Up until now, the most shocking statistic about the American criminal justice system was this: we house 5
percent of the world's population, but 25 percent of the world's prisoners.
Here's a stat that's even more troublesome: By age 23, nearly 50 percent of America's black males, 44 percent of Hispanic males, and 38 percent of white males have been arrested.
These numbers come from a new study (paywalled) in the journal Crime & Delinquency. In it, University of South Carolina criminologist Robert Brame and his team examine self-reported arrest histories collected through the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. The survey started in 1997, when the 9,000 participants were between the ages of 12 and 16. The participants have been interviewed annually every year since. Brame's study uses data from 1997-2008.
...These stark numbers put America's tendency to over-criminalize, well, everything. Today, police can place you in handcuffs for using a camera on public property, or littering. The slow expansion of activities deemed to be criminal began in the late 1980s, and today it manifests itself in harsh penalties for nonviolent, victimless behavior, the school-to-prison pipeline, and our engorged prison system.
Nearly 50 Percent of Black Men Have Been Arrested by 23
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