Update (9/24): A commenter writes (emphases added):
Critics could quibble with LaShawn’s post in that the FBI stats represent only reported arrests and not actual convictions. Hence it could be argued that she is unfairly singling out blacks for criticism. Nevertheless the high proportion of blacks in prison (people actually convicted) indicates that the arrest figures are a fair (not perfect) indicator of criminal activity…Whatever the true picture, blacks are still way overrepresented, no matter how you slice it.
And:
Critics could of course also argue that the highest rates of crime are committed by low income people, and that since blacks re overepresented among those, naturally they would show up more in the stats. Low income persons do tend to commit more crime, and indeed there is more crime in lower-income neighborhoods. Does this then mean LaShawn is again engaged on an evil mission of dissing “the brothersâ€? Actually she laments the fact of that black overrepresentation, saying: “Let’s look at another sad stat..†and also “.. here’s where people get it twisted. There’s a lot of crime in the U.S. Too much. But let’s look at what’s really bad..†In other words, her concern is with something that is eating away at the soul and literally lifeblood of the black community and diminishing the credibility of that community vis a vis others. If this be an evil mission, one wonders what can be classified as “goodâ€. Remaining silent “with the mike off†for fear of spreading “negative stereotyesâ€? The facts are already on the ground furnishing more than enough ammunition for multiple lifetimes of “negative stereotypesâ€.
It feels so good to be understood.
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Yes, boys and girls, it’s that time again! Time to read the sad crime statistics, collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for our, uh, edification.
In the 2005 Crime in the United States report, we learn that violent crime increased by 2.3 percent from 2004 to 2005.
Dallas is the most dangerous large city.
In my “state” of Washington, D.C., the murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate was 35.4 per 100,000 people last year. Just for fun, I looked up the murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate for Vermont: 1.3 per 100,000.
No comment.
Let’s look at another sad stat. In the Expanded Offense Information section, we find data broken out by age, race, sex, weapons, etc. According to this table, there were 17,029 reported murders. The offender’s race was known in 12,130 of those crimes. Black offenders account for 53 percent; whites 45 percent.
And here’s where people get it twisted. There’s a lot of crime in the U.S. Too much. But let’s look at what’s really bad. Blacks are about 13 percent of the population (non-Hispanic whites are 67 percent), yet they (we!) commit over half the reported murders in the U.S. Since men commit disproportionately more crimes than women, we can surmise that black men, at about 6 percent of the population, commit a hefty portion of those crimes. Whenever you hear people say that blacks commit violent crimes at disproportionate rates, they’re referring to these numbers.
Notice that unlike in the Census report, the white population isn’t broken down by “white” and “non-Hispanic white.” What do you think the crime numbers would look like if the FBI report broke out that data?
For reasons unknown to me, the report contains no data for the race of victims and offenders in forcible rape (I couldn’t find it).
Next time you read about so-called hate crimes, consider this. Overall, whites kill whites and blacks kill blacks. But blacks kill whites at twice the rate that whites kill blacks. Here’s a guide for reading the tables.
What should cause alarm is not that 59 percent of people arrested last year were white. What should cause black communities and so-called black leaders to shout out in anger is that blacks commit over half the violent crimes in this country. Total numbers are not the focus. It’s all about proportions.
Make sure you read about the limitations of the report. There are several factors that go into reporting crimes, and the report doesn’t (and can’t) take into account so-called bias in the criminal justice system, racial profiling, etc.
That concludes our sad stats round-up for today. Number crunchers, we await your assessment of the crime report.
Happy Thursday. 
Related posts:
- “Men in their thirties” Rob Georgetown Jewelry Store
- Salaciousness Sells
- Media and Dog-Bites-Man Crimes
- New Orleans and Jackson, Mississippi, on Lockdown
- Sorry, Whites Not Protected Under ‘Hate’ Crime Law
Other sources:
- Brawl Shows Problems of Policing Cultural Crossroads
- U.S. violent crime rose in 2005, may keep going up
- Violent Crime On Rise In Alabama, Across U.S.
- New York State crime rate down
- Violent crime reports drop in city, FBI says
