VIOLENCE IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY

Violence in the Black Community

Violence in the Black Community

The problem of crime has captured the attention of American society in a manner unlike few other issues. While the overall numbers have dropped during the last few years, Americans still remain fearful of the disintegrating effects of this phenomenon on our collective sense of stability and safety. Nowhere are these effects more vividly displayed than in those urban communities inhabited predominantly by African Americans. " Black-on-black " crime (as it has been labeled) remains an oppressive social problem, while homicide has become the leading cause of death among young black males in America.

Despite the plaguing nature of these social facts, only recently have mainstream criminologists undertaken a thorough effort aimed at dealing with this phenomenon. Sadly, in this era of an emphasis on crime control, this effort has taken the form of punitive punishments aimed at long-term incapacitation.( Hughes, 1120) While the short-term returns of this endeavor seem pleasing to its supporters, the burdens it places on the criminal justice system are enormous. In addition, criminologists and demographers alike are suggesting that these returns will be short-lived.

There is a paradox in the sociological and criminological literature: the black subculture of violence is perhaps one of the most cited, but one of the least tested, theses. On one hand, the black - subculture-of- violence thesis is widely cited in introductory sociology and criminology textbooks (Peterson, 56). On the other hand, the past three decades have seen a dearth of empirical studies testing the thesis. The preponderance of empirical studies has examined its equally famous thesis--the southern subculture of violence (Peterson, 56)--while neglecting the black -subculture-of- violence thesis. The sparse attention given to the latter thesis has resulted in an imprecise use of the race-- violence association.

The black -subculture-of- violence thesis has been most fully developed by Wolfgang and Ferracuti (Peterson, 56). Based on research conducted in inner-city Philadelphia in the mid-1950s Keith (Keith, 778) attempt to bring together "psychological and sociological constructs to aid in the explanation of the concentration of violence in specific socio-economic groups and ecological areas." They argue that certain segments of society have adopted distinctively violent subcultural values.

This value system provides its members with normative support for their violent behavior, thereby increasing the likelihood that hostile impulses will lead to violent action. Further, relying on official data on violent crime, Wolfgang and Ferracuti speculate that there are a black subculture of violence and a southern subculture of violence. With specific regard to the black subculture of violence, they write, "Our subculture-of- violence thesis would, therefore, expect to find a large spread to the learning of, resort to, and criminal display of the violence value among minority groups such as Negroes".( Hughes, M. and B. Hertel. 1990 pp 1105-1120)

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