PROJECT 2: COUNTY LEVEL CRIME
​
In “America’s Incarceration Rate is at a Two-Decade Low,” Gramlich provides statistics and evidence surrounding the incarceration rate. While he notes that the incarceration rate is at its lowest in twenty years, this does not indicate that there has been a decline in in the number of individuals in prison, rather, this statistic is calculated to control for population growth. Gramlich also discusses why this rate has decreased. The second half of his article focuses on the United States relative to other countries around the world, of which the United States has the highest incarceration rate (Gramlich, 2018). This is in line with our in-class discussion and reading of American Prison, as we discussed and read about many of the issues plaguing our prison systems such as the high incarceration rate.
​
My project analyzes county level crime throughout Maryland. The first two maps analyze the incarceration rate of adults and black adults ages 15 to 64. Each measure in these maps is calculated “per 100,000 adults” to standardize the differences in the population size of each county. The final graph shows violent and property crime rates per county. As defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, violent crimes are “those offenses which involve force or threat of force” (Crime in the U.S., n.d.). For instance, violent crime is “murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault” (Crime in the U.S., n.d.). Property crime, however, is “burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson” (Crime in the U.S., n.d.). Each point, representing one county, is also color coded by Urbanicity, which the Vera Institute for Justice notes is an “urban-rural classification scheme” (Vera Institute for Justice, 2015).
​
As demonstrated in the data, there are 24 counties in Maryland, and their incarceration rate is shown for 2014, the most recent year in which all data is available. As demonstrated by the two maps, the black incarceration rate per 100,00 black adults is much higher than the incarceration rate per 100,00 adults. Also, interestingly, Baltimore City is the only urban county. It has some of the highest crime rates, as well as the highest adult prison population per 100,000 adults. It does not, however, have the highest black prison population per 100,000 black adults. The highest black prison population per 100,000 is Wicomco County. These high incarceration rates are largely concentrated to the eastern part of the state—many share a border with Delaware and the Chesapeake Bay (Vera Institute of Justice, 2015). Additionally, with the exception of Baltimore City, there does not appear to be a correlation between the Urbanicity and the violent and property crimes rates presented in the data (Vera Institute of Justice, 2015).
​
These statistics are in line with the statistics presented in “Racism and the Execution Chamber,” a required reading from class. This article discusses how the death row population in the United States is much higher among black Americans than it is among white Americans (Ford, 2014). While this is the focus of the article, it does also note that blacks are represented at “unreasonably high rates” (Ford, 2014). The data I found is consistent with this, as demonstrated in the visuals and discussed above. While the article largely analyzes southern states, Maryland’s findings in 2014 were consistent. For instance, in Montgomery County, the county with the smallest prison population per 100,000 adults in 2014, there were 172 incarcerations per 100,000 adults. In regards to the black prison population, however, there were 581 incarcerations per 100,000 black adults (Vera Institute of Justice, 2015). Thus, while my data does not show the death row populations, it does indicate that there is a high representation of black Americans in prisons.
​
References
Crime in the U.S. (n.d.). Retrieved from Uniform Crime Reporting Program website:
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/cius-2016
Ford, M. (2014, June 23). Racism and the execution chamber. Retrieved from The Atlantic website: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/06/race-and-the-death-penalty/373081/
Gramlich, J. (2018, May 2). America's incarceration rate is at a two-decade low. Retrieved from Pew Research Center website: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/05/02/americas-incarceration-rate-is-at-a-two-decade-low/
Vera Institute of Justice incarceration trends dataset. (2015). Retrieved from GitHub website: https://github.com/vera-institute/incarceration_trends