Choice "Forthcoming Title in African American Studies, 2025"

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Historically a third rail in criminology, Professor Anita Kalunta-Crumpton's Race, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Breaking the Cycle of Black Overrepresentation in Crime Statistics is a major advance in the study of the disproportionate involvement in crime among African Americans. Clearly written, rooted in scholarship, and unafraid to challenge academic dogma, this book highlights the mostly intraracial features of crime and points to heterogeneity in the black community as a hopeful way to reduce crime and violence. A must-read for criminologists and sociologists alike.

Matt DeLisi, PhD, Distinguished Professor, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean's Professor, and Faculty Affiliate of the Center for the Study of Violence, Iowa State University

In Race, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Breaking the Cycle of Black Overrepresentation in Crime Statistics, Kalunta-Crumpton delivers a bold, well-articulated, and much-needed intervention in one of criminology's most contentious debates. By shifting the lens from the entrenched narrative of systemic racism as the sole driver of racial disparities in the criminal justice system to a solution-oriented framework emphasizing personal responsibility, agency, and intra-community dynamics, Kalunta-Crumpton challenges scholars and policymakers to confront uncomfortable truths. Her analysis is unflinching yet logical: she meticulously demonstrates how intra-racial crime patterns-often violent and concentrated in socioeconomically disadvantaged Black neighborhoods-cannot be fully explained by external racism alone, pointing instead to preventable factors like family instability, educational underachievement, and residential choices that perpetuate cycles of disadvantage.
This book is rich in its empirical grounding and comparative insight. Kalunta-Crumpton draws on FBI data, prison statistics, and socioeconomic indicators to highlight the persistence of Black overrepresentation but goes further by contrasting African Americans with immigrants of African descent. These immigrants, facing similar (or even heightened) barriers including racism, language challenges, and credential devaluation, achieve higher educational and economic outcomes through cultural emphases on discipline, hard work, and resilience. This comparison not only substantiates her argument that mindset and self-determination can transcend perceived obstacles but also exposes the disempowering effects of perpetual victimhood narratives in dominant discourses. In doing so, she uncovers a "missing link" in the field: the under-explored role of individual and communal accountability in preventing criminal justice involvement.
While controversial, the book's strengths lie in its intellectual honesty and practical optimism. It refuses to moralize or lecture, instead offering actionable pathways-such as mentoring by successful Blacks, strengthening family structures, and prioritizing legitimate socioeconomic mobility-to break the vicious cycle. This contribution is invaluable to criminal justice scholarship, as it broadens the conversation beyond polarized racism debates, urging a more nuanced, evidence-based approach that empowers rather than paralyzes. Kalunta-Crumpton's work is a clarion call for rethinking race and crime, and it deserves wide readership among academics, practitioners, and community leaders committed to real change.

Matt Logan, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Texas State University