THE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN INTRARACIAL INCOME INEQUALITY AND EDUCATIONAL-ATTAINMENT ON CHANGES IN ARREST RATES FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND WHITES, 1957 TO 1990

Rapid increases in crime in the United States in the 1960s and early 1 970s have been puzzling in that they seem to coincide with economic gr owth and increased educational opportunity for disadvantaged groups, e specially African Americans. We argue that these increases in crime ma y be more understandable in their historical context: Much of the econ omic expansion during the postwar period and the unprecedented gains i n educational attainment for African Americans were accompanied by gro wing intraracial income inequality. Our annual time-series analysis of African American and White robbery, burglary, and homicide arrest rat es from 1957 to 1990 confirms that intraracial income inequality is a consistent predictor of changes in arrest rates for both African Ameri cans and Whites. An interaction analysis of dummy variables indicates that the relationship between education and crime for African American s and Whites is contingent on levels of intraracial income inequality. For African Americans, increasing educational attainment is associate d with rising arrest rates, but only during periods of growing income inequality; for Whites, increasing educational attainment is associate d with reduced crime rates, bur only during periods of declining inequ ality.