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The Interaction of Race and Gender as a Significant Driver of Racial Arrest Disparities for African American Men

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Abstract

The mass incarceration of African Americans is both a driver of racial health inequalities in the USA. Systemic social biases which associate African American men with criminality, violence, and as a particular threat to white women may partially explain their over-representation in the criminal justice system. We combined data from the Washington, DC Metro Police Department (MPD) and the American Community Survey to test whether neighborhood-level gender, race, and economic makeup were associated with elevated drug-related arrest disproportions for African American men. We found that African American men were significantly overrepresented in all drug-related arrests across the District, and that this arrest disproportion was significantly higher in neighborhoods that had a higher percentage of white female residents. The association between race and gender was somewhat attenuated, but not completely eliminated, when we introduced socio-economic variables to our model. Addressing the social determinants of criminal justice disparities must account for the intersection of race, gender, and economics, rather than considering race in isolation.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grant number K01MH112436 (PI: Fielding-Miller) and T32DA023356 (PI: Strathdee), as well as a Loan Repayment Award contract to Dr. Fielding-Miller from the National Institutes of Minority Health and Health Disparities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Center on Gender Equity and Health, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

    Rebecca Fielding-Miller

  2. Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Hannah L. F. Cooper

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Georgia State University School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Sharon Caslin

  4. San Diego School of Medicine, Center on Gender Equity and Health, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Anita Raj

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  1. Rebecca Fielding-Miller
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  2. Hannah L. F. Cooper
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  3. Sharon Caslin
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  4. Anita Raj
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Correspondence to Rebecca Fielding-Miller.

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Fielding-Miller, R., Cooper, H.L.F., Caslin, S. et al. The Interaction of Race and Gender as a Significant Driver of Racial Arrest Disparities for African American Men. J Urban Health 97, 112–122 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-018-00325-1

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