When compared with other developed nations, income and wealth disparities in the United States are significantly higher, and it is on the rise. From the slow and uneven recovery of the 2008 global financial crisis to the economic shock caused by the novel virus - nCoV2019, that have intensified these trends and thus challenged a response from policymakers. The wealthiest families in the United States are experiencing greater financial wealth that any other family in the last decades, a trend that underpins the growth of financial resources at the top. From 2007 to 2016, the median net worth of Americas wealthy 20% rose by 13% to 1.2 million. Hence, this is an indication that the wealth gap between the poor and the rich has more than tripled from 1989 to 2016. Income inequality is rising at unprecedented levels. The 90/10 income ratio was at 9.1 in 1980 and reached 12.6 in 2018 – an increase of 39%. Not only is the income inequality rising in the United States, but it is higher than other developed economies.
Currie (1997) argues that the growth of a free market society leads to higher rates of violence. Currie (1997) draws the following preliminary conclusions:
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A free-market economy tends towards radical material deprivation and inequality (Currie, 1997). This means that wealth and income are only concentrated with very few individuals.
Free market economies eliminate informal social support systems (Currie, 1997). Employment interferes with social organization structures and eliminates any form of social support.
Free market economies incentivize crime by damaging the value of labor (Currie, 1997). The cost of labor in free marker societies is reduced, thus breeding alienation as the number of the working poor is high.
Free market societies weaken the systems of social support.
Free market societies tend to encourage unhealthy competition and wasteful consumption (Currie, 1997). The culture in free-market societies has been built on materialism which emphasizes on the value for money rather than other qualities such as a job well done.
In market-driven economies such as the United States, the overall increase in crime is due to people’s frustrations and insecurities due to the harsh realities imposed by society such as low-wages, unemployment, lack of education and job training, and poverty. Often than not, people resort to crime because of the lack of government in providing support to cushion the unemployed from tough economic times (Currie, 1997). Free market societies such as the United States tend to have the concentration of wealth in the hands of the top 10% of the population, which results in social inequality. The proposals to flatten taxation means that the poor pay more than the rich, which makes it impossible to live a fulfilling life in market-driven societies (Currie, 1997). This creates a society in which a small portion of the population resolves themselves into criminality in order to achieve their consumptive potential.
There is indeed a correlation between class backgrounds with both the type and amount of offending. There is increased offending when there is a gap in the society of achieving material wealth and the availability of opportunities that are required to achieve wealth legitimately (Weatherspoon, 2014) . Thus, crime is higher among the lower class because they have fewer opportunities for achieving material success through legitimate means, and this results in the adoption of criminal practices to achieve material success. The weak relationship between social class and crime is because they are multifaceted (Weatherspoon, 2014) . Individuals from the lower economic classes are more than likely to be arrested than people from the middle/upper classes. Individuals from the middle/upper classes engage in criminal activity, which poses higher financial costs to society, but they are less likely to be convicted of these crimes (Weatherspoon, 2014) . The prison population in the United States is consists of the destitute and thus weakens the relationship between social class and deviant behavior (Unnever, 2014) . Inconsistencies and contradictions exist on the relationship between social class and crime because of disparate research findings that either lean towards the poor or the wealthy or as a result of inequalities in the criminal justice system.
Gender is inextricably linked with criminal behavior, and men are inclined to commit more crimes than women. From prison statistics across the world, women have lower arrests than men in almost all aspects of crime except prostitution. Although women commit crimes, most studies have been focused on men since they have greater involvement in criminal behavior (Unnever, 2014) . Therefore, there is suggestive evidence that there is a link between gender and the inclination to commit a crime. For much of the 21 st century, crime and punishment have been the most potent symbols of the racial divide in the United States. Although there have been legislations that have made discrimination based on race, unconstitutional, racial, and ethnic disparities persist in the American criminal justice system. Although researchers claim that there exists a relationship between race and crime, most studies produced divergent findings (Branigan et al., 2017) . From research, I can conclude that there is no relationship between race and the type of crime as the evidence provided by researchers one-sided. This is as a result of inconsistencies in data interpretation.
From the economist perspective, people obey the law so that they can avoid legal sanctions and consequences, which is instrumental in shaping behavior. From a sociologist’s standpoint, people obey the law because they see it as a legitimate authority. True justice is equitable, and a criminal justice injustice is the disproportionate representation of a particular group of people in the criminal justice system. This can be achieved through selective enforcement, sentencing, police brutality, incarceration, and prosecutorial abuse. African-Americans and other minorities are unequally represented in the American criminal justice system, and they are more than white Americans to be arrested, convicted, and experience lengthy sentences. African-Americans and other minorities continue to face racial disparities in the American criminal justice system, and they are at high risk of being arrested, detained, and prosecuted than white Americans.
Unnever and Gabbidon (2011), thorough the use of analytic lenses, conclude that increased offending rates in African-Americans are shaped by their beliefs and experiences with racial disparities and the criminal justice system. Unnever and Gabbidon (2011) found out that African-American believe that because they are disadvantaged in job opportunities, education, healthcare, and racist criminal justice system shapes their beliefs in perceiving criminal justice injustices. In addition, the high rates of offending in African-Americans have also been shaped by past injustices and current racial discriminations that they are experiencing.
Hirschi and Gottfredson’s (1990) theory implies that low self-esteem is analogous to criminal propensity. As a general theory, criminal behavior can be regarded as a function of low or absent self-esteem. However, the theory cannot be used because it does not provide a working definition for low-esteem or the lack of it. Thus, this becomes difficult for researchers and investigators to conclude whether an individual has this characteristic unless they committed a crime. The theory does not provide more information as to why an individual committed a crime other than its low self-esteem that made the individual commit a crime.
