Lewis D. Solomon - Cycles of Poverty and Crime in Americas Inner Cities

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CYCLES of POVERTY and
CRIME in AMERICAS
INNER CITIES

CYCLES of POVERTY and
CRIME in AMERICAS
INNER CITIES

Lewis D. Solomon

First published 2012 by Transaction Publishers

Published 2017 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 2012 by Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2011039765

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Solomon, Lewis D.
Cycles of poverty and crime in Americas inner cities / Lewis D.
Solomon.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4128-4738-4
1. Urban poorUnited States. 2. African AmericansEconomic
conditions. 3. African AmericansSocial conditions. 4. Crime
United States. 5. Inner citiesUnited States. I. Title.
HV4045.S68 2012
364.2dc23

2011039765

ISBN 13: 978-1-4128-4738-4 (hbk)

In memory of my parents who always encouraged me and taught me to persevere

Contents

This book had its genesis in an action research project of the George Washington University Law School Small Business and Community Economic Development Clinic led by Prof. Susan R. Jones. I participated as a resource in the workforce development action research project designed to educate law students while helping the local community. Prof. Jones encouraged me to expand the conclusion, Chapter 5, of this book. She also provided helpful comments on and suggestions for improving my draft manuscript. Without the research efforts of Leslidiana Jones, Head of Document Services and Research Librarian, Jacob Burns Law Library, The George Washington University Law School, I could not have written this book.

Despite the best hopes of the past fifty years, America continues to experience the problem of black urban pathologies. Americas inner cities remain concentrations of the uneducated, the unemployed, the underemployed, and the unemployable. Many fail to stay in school, instead becoming high school dropouts. Others fail to be law abiding, choosing a life of drugs, violence, and crime. Most fail to marry, creating vulnerable socioeconomic units, characterized by single-parent households and children who grow up without a father figure. The black urban underclass remains at the margins of mainstream American society. The disadvantaged have become deeply entrenched in Americas inner cities. Unfortunately, the cycle continues to repeat itself generation after generation.

Although the American public seems to have written off a part of the population as unfit for a civil society, we must wake up to the great waste of human potential. Even in an era of fiscal austerity and scarce public sector resources, a huge slice of Americas human capital remains underutilized. The nation pays in many ways when the potential of many black males remains untapped.

When black males cannot find and sustain stable, legal employment, they lack funds to support themselves and their families. They do not pay taxes; this, in turn, deprives localities of funds and weakens local economies. Their inability to join the economic mainstream further exacerbates the breakdown of the two-parent nuclear family. The prevalence of single-parent, female-headed households reinforces the likelihood of another generation of black youth living in inner city poverty and floundering within inadequate education systems. In total, casualties multiply with ever-spiraling rates of unemployment and incarceration.

It is easy to throw up our hands and say that nothing works given the policy failures of the past fifty years.1 For me, fatalism is not an adequate response to the complex and interrelated web of issues plaguing inner city black males: joblessness; the failure of the public education system; crime, mass incarceration, and drugs; collapse of two-parent married families often marked by parental neglect; and negative cultural messages. Rather than abandoning the black urban underclass to a life of poverty and despair, this book presents nonfederal government-oriented near- and intermediate-term strategies and programs to rebuild lives and revitalize Americas inner cities. The only path to these goals need not be through the public sector. Policies and programs that strengthen families, provide early childhood education, and reform K-12 public schools are, however, beyond the scope of this work.

Overview of the Book

This book consists of five chapters. focuses on the pathologies in Americas inner city neighborhoods. It provides a brief overview of four pathologies: unemployment and underemployment, dropping out of high school, mass incarceration, and unwed motherhood and teen pregnancy. Getting at and treating the root causes of these pathologies represents a difficult policy and programmatic undertaking. Despite the federal governments efforts during the past five decades, neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage still exist, characterized by a cycle of poverty and despair that continues to repeat itself. The impact of mass incarceration of black males, resulting from the War on Drugs, as well as the impact of socioeconomic class and race on childrearing are highlighted.

) was someone who: (1) attained age sixteen but not age twenty-five; (2) did not regularly attend any secondary, technical, or postsecondary school during the preceding six months; (3) was not regularly employed during the prior six months; and (4) was not readily employable because of a lack of a sufficient number of basic skills, including a high school diploma or a GED (General Educational Development) certificate. Children of one (or both) incarcerated parent experience another at-risk factor.

Disconnected youth and adults as well as the formerly incarcerated face a number of barriers in obtaining and retaining employment that pays a living wage. In addition to ex-inmates criminal backgrounds, these barriers include a limited education (either the lack of a high school diploma or a GED or having a high school diploma but being functionally illiterate), few employable skills, substance abuse and mental health problems, and the lack of affordable housing and transportation. As a result, they are often economically dependent on the public sector or turn to criminal activities. They have the potential for an encounter with (or have already encountered) the legal systemthe juvenile or adult criminal justice systemand for females, an unwed, teen pregnancy.

As summarized in this chapter, the federal governments efforts are twofold: facilitating workforce development and prisoner reentry. Workforce development represents the utilization of public sector expenditures, on the federal, state, and local levels, as a strategy for job creation.3 It seeks to meet local employers labor force requirements and looks to businesses advising service providers what they need by way of employees. Through programs combining education and training, among other services, a workforce development approach also strives to meet job seekers needs. By helping individuals prepare for jobs, it assists in addressing the problems of unemployment and underemployment. Building the ability of individuals to participate in the labor market and, thus the mainstream economy, workforce development programs help them reach their potential and achieve economic self-sufficiency.

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