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ECONOMIC THREAT AND RACIAL DISPARITIES IN INCARCERATION: THE CASE OF POSTBELLUM GEORGIA
Author(s) -
MYERS MARTHA A.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1990.tb01341.x
Subject(s) - white (mutation) , spanish civil war , criminology , inequality , social control , political science , demography , demographic economics , sociology , economics , law , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematics , gene
Economic threat figures prominently in recent explanations of lethal social control directed against blacks after the Civil War. As the position of whites and blacks became more similar, racial antagonisms intensified and found expression in efforts to suppress and intimidate blacks through lynchings and executions. This paper applies the economic threat hypothesis to the exercise of nonlethal social control in Georgia between 1874 and 1936. Time series analysis indicates that declines in racial inequality slightly increased racial disparities in incarceration. More noticeably, they decreased the black male incarceration rate and increased its white counterpart. The paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and empirical implications of the results.