Race and Teen Drug Arrests
In Chicago, African-American youth account for eight out of every 10 juvenile arrests for drug charges. But does that mean that they’re doing the most drugs?
According to a small story of mine that was published this month’s issue of The Chicago Reporter, the answer is no.
While researching the story, I spoke to Dan Linn, Executive Director of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Law. According to Linn, one thing contributing to the disparity is that the police are able to make more arrests in low-income neighborhoods, where teenagers or even the adults aren’t necessarily going to be distributing or consuming the cannabis indoors.
“So they’re outdoors and it’s easier for the police to see this in the open air, as they say, and make those arrests,” said Linn, “where some of the more affluent teenagers and adults will go inside an apartment to consume cannabis or sell cannabis, and it’s more difficult for officers to make those arrests.”
With such a large disparity, it would be easy to assume that the difference would show up in the convictions as well. Yet in the data I worked with for this story, the number of teens found guilty of the crime is a fraction of the number arrested, totaling only 568, and the racial split is nearly exactly even. Out of the 3305 African-American teens arrested, only 259 were sentenced. Similarly, only 258 white teens out of 1112 were sentenced.
It’s a pretty shocking divide.
