Youtube Video Introduction to

Criminal Careers and Communities in the United States: An Identity Network Perspective (by Cynthia Baiqing Zhang and Meredith L. Ille)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_k7xaSfdZk&t=132s

 

Criminal Careers and Communities in the United States: An Identity Network Perspective

          Are previously and currently incarcerated individuals boogiemen? Are they still part of the family and community? These questions are on everyone’s mind even though incarceration has decreased by about 9% since 2010. Between 25% to 45% Americans have a family member or close friend who had/have been behind bars.

          Racial/ethnic minorities are the majority of the American inmates. Women’s incarceration rate has increased by 832% since the 1980s, while women have been mostly involved in petty crimes and played secondary roles in violent crimes. And the incarceration rate of women is still rising when that for men has declined recently.

          There is a huge gap between criminal behavior and incarceration that should be proportional to criminal behavior. Additionally, family members are crucial for the start and the end of a criminal career, dependent on whether specific family members support or oppose criminal behavior. Communities are also crucial.

          It is time to address the issue of perceptions of various categories of people based on race and gender in the public and private spheres.

          Both poor residents in cities, Adam Jones and Juliet Castro, received opposite treatment for the same behavior of providing for their families.

          Adam Jones, a white man growing up in the 1970’s, resented his wife for her affair because he supported her education. He killed his wife’s lover when confronting his rival. He served fifteen years in prison and went on with his life with a large circle of professional associates and family members. 

          Juliet Castro, a Mexican American woman in her early twenties, was the caretaker of the whole family. She dropped out at the eleventh grade to work full time, so that she could take care of her children, and her husband could finish school.

          Juliet Castro began to use drugs to numb herself, because her husband beat her and fathered two children while she was pregnant with their second child. She was incarcerated for drug use and was homeless.

          Jackson Clinton, a white man with a well-paying job from the D.C. area, contrasts even more with Juliet Castro. He molested his wife’s five-year-old niece. His wife died within three years after the crime from cancer.

          Rural women’s experience was even more devastating when they were treated unfairly by their perpetrators in collaboration with their kin. In many cases, the family members of the perpetrators were part of the local legal system.

          Race and gender loom large in people’s criminality. This is supported by a large-scale analysis in our book Criminal Careers and Communities in the United States: An Identity Network Perspective.

          To read these personal stories and the analysis results of the average Americans’ criminality and desistance of criminal behavior, please be on the look out for the book in stores in mid-July 2023.

          Our painstaking analysis of interviews, group discussions, and survey responses with previously and currently incarcerated individuals are the basis of our opinion. It is time to stop mass incarceration. It is high time to make decisions on incarceration solely based on criminal behavior.

          Cynthia Baiqing Zhang’s personal experience further substantiates the content of our book. On February 12, 2021, the Yakima superior court in the state of Washington dropped the domestic violence charges and constraints against her in an online hearing, and ruled “release from detention (from 11pm November 23 to 4pm November 24, 2020) in the interest of justice.” It was two hours before she was operated on for the latest stage of a contagious disease with a fatality rate of 25%. In October 2020, she was already threatened with firearms.

          Cynthia Baiqing Zhang established an educational institute Evergreen Campus LLC in December 2020 to teach financially challenged students.

          The social fabric is made up with people with various abilities and heritages. It is important to focus on the numbers of lost property and lives.

          We plead to the audience and policy makers: please heed the stories that happened to real people. Incarceration is the ultimate stigma that often results in life long isolation and extreme difficulties. Caution and fairness is needed when it comes to incarceration.

          Recently, three states – Washington, Colorado, and Maryland – passed gun control laws. This provides more state level momentum to the bi-partisan Safer Communities Act passed in June 2022. The fair practice of such laws hopefully can prevent perpetrators from threatening others with firearms. And we look forward to more solutions.

          The names of the interviewees are fake names to protect their identities.

 

Bios:

Cynthia Baiqing Zhang is a researcher in the areas of criminology and criminal justice since 2013. Her graduate studies on American Constitution and political system started in the 1990s.

Meredith L. Ille is a doctoral student with expertise in social psychology and criminal justice.