California Prison Population by Race and Number of Convictions
(Aug. 26, 2020, DRAFT)
This material is a placeholder for a page that will be one of many pages using published data to illustrate the pattern whereby the rarer an outcome the greater tends to be the relative difference in rates of experiencing the outcome and the smaller tends to be the relative differences in avoiding the outcome. It will use data from a 2004 study of the California prison showing the rates at which incarcerated persons various demographic groups have one or more convictions, two or more convictions, or three or more convictions. The data show that as the level of convictions increases, the ratio of the black rate of reaching the level to the white level or reaching the level increases while the ratio of the white rate to the black rate of failing to reach the level decreases. The information in the study will relate to points I made about the racial impact of California three-strikes law in “Mired in Numbers,” Legal Times (Oct. 12, 1996).
A comprehensive discussion of the pages of this nature may be found on the Obesity Illustration subpage of the Scanlan’s Rule page of this site. This page will be expanded along the lines of that page.