Visualizations : Size of black population in state and sentences imbalances of blacks

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Created by: ClaudiaGold Created on: Friday November 09, 7:40 PM

Data file: Ratio of Blacks (%) in Prison to Blacks (%) by Population; Census 2000

Data source: Human Rights Watch

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Comments (4)

ClaudiaGold says:

This graph shows how the % of blacks is related to the disproportionality of blacks in prison, by state.

The "ratio" on the y-axis = (% of prisoners who are black)/(% of population that is black)

It seems that states with more black people (by %) have much more proportional rates of blacks in prison.

Posted Friday November 09, 8:01 PM
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Martin Wattenberg says:

I think this chart shows a problem with using this ratio to compare across regions with different racial compositions. For example, DC is 60% black, so it's mathematically impossible for it to have a ratio as high as any of the states (which all have ratios of 1.9 or above).

Maybe it would be better to use a ratio like (fraction of black populace who are in prison) / (fraction of white populace who are in prison).

Posted Friday November 09, 8:13 PM
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ClaudiaGold says:

Interesting -- I hadn't ever thought about that before. I'll think about it some more.

Posted Friday November 09, 9:43 PM
Last edited Friday November 09, 9:50 PM
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MooMilo says:

Interesting.

Posted Tuesday January 22, 12:18 PM
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Visualizations : Size of black population in state and sentences imbalances of blacks

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