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Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23

eurekalert.org

151–160 of 333 posts

Re: Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23

#152
post #11
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do arrest records show up in background checks by employers?

If it goes to court, in most jurisdictions the disposition of the case will be available in a standard background check. For example, if you were charged with resisting arrest and found not guilty, it would still show up but also show "not guilty". Good luck explaining that to an employer, even if you did nothing wrong (and the courts confirmed it).

A "not guilty" verdict means that there was enough evidence to go to trial, but not enough to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. It's far from a confirmation that you did nothing wrong.

Re: Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23

#153
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The topic is arrests. The fact you never shower is not going to get you arrested.

You didn't actually limit what you said to that topic. You said there should be a "right to be forgotten," and when someone wondered what it should apply to, answered " Anything that might make someone unemployable that didn't result in a conviction or other defeat in court" (emphasis mine). The fact that someone never showers falls under that heading. At no point have you said anything to suggest you were only talki…

> Ya, stuff like that is why we need a right to be forgotten in the US. People tend to see an arrest and leap to conclusions. I say this as a person who has never been arrested. :/

> Anything that might make someone unemployable that didn't result in a conviction or other defeat in court.

> The topic is arrests. The fact you never shower is not going to get you arrested.

I guess to me the pattern was obvious but I accept it wasn't obvious to you. Yes, the topic is related to arrests & court cases.

Re: Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23

#154

I find this frankly implausible. What percentage of people you know have been arrested? I'm guessing very small (even assuming that many hide it and so you're knowledge is substantially skewed). So maybe that's because of your high/squeaky-clean socio-economic class? No: imagine yourself in any class you care to. Unless that class is much, much larger than your "real" class, then it would have to have an astronomical…

The study appears to be using "arrested" to mean "convicted of a crime for which the person could have been arrested (taken in to police custody)"? Example: I have never been arrested/taken in to police custody but, I was convicted of providing alcohol to minors at a college party and, had I not willingly taken the citation from the officer or, had I been belligerent and uncooperative, I could have been arrested. Technically, you could argue while the officer was issuing me the citation I was under some sort of arrest, but that does not comport with either the legal notion of being under arrest or what most people think of as being under arrest.*

Given the journal, that seems like an odd error to make. I could have that wrong, but it would make sense given that article specifically mentions truancy and underage drinking, two charges which seldom result in arrest.

Maybe that makes the statistic a little less shocking to those surprised by the number? Again, I certainly could be wrong, but it really would be surprising if the 40% refers to people actually having been read Miranda rights, hand cuffed, placed in a police car, etcetera. Even for other common crimes for that age group, like possession (generally marijuana), usually a citation is issued and the drugs are seized but no arrest is made. This is all said from the perspective of a judicial clerk in Portland, Oregon, who works a lot with the dockets related to citations related to minor misdemeanor offenses. Perhaps it is different in other states.

Anecdotally: almost everyone I know well has been convicted of a misdemeanor of some sort for which they could have been arrested but only one person I know has ever been taken in to police custody.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrest#United_States_2

Re: Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll get right on that as soon as I take over the world. You assume I'm happy about the arrest rates, I'm not. However, I don't have any real ability to change them besides not voting for "tough on crime" politicians. I already do that for all the good it does.

I meant "you" as the second person plural - you as in the American people.

Fair enough but if you reply to someone...sometimes people assume you mean them.

Re: Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because the author is bad at interpreting statistics and doesn't recognize that a 4% difference when the average rate is closer to 18% is a way bigger difference than a 5 or even 6% difference when the average rate is closer to 40%.

The manuscript highlights the differences among the male populations are significant while those among the female populations are within the estimated confidence intervals.

Correct. To see the original, you can check the journal itself [0] (check for it on google scholar if this link doesn't work) or look for it at your nearest academic library, if they have it. It is published in the April issue. The conclusion was that the difference was not significant for the female population. Keep in mind that the study was based on a limited sample so care must be taken when generalizing conclusions from the starting data to the population as a whole.

[0] http://cad.sagepub.com/content/60/3/471.abstract

Re: Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23

#157

The abstract is at http://cad.sagepub.com/content/60/3/471.abstract (there's a paid link for the full study to the right.) I'd like to see error bars, or at least a clear indication of the assumptions that went into the model.

http://scitr.com/a1j

Re: Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23

#158
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That also sounds 90% good enough to make the media useless. A politician doesn't like an article about his corrupt behavior? Well, he wasn't convicted for anything in the article, so away it goes!

So, being acquitted is meaningless to you and should negatively impact future employment. Noted.

Forget acquitted, what if charges are never brought in the first place? Should the Nixons of this world have a right to be forgotten?

Re: Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23

#159
post #147
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I'm not sure that police involvement for this stuff is a bad thing. Schools are no longer equipped to handle violence between students, and it's questionable whether they ever were. They've lost many disciplinary tools they could use to deal with violent students, and even then it's hard to say that schools properly handled bullying or other student-on-student violence issues back in the "good old days". Br…

Except that actual violence comitted by teens is going down.

That could be taken as an argument that police intervention in schoolyard violence works.

My point isn't that schools are more violent, but that we're correctly identifying that managing school violence is not part of the teacher role, and simply ignoring it as "boys will be boys" isn't good either.

Re: Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23

#160
post #2

Nearly half of black males and almost 40 percent of white males in the U.S. are arrested by age 23, which can hurt their ability to find work, go to school and participate fully in their communities. An arrest by itself, without an accompanying conviction, cannot be used to deny employment. 1. http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/arrest_conviction.cfm#I

And when I delivered pizza, my manager wasn't allowed to make me work unpaid overtime. But this is America, and something being "not allowed" doesn't mean it isn't happening all the time. The people affected by this most generally cannot afford legal action to defend themselves against this. Or worse, they're unaware that it's illegal to do this.

You don't need to afford legal action to make a FLSA claim; the point about people being unaware of the legal mechanisms available to them (or even the illegality of it) is I think much stronger.

If I was working hourly, I'd pray they make me work unpaid overtime, because when I was ready to hop jobs I'd walk into court with a fat 2x back wages (1x + liquidated damages) [1]. If they retaliate, it's up to 3x back wages.

[1]: http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/backpay.htm

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