Today, race remains a divisive issue in the American public and political sphere in some ways more than others. Many white Americans have formed stereotypes against African-Americans. Stereotypes are woven into the fabric of the United States and correspond with the institution of slavery (Varghese et al., 2019) . The predetermined behaviors of African-Americans are being instigated by the stereotypes maintained by the status quo. In the media, commercials, and movies, African-Americans are less represented in the roles of technical experts but instead appear in roles that place less emphasis on their intellectual capabilities (Varghese et al., 2019) . In popular video games, African-Americans are represented mainly as gangsters or street people or active playable characters. Many at times, they are represented as stock characters in the story.
A stereotype threat occurs when an individual perceives that their performance in a particular task will confirm or satisfy a negative belief that people have about the group, which may, in turn, interfere with the individual’s performance on the task. The repeated exposure to stereotypes by African-Americans leads to long-term disengagement in employment and academic performance (Branigan et al., 2017) . When disengagement occurs, an individual devalues their performance on specific tasks when the stereotype, if activated, thus loses the motivation to perform well. Negative stereotypes do not only hurt African-Americans but impose adverse effects when they hold and think about those stereotypes. The negative stereotypes held by white Americans on African-Americans increases their likelihood of offending because they repeatedly made aware of their stereotypes. By being reminded and thinking about their stereotypes, African-Americans may act in ways that are consistent with the stereotype even though they are not part of the stereotyped group. (Branigan et al., 2017) The impacts of racial discrimination and negative stereotypes vary across gender and place because of the existence of cultural socialization that provides resilience against the effects of criminal behavior and discrimination. Cultural competency plays an integral role in reducing the rejection of conventional norms.
Social socialization is the process through which individuals acquaint themselves with the norms of a given society or social group (Dunaway et al., 2000). The dimensions of socialization include; a) collective vs. individual – where newcomers become part of a group or enter alone, b) formal vs. informal – where newcomers are either geographically separated or integrated with other members, c) random vs., sequential – where newcomers consist of debatable or approved requirements towards membership, d) fixed vs. variable - where socialization disseminates information to a timetable in a sequential format as opposed to time uncertainty, e) serial vs. disjunctive – where the socialization process interacts with role models as opposed to following the footsteps of mentors, and f) investiture vs. divestiture – where the identity of a newcomer is verified after entry as opposed to disregarding the personal characteristics of newcomers (Dunaway et al., 2000). More than 60 percent of African-Americans racially socialize their children. Adequate racial socialization minimizes the chances of African-Americans indulging in crime by 34 percent.
Racial socialization results in improved child outcomes such as academic achievement, healthy self-esteem, and positive identity development. Often than not, African-American families are faced with a daunting task of rearing children with the consideration of racially socializing their children (Dunaway et al., 2000). African-American children who are not racially socialized experience the effects of racial discrimination in society. The lack of racial socialization results in African-American children being traumatized, thus leading to deviation from societal norms, depression, and hostile perceptions that finally result in the engagement in criminal activity (Varghese et al., 2019) . Racial discrimination also places African-American youths at risk such as low-emotional well-being, psychological distress, poor individual adjustment, stereotype threat, and low academic achievement.
Unnever and Gabbidon (2011) hypothesized that African-Americans share a prevailing worldview when it comes to matters of racial discrimination and the propensity to commit a crime (Branigan et al., 2017) . According to research, African-Americans are more than likely to experience episodes of low self-control, anger, and depression if they believe they have been subjected to racial discrimination or stereotypes, and these emotions are related to offending. African-Americans share a prevailing worldview that is racialized. A majority of African-Americans believe that their future is determined by what happens to African-Americans in the United States (Branigan et al., 2017) . This shows that racial discrimination, criminal injustices, and stereotype threats are an increase in the likelihood of their offending. Although a majority of African-Americans know that pejorative stereotypes and racial discrimination depict them as violent, they choose not to engage in criminal behavior through racial socialization (Erickson, 2003) . The small number that engages in crime is a result of the direct relationship for criminal justice injustices, racial discrimination, and being pejoratively stereotyped that impact their likelihood of offending.
Skin tone or immigrant status affirms the hypothesis that increased African-American chances of offending. This is because skin color and immigrant status can be predictors of social outcomes in African-Americans (Erickson, 2003) . Social outcomes in the United States often than not are stratified by skin color or immigration status, which emphasizes the prevalence and pervasiveness of offending among African-American communities based on discrimination by race against minorities.
References
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Currie, E. (1997). Market, Crime and Community. Theoretical Criminology , 1 (2), 147-172. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480697001002001
Dunaway, R., Cullen, F., Burton, V., & Evans, T. (2000). The Myth of Social Class and Crime Revisited: An Examination of Class and Adult Criminality*. Criminology , 38 (2), 589-632. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2000.tb00900.x
Erickson, P. (2003). Critical justice consciousness: Social injustice and the criminal justice system. Contemporary Justice Review , 6 (4), 341-346. https://doi.org/10.1080/1028258032000144785
Unnever, J. (2014). A Theory of African American Offending. Race and Justice , 4 (2), 98-123. https://doi.org/10.1177/2153368714531296
Varghese, F., Israel, T., Seymour, G., Becker Herbst, R., Suarez, L., & Hargons, C. (2019). Injustice in the Justice System: Reforming Inequities for True “Justice for All”. The Counselling Psychologist , 47 (5), 682-740. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000019892329
Weatherspoon, F. (2014). Racial Injustice in the Criminal Justice System. African-American Males and The U.S. Justice System of Marginalization , 17-74. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137408433_3
