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Economic Threat and Racial Disparities in Incarceration: The Case of Postbellum Georgia

NCJ Number
126741
Journal
Criminology Volume: 28 Issue: 4 Dated: (November 1990) Pages: 627-656
Author(s)
M A Myers
Date Published
1990
Length
30 pages
Annotation
Using time series analysis, this study explores the effect of the declining socioeconomic status of whites in Georgia between 1870 and 1940 as it related to changes in racial disparities in incarceration. This study follows previous analyses indicating that economic threat is an important source of lethal social control in the South.
Abstract
Incarceration resembled lynching and execution in that it was differentially imposed on black males, however, its occurrence was about ten times as frequent. Shifts in labor demand and in the racial composition of the South contributed to the decline of white socioeconomic power following Reconstruction. However, one factor that complicated the relationship between race and incarceration was the class distinction that existed among the white population. Other studies have indicated that, as racial inequality decreases, so does the incarceration rates for blacks. This analysis examines the impact of three measures of racial economic inequality: black/white tenantry ration, black success, and black/white tenantry difference. A fourth measure is relative property value. Cross-correlation functions identified relations between each measure of relative status and incarceration. While the tenantry measures exhibit no significant cross-correlates, declines in relative property value were accompanied by declines in black incarceration rates and increases in white incarceration rates. Further research could be conducted in the areas of southern punishment and contemporary incarceration. 3 tables, 6 figures, and 91 references