Race and Crime

The importance of race in the production of criminal conduct has been an issue in American criminology for decades. The fact that minority groups, particularly African Americans, are disproportionately involved as offenders in the criminal justice system in the US is not in dispute. However, there is little agreement among criminologists on what this means. Some argue that the relationship between race and crime is largely the result of the conduct of African American men and boys. Others argue that the relationship between race and crime suggested by official statistics is the result of discrimination in the various systems of justice in the US.