Health, Crime and Punishment of African American Males ― Enduring Social Costs of Racial Inequality

Several tragic events related to crime and the administrations of justice have highlighted the effects of societal inequality on the life chances of the African American population, especially young males. These include a number of high profile killings in which the victims were African American males and the perpetrators were police officers. These deaths also highlight other important areas for intellectual exploration which have the potential to shape public policy making considerations that extend far beyond the criminal justice arena. Imprisonment, crime, disease, substance abuse, and accidents all contribute to the much wider gap in the community-level sex ratios found among African Americans compared to those observed among other ethnic and racial groups in the U.S. The intersection between public health and public safety is clearly an area in need of inquiry. In this volume, authors draw from theoretical and methodological frameworks in the health, social and behavioral sciences to illustrate how poor outcomes among individuals and communities can be linked to the interplay of multiple factors operating at various levels.

Marino A. Bruce, PhD, MSRC, MDiv is Associate Director for the Center for Research on Men’s Health and a Research Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University, USA. He is a Sociologist studying the full range of health determinants for African American males by leveraging the strengths of science and faith communities.