Study Gives First Concrete Estimate Of The Amount Of Americans With Felonies
In a country with overwhelming incarceration numbers, it’s no longer easy to point a finger at offenders. America is waking up to the fact that their fellow citizens are being trapped in a criminal justice system that aims not to return improved citizens to society, but grow a prison population that has already quadrupled since the 80’s.
A new study led by a University of Georgia sociologist set out to understand the scope of felony convictions in the U.S., and produced the first estimates of the felony population. This in itself is a difficult task, because the U.S. doesn’t keep a registry of data on Americans with felonies. Researchers had to base their findings on year-by-year data and utilize demographic methods to figure out a number for each state and year.
What they found is, unfortunately, not too surprising. As of 2010, 19 million people in the U.S. had a felony record. People with felony convictions make up 8 percent of the overall population, while 3 percent of the population have served time in prison. The most terrible part of their findings is the disproportionate percentages in regards to African-American males— of this demographic, 33 percent have felony convictions and 15 percent have served time in prison.
The good news is, the fact that studies like this are taking place is a step in the right direction. Understanding the scope of the criminal justice system is challenging, but crucial. The steep rise in criminal punishment causes many to wonder why the country suffering a heavy social cost for mass incarceration, and something as simple as a scary statistic can inform efforts to change policy and understand the true price of hyper criminalization in America.
