SEGREGATION AND CRIME

MARIZ PARCON
 • The separation or
isolation of a race, class,
or ethnic group by
enforced or voluntary
residence in a restricted
area, by barriers to
social intercourse, by
separate educational
facilities, or by other
discriminatory means.

What is segregation ?
 Segregation was made law several times
in 18th and 19th-century America as
some believed that Black and white
people were incapable of coexisting.
Why does it
occur?
Racial
segregation
• Racial segregation, the practice
of restricting people to certain
circumscribed areas of residence
or to separate institutions (e.g.,
schools, churches) and facilities
(parks, playgrounds,
restaurants, restrooms) based
on race or alleged race.
What are the long-term effects of
segregation?

• "Segregation proved to have long-term

harmful effects," testified Professor
Crain, a sociologist from Teachers
College at Columbia University.
• It discouraged black students from
completing high school or college, led
them into segregated, low-level
occupations, and limited their contact
with whites
The Effects of Segregation on Crime Rates
David Bjerk
McMaster University and RAND Corp.
February 2, 2006
Arguments:
• Crime rates generally appear to be much higher in predominantly
black neighborhoods in most U.S. cities than in more racially diverse
or primarily white neighborhoods.
• However, this does not necessarily mean that greater racial
segregation in and of itself has a direct effect on crime.
• Rather, poor individuals are simply more prone to committing
property crimes than are richer individuals, possibly because poorer
individuals place a relatively greater value on the rewards arising
from any particular criminal opportunity than do wealthier
individual.
• The relatively higher rates of crime in black neighborhoods may
simply be due to the fact that such neighborhoods have a relatively
high fraction of poor individuals.
• However, there may be reasons to think that greater segregation may
directly influence crime
• For example, if most potential criminals are relatively poor, then in a
relatively segregated city, potential criminals will generally reside in
neighborhoods primarily populated by other poor individuals,
meaning they will find a relatively limited supply of valuable things to
steal nearby.
• Another argument is that greater racial segregation may increase
crime by isolating blacks away from jobs, increasing the payoff to
criminal activity relative to labor market activity for blacks (Verdier
and Zenou,2004]).
Example movie about Segregation
• Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed
by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder.
• It is loosely based on the 2016 non-fiction book of the same name by
Margot Lee Shetterly about African American female mathematicians
who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) during the Space Race.
• The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, a mathematician
who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and other
missions.
• The film also features Octavia Spencer as NASA supervisor and
mathematician Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as NASA
engineer Mary Jackson