NCJ Number
172328
Date Published
1997
Length
114 pages
Annotation
This study was conducted to assess the extent to which drug offenders were concentrated in urban poverty areas of Massachusetts, to determine rates of drug offender involvement in the criminal justice system in the highest poverty areas, and to explore whether offenders punished for drug crimes were typically offenders with records for violent and other serious crimes.
Abstract
Sociodemographic data derived from the 1990 U.S. Census were employed in concentration analyses, geocoding of data sets was accomplished, and drug offender criminal histories were analyzed. Findings revealed crime problems and the need for crime prevention efforts were greatest in urban poverty areas of Massachusetts. State prison commitments for drug offenses were 56 times more frequent and juvenile commitments for drug offenses were 84 times more frequent in the poorest 10 percent of neighborhoods. Weapon-related injuries were concentrated in poverty areas, incarceration rates for individuals who lived in poverty areas were high, and rates of prison commitments for drug offenses in poverty areas and among minorities were disproportionately high. Many of those incarcerated for drug offenses had no criminal records or relatively light, nonviolent criminal records. Although the data suggest much of the disproportionality in racial-ethnic commitment rates for non-drug offenses may be related to poverty rate differences, contrasts in commitment rates for drug offenses are too wide to be explained in this way or with reference to drug use patterns. 56 footnotes, 55 tables, 23 charts, and 6 maps