A new study released Monday found that nearly half of all black males and almost 40 percent of white males are arrested by the time they are 23-years old.
The analysis of national data from 1997 to 2008 of teenagers and young adults’ arrest histories — excluding traffic violations — were published Monday in the journal of Crime & Delinquency.
While there was variation in the rate of arrest between black and white men, there was little racial variation in the arrest rates among women of different races.
“A problem is that many males — especially black males — are navigating the transition from youth to adulthood with the baggage and difficulties from contact with the criminal justice system,” Robert Brame, the study’s lead author and a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina, said in a statement.
Other key findings from the study, according to the press release include:
– By age 18, 30 percent of black males, 26 percent of Hispanic males and 22 percent of white males have been arrested.
-By age 23, 49 percent of black males, 44 percent of Hispanic males and 38 percent of white males have been arrested.
-While the prevalence of arrest increased for females from age 18 to 23, the variation between races was slight. At age 18, arrest rates were 12 percent for white females and 11.8 percent and 11.9 percent for Hispanic and black females, respectively. By age 23, arrest rates were 20 percent for white females and 18 percent and 16 percent for Hispanic and black females, respectively.
In addition to Brame, the University at Albany’s Shawn Bushway, Ray Paternoster of the University of Maryland and Michael Turner at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte worked on the study.
According to Brame, the study offered the first contemporary findings on how the risk of arrest varies across race and gender.
(H/T HuffPo)