversations of systematic oppression and culture of policing and profiling in America. Within the United States, Tennessee is one of the states with the highest rates of incarceration; Tennessee’s incarceration rates are consistently higher than the national average. The composition of those incarcerated in Tennessee was the primary intention of this research and analysis of data. Prior to conducting analysis of the data, we hypothesized that a disparity would exist between incarceration rates of African American residents and those of White residents. The data used are from the Vera Institute of Justice and the Tennessee Department of Corrections, specifically incarceration statistics

Evidence overwhelmingly shows that glaring racial disparities do exist in patterns of incarceration throughout the country. The racial group that has been consistently the most disproportionately affected is the African American community: while they make up only about thirteen percent of the United States population, they make up approximately half of the nation’s incarcerated population (Yates 1001). This indicates that external factors are likely at play. Previous research suggests three common theories for why this disparity may exist. The first is that African Americans break the law more often and commit more serious crimes than their white counterparts (Yates 1002). The second theory is that racial discrimination against African Americans on the part of criminal justice actors causes the disparity (Yates 1002). The third main theory is an economic one, that states that African Americans are more likely to become incarcerated since they are more likely to live in low-income communities that face high levels of poverty and unemployment (Yates 1002). Racial disparities in incarceration rates are complex phenomena, however, and cannot be attributed to any single factor (Yates

The organization often works on dozens of projects at once. The specific Vera project from which the data for this paper were obtained is the Incarceration Trends Project. Vera conducted this project as part of an initiative to reduce incarceration by “changing the way America thinks about and uses its jails” by providing easily accessible information on jail and prison populations in the United States at national, state, and county levels (Subramian et al. 3). The project provides information on jail and prison incarceration rates by gender and race and ethnicity. For the purposes of this paper, data on jail incarceration by race and ethnicity in the state of Tennessee were selected. The primary variables to be discussed are “White Jail Population,” “White State Population,” “Black Jail Population,” and “Black State Population.” All of these variables refer to each respective race as a percentage of the total jail or state population. For example, in 1990, the White jail population was 45.6%, indicating that White residents made up 45.6% of the total jail population that year. In that same year, the White state population was 83.3%, meaning that 83.3% of all Tennessee state residents were