So how many people in South Los Angeles have a criminal history?

It's a simple question, but, as with many simple questions, there is no straight answer.

First, how do we define "South Los Angeles"?  Some social science researchers go with the boundary drawn by the LA County Department of Public Health for their service area, SPA-6.  But SPA-6 does not include Inglewood, which most would consider part of South LA.  By congressional district, District 35 includes Inglewood, Hawthorne, and surrounding areas, but it does not include the quintessential city, Compton, which is included in District 37, along with Long Beach.  On the Los Angeles County Board, Supervisor Ridley-Thomas represents District 2, which includes Copmton, Inglewood, and Lynwood (though excluding South Gate, Bell, and Vernon).  So that district looks like a good approximation, except it also includes Westwood, where my alma mater (UCLA) is located.  UCLA is a lot of things, but it ain't South LA.

Also, how do we define a person with a criminal history in South LA?  Do juvenile records count?  Arrest records?  And what about transient residents?  Answers to these questions actually don't matter much, for the simple reason that we lack official data on them.  And this brings me to a clearly unsatisfactory answer to the simple question posed in the title of this post: how many people in South Los Angeles have a criminal history?

As far as I know, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is the only government agency keeping track of data that can help us answer this question.  They divide up California into 4 regions for the purpose of keeping track of those released from state prisons on parole.  Los Angeles is its own region (Region 3), and there are several "parole units" in Region 3--though Long Beach (with a very sizable population of people released on parole) is part of Region 4.  Of the Region 3 Parole Units, Compton and Inglewood would account for many, though not all, people released on parole in South Los Angeles--again, excluding Long Beach.

According to their data covering the month of July 2011, a total of 21,937 people were released on parole in Region 3, excluding those on a non-revocable parole and those being deported by the immigration.  Of those, Compton received 1,307 and Inglewood received 3,120 for a total of 4,427.  So just between Compton and Inglewood, we can account for 1 in 5 people released into Region 3.  And that's 1 in 20 of people released on parole across the State of California (total: 87,125).