Arrests are all to common-especially among young male minority members (twitpic/NBC2)

According to a study released in Monday’s publication of Crime & Delinquency,  38 percent of white males, 44 percent of Hispanic males and 49 percent of black males have been arrested by their 23rd birthday.  

Among women, the racial discrepancy in arrest rates is less pronounced, with 20 percent of white females, 18 percent of Hispanic females and 16 percent of black females having been arrested by their 23rd birthdays. 

Led by Robert Brame, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina, the study claims to present the “first contemporary findings on how the risk of arrest varies across race and gender.”

Upon analyzing data collected by a national survey from 1997 to 2008, the study 

Even petty crimes—from underage drinking to truancy—end up on a person’s permanent criminal record and can lead to long-term repercussions.  

"States vary on the age that adolescents are considered adults in the eyes of the criminal law, some as young as age 16 and 17," said Brame in a press release.  "Criminal records that show up in searches can impede employment, reduce access to housing, thwart admission to and financing for higher education and affect civic and volunteer activities such as voting or adoption. They also can damage personal and family relationships."

With this many people having arrest records by the time they would barely be finishing college, the results of this study raise concerns as to how many people continue getting mixed up with the law as they grow older. An arrest for scalping concert tickets is of little cause for concern, but when legal scruples become a pattern, people begin to need far more help getting their lives back on track. 

"As a society, we often worry a great deal about the effects of children watching television, eating junk food, playing sports and having access to good schools," Brame says. "Experiencing formal contact with the criminal justice system could also have powerful effects on behavior and impose substantial constraints on opportunities for America's youth.”

In addition to the tangible issues of acclimating to social standards, young men and women with the arrest records—especially those who have been unjustly arrested or mistreated by the authorities—may develop negative feelings towards the legal system that may make it harder for them to be safe or successful in the future. 

“Going forward it will be constructive to support systematic studies into the sources of these variations and to continue efforts to understand the effects of criminal justice interventions on sanctions on future behavior,” explained Brame. 

Contact Senior News Editor Sara Newman here. Follow her on Twitter.