Suspects in Dixie Twice as Likely to Be Convicted

People arrested on felony charges in the South are more than twice as likely to face court prosecution and conviction than those elsewhere in the United States, the Justice Department said Friday.

For every 1,000 felony arrests in the South, there were 143 convictions, the department said. That compares with an annual conviction rate of 58 per 1,000 in the West, 60 in the Northeast and 78 in the Midwest.

The South accounts for only about one-third of all reported crime in the country, but it has nearly 60% of the felony court convictions, the department said in a report.

High conviction rates were also found in less-populated areas, according to the report.

Counties with less than 100,000 people throughout the United States had about one-sixth of the reported crime but accounted for more than two-thirds of the nation’s felony convictions, it said.

Crimes in Small Counties

“We were surprised to find out how much more likely offenders in small counties are to be arrested and prosecuted for felonies than are those in large counties,” Steven Schlesinger, director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, said in a statement.

One possible explanation, he said, is that crime in urban areas is so serious and frequent that law enforcement officials are more selective about prosecution.

The more densely populated areas account for nearly half of all reported crime, including half of all murders and rapes and nearly three-fourths of all robberies, but only 30% of the felony convictions, the report said.