Social Scientists and Statistical Experts

Khalil Muhammad claims that social scientists and statistical experts created the idea that African Americans are prone to crime and vice. Academics and social workers used arrest and imprisonment records to evaluate the moral progress of the African American community and to justify their claims that African Americans are inferior.   Please explain how social scientists used first biological determinism (ch.1) and then cultural determination (ch. 2) to create a link between blackness and crime/vice. How did this stereotype affect the willingness of social workers to provide assistance to blacks? Why were immigrants allowed to assimilate into U.S. society, while African Americans were not? In chapter six, Muhammad describes how black scholars and some of their white colleagues began to question the discrepancies between black and white arrest records. They argued that racist policing and prosecution were the real cause of the discrepancy. To what extent did the discussion of race and crime from 1880 to 1920 set the stage for our contemporary discussions of that topic today?