That works out to one of every eight adult males in America
today. We have to use rough estimates here, rather than precise
official numbers, because the government does not collect any
data at all on the size or socioeconomic circumstances of
this population of 20 million, and never has. Amazing as this
may sound and scandalous though it may be, America has, at
least to date, effectively banished this huge group--a group
roughly twice the total size of our illegal-immigrant
population and an adult population larger than that in any
state but California--to a near-total and seemingly unending
statistical invisibility. Our ex-cons are, so to speak,
statistical outcasts who live in a darkness our polity does
not care enough to illuminate--beyond the scope or interest
of public policy, unless and until they next run afoul of the
law. Thus we cannot describe with any precision or certainty
what has become of those who make up our ``criminal class''
after their (latest) sentencing or release.
Identified stereotypes
Generalizes about the 'criminal class' and their statistical invisibility.
Keywords matched
immigrant