Progressing into the 1970s, The American Federal Bureau of Intelligence began collecting all crime data on a national level coincidentally at the same time violent crime statistics began skyrocketing. Scholars such as Elizabeth Hinton argue the FBI overinflate crime statistics to increase funding for federal police forces consequently increasing incarceration rates. So why do some scholars such as Michelle Alexander view the issue of mass incarceration as a plot to keep racism alive in America? The term “New Jim Crow” will be used heavily in this essay as an analogy to explain how the US Justice system disproportionately incarcerates minorities as a means of maintaining racial segregation. Alexander explains this by writing “… People who have been incarcerated rarely have difficulty identifying the parallels between these systems of control [US justice system and Jim crow]” (Alexander 5). Another key term is the UCR (Uniform Crime Report) which is a program that collects all crime statistical data across the nation onto one platform. Michael Maltz writes “in recent years more and more of the crime statistics reported by the police have not been based on crime counts but on imputed crime counts” (Maltz). So while Maltz sheds light on the fact that nationalized crime statistics were practically estimated starting in the 1970s, Hinton is theorizing based off this data that the FBI could be overinflating crime violent crime statistics to increase their funding. On the other hand, Michelle Alexander still asserts that mass incarceration is down to racist political agendas to keep incarcerated minorities without rights. To tie this conversation up, James Foreman agrees that as an analogy, “the New Jim Crow” is a powerful term to help with mass incarceration awareness but leads to a distorted view of the overall picture in all its context.
Ball Room Map Visualization:
PLEDGE: Robby Votta
Citations:
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. 10th ed., New Press, 2020.
Forman, James Jr. “Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow.” Hein Online, Harvard Law School Library , 29 Nov. 2011,
Hinton, Elizabeth. “Introduction: Origins of Mass Incarceration” From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime, Edited by the Harvard University Press, 2016, pages 1-28
Maltz, Michael D. “Bridging Gaps in Police Crime Data – Bureau of Justice Statistics.” Bridging Gaps in Police Crime Data, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sept. 1999, bjs.ojp.gov