I live in Chicago and am fascinated by the history of this city. I have been immersed over the past few years in reading and learning about juvenile justice in Chicago.

In 1920, African American youth accounted for 12.2 percent of the total arrests for juvenile delinquency in Chicago; this increased to 21.2 percent in 1930. Irene McCoy Gaines, a prominent Colored Women’s Club member, made the case in the 1920s that the unwillingness of white employers to hire black people was significantly contributing to the increase in juvenile delinquency in Chicago:

On account of scarcity of work, thousands are forced into increased idleness…the colored youth is tried at the bar and judged guilty of idleness, worthlessness, crime, and vice, and is condemned by the very jurors who forced upon him the idleness that caused his ruin…failure to educate and protect the youth is to intensify the problems of ignorance, crime, and poverty which handicap the advancement of all society.

In 1920, Chicago was steeped in a severe recession. Unemployment throughout the city, hit blacks particularly hard. Employment conditions were related to juvenile delinquency in a few ways. Young blacks in Chicago had a difficult time finding jobs. They were then likely to spend their time hanging out on the streets and thus more prone to find trouble. Judge Edgar Jones, in a speech in front of the Wabash Ave Y.M.C.A. offered that of the 1,500 black males who appeared in the juvenile court during the first ten months of 1925, almost all had said that they had “no place for recreation except for pool rooms and the streets.” For those living in Chicago today, ask yourself how different the situation is for young black people. I would submit, not much.

Youth who could find no work were also likely to get involved in criminal activities in order to financially survive and contribute to their families. In the 21st century, the economic plight of Chicago’s youth is still precarious. Last year, the Chicago Reporter published an article about the severe and chronic unemployment among youth on the West Side of Chicago in particular:

In 2008, 18,600 of the 35,700 people between ages 16 and 30 in a census region that includes East Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, North Lawndale and West Garfield Park had not worked during the previous five years or longer, according to a Chicago Reporter analysis of census data.

The figure of 52 percent was the nation’s highest. A region of Mississippi that includes Tallahatchie County, where the body of Chicago-area native Emmett Till was found in 1955, came second, with 50 percent.

The second highest rate of long-term unemployment in Chicago was recorded in a South Side region that includes Auburn Gresham, Englewood, Washington Heights and West Englewood. In 2008, 14,700 of 36,000 residents there between ages 16 and 30—or 41 percent—had not worked during the previous five years or longer.

This situation is urgent and the crisis is grave. I don’t understand how we can expect young people who are literally locked out of the opportunity structure to survive without employment prospects. We should not then be surprised when some turn toward illicit means to ensure their survival.