Study Reveals Most Men are Arrested by Age 23; Blacks & Hispanics Tops List admin Tuesday, January 21, 2014 Credits & Debits, The Receipt Photo Credit: Matthew Dae Smith/The State Journals/AP Interesting statistics recently hit the news regarding our young Black and Hispanic men. But, is it a surprise? According to a recently published “Crime & Delinquency” journal, statistics revealed that nearly half of all Black men (49%) and Hispanic men (44%) have been arrested at least once by the time they reach age 23. Whites fell third on the list at 38%. Their arrests revolved around non-traffic related crimes. The C&D journal determined these percentages through Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys given to 7,000 young people, which took place between 1997 and 2008. The authors were alarmed by the findings and shared some concern about our justice system. One person, Kai Smith, the head of NYPD’s gang diversion group, says he was arrested at age 12 for jumping a subway turnstile. To arrest a 12, 13, or 14 year old for something simple as jumping a turnstile is uneccessary. The cause-and-effect of arresting a young child can be damaging on their future development. Actions like this tend to take on a life of its on and continue to repeat itself. If you go to a correctional facility now, there’s more than half of the inmates that will probably say they’ve been arrested several times. They will also say they first got arrested when they were in their teens. One of the keys to changing this injustice is to fight for judicial changes. Some states have already improved the arrest rate by increasing the age in which a child goes to adult jail (from 16 to 18). This is a start but it will take a while before all states implement these same laws. Read the full story HERE.
