Urban Crime - Research Paper Example

Racial residential segregation has been a cause of grave concern for policymakers and researchers alike, primarily because of its association with racial inequality and disparity. After undertaking a comparative analysis and assessment of data from 1980, 1990, and 2000, the research paper validates the findings of prior literature by stating that there exists a strong correlation between racial residential segregation and urban crime, additionally, the paper also assesses trends in racial residential segregation and crime from 1980 to 2000.

Types of crime such as homicide, assault, theft, and robbery are also assessed with regards to their relationship with racial segregation. In conclusion, the literature cited in the paper is evaluated and the causes behind the positive correlation between racial segregation and urban crime such as poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, the role of dominant subcultures, and unavailability of welfare services to black communities and neighborhoods are also discussed. An assessment of the crime rates in America from the latter half of the 1980s to the early years of the 1990s is reflective of a decline in crime in the United States (Blumstein and Wallman 1) that is also observable from the statistics that have been collected in the past decade (Bjerk 2).

Regardless of these considerations, however, violence and crime in America have been a topic of extensive public debate and a highly significant issue because of the critical role that it plays in shaping the face of crime in America. According to the data provided in the Handbook of Crime the existence of factors related to race and racial determinants are eminent in the statistics that have been collected by official agencies across the United States, these statistics have been able to uncover two important observations with regards to crime and race which state that the crime rates for the African American population are reportedly higher in comparison with members of the population that are white, while, victimization reports have also stated a greater percentage of African Americans victims of crime (Ellis, Beaver and Wright 224).

Several scholars and researchers have presented a range of theoretical postulations and explanations behind the consistent observations which point towards a substantial divide in the experience of crime shared by members of various racial groups.