Black Women, Crime and Crime Prevention.

Several factors indicate that there is a relationship between economic conditions and crime among black women. Crime statistics show that outside of the misdemeanors of drunkenness and disorderly conduct, black women tend to be arrested for larceny and prostitution, both economic crimes. The fact that black women are at the bottom of the economic ladder lends more support to the economic theory of crime causation. In spite of the attempts of some authors to explain black crime through the theory of aggression, statistics show that black female criminality is substantially different from black male criminality in that it is less violent. Studies also indicate that the victimization rate for black females is much less than the rate for black males, but is much greater than the rate for white females. The two most prominent areas of victimization are rape and spouse abuse. Several programs initiated or supported by black women (the Multi-Area Rape Crisis Council of Atlanta and the Coalition of Concerned Women of Chicago) demonstrate that crime prevention is not the exclusive domain of the police and that black women can serve as a potential resource for crime prevention programs. However, as long as black women are on the bottom rung of the economic ladder, are heads of households and are subjected to racial oppression, they will continue to commit economic crimes. (Author/WI)