Study: Half of black males, 40% of white males arrested by age 23 • Hacker News Board

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

#191

Post by Crito » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:02 PM UTC

worklogin wrote: post #175

Crito wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Philadelphia instituted a youth curfew because local highschool kids developed a interest in flash mobs. Not flash mobs where lots of people in a train station start dancing all of a sudden, but rather flash mobs where they all start texting all of their friends that they are going to all meet at 15th and South Street in 10 minutes to riot and loot. I'll grant that in most cases youth curfews are probably senseless,…

If it were adults, would you be as casual about people being told to stay in their homes because of some troublemakers?

"Teenagers" is a pretty tight age-range and those Philadelphia riots were large enough to overwhelm the police; if that age range were expanded to 14-70 and a similar percentage of that group were rioting, then that is a massive riot.

A curfew was implemented during the 1992 LA riots and enforced by the California Army National Guard. I think that is the sort of situation which you are describing, and I think that a curfew is appropriate in that sort of situation.

Would I be casual about it? Casual is a weird word; nothing about that sort of situation is casual. I would support such a curfew however.

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

#192

Post by nostrademons » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:04 PM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #187

giberson wrote: post #105

Laws in the US are far too strict. I am one of the people that are covered by this statistic, I was arrested around age 16. For curfew. Curfew, the law that says you can't be outside after an arbitrarily dictated time. Absolutely ridiculous. For what it is worth--my record has been "expunged" and this arrest has not affected my adult life at all.

Curfews? That sounds like something out of a police state. I did not know the US had curfew laws.

They don't federally, but some municipalities do.

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

#193

Post by skittles » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:05 PM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #187

giberson wrote: post #105

Laws in the US are far too strict. I am one of the people that are covered by this statistic, I was arrested around age 16. For curfew. Curfew, the law that says you can't be outside after an arbitrarily dictated time. Absolutely ridiculous. For what it is worth--my record has been "expunged" and this arrest has not affected my adult life at all.

Curfews? That sounds like something out of a police state. I did not know the US had curfew laws.

The U.S. is overly protective of children and young adults. We can't drink alcohol until 21 and many cities have curfew laws for kids up to the age of 16 or so. My city has a curfew for those 16 and under. They can't be out after 11 pm during the week and after 12:30 am on weekends.

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

#194

Post by gress » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:06 PM UTC

happyscrappy wrote: post #171

Also over 50% of violent crimes go unsolved and over 80% of property crimes. Looks like there could be more arrests if they solved more crimes.

Or maybe they might be able to solve more crimes if they arrested fewer people and used the resources for investigation.

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

#195

Post by kghose » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:08 PM UTC

TomGullen wrote: post #113

Used to dream of living in the US, moving our business there. Not just due to this, but the more I read and learn about the US, the more that is exposed about the US, the less I now want to live there.

Don't come here. It's terrible, I tell you. Just terrible.

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

#196

Post by eric_h » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:09 PM UTC

smackfu wrote: post #107

stonogo wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have reason to believe that people born during that window are particularly jail-prone?

Crime is definitely way down in the last 10 years. If you assume that most people are getting arrested in their 20's, then that would imply the rates would change for different birth years.

> Crime is definitely way down in the last 10 years

violent crime is. I don't think arrests are, though...

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

#197

Post by kghose » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:14 PM UTC

Fezzik wrote: post #154

pertinhower wrote: post #19

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. Tec…

I would say you're is the most insightful comment in this thread. I am biased towards thinking you are correct in that when one publishes a paper, there are incentives towards a more dramatic interpretation/presentation of the data. So, a study that said 10% of all males have been arrested, would not have gotten as much notice as the current presentation.

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

#198

Post by nickff » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:15 PM UTC

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #178

watwut wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only 6% of american prisons are private.

What point are you trying to make? It's not like public prisons send lobbyists to Congress to refute arguments being made by private prison lobbyists. If 6% of your cells are cancerous you're in deep trouble.

In some states, the issue is not the private prison lobby, it is the prison guard lobby, which can be quite strong, as they may have a near monopoly on the provision of such services.[1][2]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Correctional_Peace_O...

[2] http://kalwnews.org/audio/2011/07/19/just-how-powerful-calif...

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

#199

Post by sgk284 » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:16 PM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #187

giberson wrote: post #105

Laws in the US are far too strict. I am one of the people that are covered by this statistic, I was arrested around age 16. For curfew. Curfew, the law that says you can't be outside after an arbitrarily dictated time. Absolutely ridiculous. For what it is worth--my record has been "expunged" and this arrest has not affected my adult life at all.

Curfews? That sounds like something out of a police state. I did not know the US had curfew laws.

They're not that common. It varies from state to state and town to town. Where they do have curfews, they only apply to minors.

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

#200

Post by nostrademons » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:18 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #95

dublinben wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 'right to be forgotten' is impossible to enforce. We just need to be more forgiving.

The "right to be forgotten" is just a societal mechanism for enforcing forgiveness, since we lack any other way to enforce or even particularly suggest forgiveness as a society [1]. Humans are not wired for the proper amounts of forgiveness in a digital world. (One can debate how correctly wired they are under other circumstances, but I feel pretty confident that our thresholds aren't even close to right for a digita…

I think the problem is ultimately self-correcting as judgmental people start losing out on opportunities. When Facebook first came out, most of the older generation put out dire warnings about losing jobs because of that drunken party pic you put up. That happens, but now if you start disqualifying every candidate who ever put something embarrassing up on the Internet, you won't have a very large applicant pool. Cue "talent shortage" and "hiring is hard!" blog posts. Meanwhile, the person who got drunk and dirty 5 years ago is now a very talented digital marketer and has gotten a job with your competitor.

Historically, we've seen more tolerant and open societies win out economically over more closed and judgmental ones. Countries that allow women into the workforce do a lot better than ones where work is a man's province, because they have twice as many potential workers. Countries that place people into jobs based on talents and interests do better than those that have rigid caste systems or exams, because they can adapt more flexibly to changing skill requirements. The mechanism is just like the one above: if you deny someone a job for an arbitrary, irrelevant reason, he'll just go find someone less arbitrary (or arbitrary in different ways) and work for her.