TOUGH JUSTICE IS SAVING OUR INNER CITIES

Reality: A Young Minority Male Is Far More Likely To Be Jailed Than A White
One, But Blacks And Hispanics Have Benefited Most From Lower Crime.

The sharp decline in crime in America since 1980 has benefitted almost
everyone by improving personal safety in homes, at school, and on
sidewalks, buses, and subways. But the inner city poor, living in
neighborhoods that typically suffered from high rates of violent crime,
have by far been helped the most.

The much improved quality of life in inner cities is the driving force
behind the housing boom in downtowns across the country. Private houses and
apartment buildings in black and other minorityinhabited neighborhoods are
being renovated and better maintained because their market worth has risen
greatly, largely in response to the improved safety. Middleclass families
of all colors and ethnicities are moving to these neighborhoods that are
close to jobs and still have cheaper housing than other areas.

This improvement is obvious on the South Side of Chicago, where I live.
During the 1960s and '70s, when crime was high and rising rapidly, many
houses in this section of Chicago were abandoned and subsequently burned
down. But new houses are rising on empty lots and are selling briskly at
elevated prices in a housing boom the likes of which has not been seen in
this part of Chicago for more than half a century. Goodquality supermarket
chains and other businesses have opened new stores in areas they once
avoided. Neighborhood morale has improved, along with safety and property
values.

APPREHENSION

Crime fell in the U.S. even as it rose sharply in Europe during the past 20
years. This is partly because America has enjoyed a long period of
prosperity with low unemployment. However, another key difference is the
American criminal justice system's greatly increased rate of apprehension,
conviction, and imprisonment of persons guilty of committing robberies,
assaults, and other felonies. Most European nations, by contrast, continued
to reduce their imprisonment rates during this period.

The increased tendency to incarcerate criminals has resulted in 2 million
Americans behind bars. Most prisoners are younger men, with
disproportionate representation among blacks and Hispanics. It is a
disturbing commentary on the tensions in the social fabric that black men
are imprisoned at eight times the rate of white men.

Not surprisingly, this has led to accusations of racism on the part of
police and courts, charges that have been fueled by documented cases of
police brutality and harassment of blacks and Hispanics. But
notwithstanding these terrible episodes, life in inner city neighborhoods
is much better than in the past, when police paid little attention to
crimes committed against blacks.

In fact, increased police enforcement particularly benefits minorities,
because the vast majority of violent and property crimes are committed
against persons of the same race and ethnicity. Criminals seldom travel far
to find homes to burglarize, and violent crimes tend to be committed
against friends and family members. So inner city blacks and Hispanics are
the main victims of crimes, as confirmed by the federal Crime &
Victimization Survey.

Since crime in the inner city is much higher than elsewhere, fair police
enforcement would require more intensive police effort in these
neighborhoods than elsewhere. This means that even in the best of worlds,
blacks and other minorities are more likely to be stopped and searched for
guns, stolen property, and drugs.

REASONABLE CRITERIA

Of course, even the best of worlds won't be ideal. Many subtle forms of
police discrimination are hard to document, and police enforcement
sometimes goes too far. One way to objectively assess the validity of
charges of excessive harassment of minorities and unfair "racial profiling"
is to examine how often police find incriminating evidence on blacks who
are stopped. An unfair pattern of police behavior would be indicated if
stops of blacks less frequently find evidence of crimes, compared with
whites who are stopped. That would imply the police should be stopping more
whites and fewer blacks. But if stops of blacks and whites uncover evidence
at about the same rate, that suggests the police are using reasonable
criteria for deciding whom to stop and search.

Economists at the University of Pennsylvania used this test to determine
whether the Maryland State Police discriminated in deciding which cars to
stop and search for illegal drugs. The research concluded that although
black drivers were more often stopped, the police more frequently found
drugs in their cars than in searched cars driven by whites. So the police
do not appear to have unfairly profiled black drivers. With the appropriate
safeguards, such as making sure all stops are reported, police stop
andsearch procedures in other states and cities could be evaluated along
similar lines.

It is highly lamentable that blatant examples of police discrimination
accompanied the steep decline in American crime rates. But on the whole,
law-abiding blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities have been the major
beneficiaries of more proactive police and court procedures.