Imprisonment, homicide, non-lethal assault and other crime, chronic and infectious disease, substance abuse, suicide, and accidents all contribute to the much wider gap in the community-level sex ratios found among African Americans compared to those observed found among other ethnic and racial groups in the United States. This wide array of causes and correlates of African American male mortality, disability, and confinement suggests an area in need of interdisciplinary inquiry that examines the intersection between public health and public safety.
Health analysts and social scientists across many disciplines have studied the disproportionately high levels of disease, disability, premature death, and exposure to the criminal justice system in African Americans communities extensively. To date, there has been little overlap between the diverse literatures even though the very same factors leading to crime and punishment among African American males often contribute to their poor physical and mental health profiles. This book addresses this omission by including chapters exploring the multifaceted dimensions of the varied disadvantages faced by African American males.
Authors draw from an array of theoretical and methodological frameworks to illustrate how poor outcomes and sharp disparities among individuals and communities can be linked to the interplay of multiple factors operating at multiple levels. This volume is a useful resource for serious scholars and makers of public policy who seek to understand the causal interplay among economic and racial inequality, gender, crime, punishment, and health outcomes among all African Americans.
Introduction to Volume;
Marino A. Bruce and Darnell F. Hawkins Chapter 1. A Social Ecological Framework of Inmate Health: Implications for Black-White Health Disparities; Kathryn M. Nowotny
Chapter 2. The Relationship Between Health, Cigarette Smoking and Criminal Justice Contact among African Americans; Pamela Valera, Robert Joseph Taylor, and Linda M. Chatters
Chapter 3. The Sexual Health of African American and White Men: Does Former Incarceration Status Matter?; Loren Henderson
Chapter 4. "Maybe it was something wrong with me": On the Psychiatric Pathologization of Black Men; Joanna Tegnerowicz
Chapter 5. Suicide among Young African-American Males; Alex E. Crosby and Shane P. D. Jack
Chapter 6. Life Under the Veil: Homicide in Black America Before, During, and After the Drop in US Crime; Christine Martin
Chapter 7. Gendered Racism is a Key to Explaining and Addressing Police Involved Shootings of Unarmed Black Men in America; Jennifer A. Hartfield, Derek M. Griffith, and Marino A. Bruce
Chapter 8. The Matter of Lives Underneath Black Male Skin: Using Theory and Media to Explore the Case of "Justifiable Homicides" for Black Males; Keon Gilbert, Rashawn Ray, Carson Byrd, Joseph Richardson, and Odis Johnson
Chapter 9. Solidarity, Double Consciousness, and Collective Emotion Work: Understanding Negative Black Health Outcomes Resulting from Systematic Police Terror; Louwanda Evans and Charity Clay
Chapter 10. Framing, Physicality, and Public Safety: A study of Michael Brown and Darren Wilson; Michael Oshiro and Pamela Valera
Marino A. Bruce, PhD, MSRC, MDiv is Associate Director for the Center for Research on Men’s Health and a Research Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University, USA. He is a Sociologist studying the full range of health determinants for African American males by leveraging the strengths of science and faith communities.
Darnell F. Hawkins, PhD, JD is a Professor Emeritus of African-American Studies, Sociology, and Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. Dr. Hawkins has edited four books on race, crime and delinquency, and has a new authored book examining the cultural diversity, ethnic spatial compression, and violence among African Americans.