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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Race, Class ﻿&amp;﻿ Crime - Article﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿Race, Class ﻿&amp;﻿ Crime

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by Susan Bender﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, May - June 1996﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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﻿<font﻿ ﻿size="1"﻿>﻿Politicians and the media continually suggest that we are witnessing a growing epidemic of violent crime. But the statistics tell another story. Susan Bender suggests that there's a political agenda at work here, one designed to shift attention away from the failings of our economic system and scapegoat young men of colour in the process.﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


The law and order agenda of right-wing politicians continues to shape perceptions that crime, particularly violent crime, is spiralling out of control. As a result, while other areas of government spending are cut back, criminal justice continues to be a burgeoning industry. In fact, the "crime control" industry has exploded in countries like the US where state and local governments today spend more on the criminal justice system than on education. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The reality is that statistics in both the US and in Canada suggest that crime rates, particularly rates of violent crime, are dropping. In most large cities in the US, crime has decreased for the fourth consecutive year. In Canada, murder rates have remained the same for the past 30 years. However, the public is continually barraged by media reports of horrific crimes. In Canada, many are calling for changes to the Young Offenders Act which would make it easier to try youth in adult court and would toughen penalties. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Embedded in the hysteria surrounding the alleged rise in crime, is a racism which criminalizes poor people and people of colour. Criminals, as defined by the current criminal justice system, have been cast as a class of people predisposed to violent activities. Demonizing groups of people becomes a substitute for genuinely addressing the ills of society. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

US President Bill Clinton's Omnibus Crime Bill passed in August 1994 institutionalizes a perspective which focuses on catching criminals rather than preventing crime -- and it invests big bucks in doing so. To name a few high-priced items: $10.8 billion in federal matching funds for local governments to hire 100,000 new police officers and $10 billion for the construction of new federal prisons. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

And the bill ensures that the criminal system's increased capacity will be utilized. The 'three strikes' proposal mandates life sentences for anyone convicted of three 'violent' felonies (or even 'attempts' to commit such felonies) or of two 'violent' offenses and one 'serious' drug felony. It also allows children as young as 13 to be tried as adults. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The U.S. already jails a larger proportion of its people than any other country in the world. 1990 comparisons of numbers of people incarcerated per 100,000 put the US at the top with 454, followed by South Africa at 333. Since 1980, the total prison population at federal, state and local levels has tripled in the US to over one million. In the middle of 1991 almost two percent of the US population (over 4.4 million people) were in prison, on probation, on parole, or under some other form of judicial control. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The reality is that none of these moves are really about curtailing crime. Research shows that the police are extremely ineffective when it comes to crime prevention. Furthermore, as the American Bar Asociation's Task Force on Crime has noted "there is no solid evidence to support the conclusion that sending more convicted offenders to prison for longer periods of time deters others from committing crime." Already the three strike system has resulted in life sentences for ludicrous crimes such as stealing 50 cents. These traditional solutions are also the cornerstones of a racist criminal justice system. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Incidents like the shooting of Georgina Liemonis during a robbery at Just Desserts in Toronto in April 1994 provide clear evidence of how the criminal justice system promotes, indeed is grounded in, racial stereotyping. The public was instructed to study pictures of the three suspects, all of whom were young, black males, in the hope that they would be recognized by someone. Much of the mainstream press argued that the problem of violent crime was a problem with young black people of Jamaican origin. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The recent report of the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Justice System clearly describes how at every point in the legal process, the system is biased and discriminatory. The list of findings is extensive, ranging from the amount of bail blacks have to pay to the reliance on court interpreters who are often unskilled or moralistic. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Perhaps the most dramatic evidence of the racism embedded in the criminal system is the number of shootings of black people by police in Ontario since 1978 -- 16. None of the officers charged have been convicted. In the US, blacks are three times more likely than whites to be killed by the police. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Incarceration rates, rates for persons on death row, rates for those involved in other parts of the criminal justice system -- all these statistics testify to the differential impact the criminal justice system has on economically marginalized people. In 1991 in the US, African-American males between the ages of 15 and 34 made up 14 per cent of the population and more than 40 per cent of the people in prison. In Washington DC and Baltimore, 40-50 per cent of all black males between the ages of 18 and 35 are either in prison, jail, on probation or parole, or there is a warrant for their arrest. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The story is similar in Canada. The report of the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System states that the huge over-representation of blacks in Ontario jails has jumped during the past six years. Two-hundred and four per cent more Blacks were jailed in 1994 than in 1986 compared with a 23 per cent increase for whites. Prison admissions per 100,000 members of a racial group indicate that Blacks and Aboriginals are disproportionately over-represented in the prison system. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The Right has attempted to obscure the real reasons for these 'statistical biases'. The rhetoric currently used attributes tendencies towards criminality to certain sectors of the population. Co-chair of the Council of Crime in America, William Bennett, in reference to their recently released report, argues "a crime storm is gathering in the form of a demographic bulge of young, highly crime-prone males." 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Who are these crime-prone males and what makes them crime-prone? If one relied on crime and incarceration statistics, it is clear that they are poor and visible minorities, (and the two often go hand-in-hand) confined to the inner city. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The "law and order" agenda has the ideological purpose of distracting public attention from substantive issues such as poverty and unemployment. The right relies heavily on the notion of "taking responsibility for your actions." By effectively criminalizing those who perpetrate crimes, an analysis of the cause of criminal behaviour in an economic system which does not provide for people's basic needs is sidetracked. As Professor Lawrence M. Friedman of Stanford University suggests in Crime and Punishment in American History criminals are seen as a class to be suppressed, tricked and hunted down. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿If criminals are characterized as black, poor, or young then a significant proportion of the class which struggles with the failures of the economic system can be repressed by the criminal justice system. Also, by constructing a picture of who is most likely to be criminal, those who use the rhetoric create stereotypes which they can use in their fearmongering. Scapegoating by the criminal justice system also feeds anti-immigration attitudes and policies and deflects people's attention from the failures they are experiencing in the system. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

For all these reasons, the law and order panic must be seen for what it is: a means of perpetuating racism which provides an ideological cover for the failures of the system, supports the maintenance of the ruling class and functions as a tool of social control which divides working class people. 

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