Legal Law

The myth of black crime

In an article that appeared on the Useless Knowledge website on August 11, titled “Correlation Between Blackness and Crime in American Cities,” the author suggests that high crime rates among blacks are due to a bias toward blacks to such behavior. He bases this premise on the correlation between cities that have a large black population and also have high crime rates. In fact, in his own words, he says: “This is absolute proof that there is an infallible correlation between how black a city is and how big its crime rate is, at least in the United States.” I found his theory simplistic and superficial, but then I wondered, “What if this same level of pseudoscientific analysis were applied in reverse: to whites?”

First let me say that if your theory were true, such numbers would be reflected all over the world. Blacks in America are descended from black Africans, so wouldn’t African countries have ridiculously high crime rates?

The high crime rates in the city center can be attributed to many things, but not cultural bias. Still, this mistaken assumption has been around for decades, and it’s not necessarily racist. The idea that blacks are more prone to violent and criminal tendencies “is one of the most easily invoked contemporary stereotypes about blacks…and unlike racial attitudes toward the principle of equal treatment, there is evidence that the association of blackness and criminality…is deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness of Americans, regardless of the level of prejudice or personal beliefs.” (one)

Using population figures, it can be assumed that the victims of this “black crime wave” are black. FBI data shows that so-called “black-on-black crime” is no more prevalent than white-on-white crime. Crimes committed by whites (in the suburbs, rural areas, or otherwise) tend to have white victims. Why? Because most crimes are committed close to the home of the offending party, which means members of black communities are more likely to take advantage of their black neighbors.

So, taking the author’s assumptions about race and criminality and applying them in reverse, I can conclude that white people are predisposed not only to random acts of violence, but also to crimes that affect large numbers of people and cross borders. racial boundaries. For example, the vast majority of white collar criminals are WHITE. The scandals at Enron, Tyco, and Dynergy, which not only misled shareholders but in some cases looted their employees’ pension funds, were not masterminded by blacks. None of the Keating 7 was black. But these crimes have a far greater impact than a black man holding up a liquor store.

Worse yet, the Government Accountability Office reports that these white-collar crooks avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution. They transfer assets to relatives, give businesses to their minor children and then hire them as salaried employees, transferring millions of thousands of dollars into a trust fund for their minor children, or deeding a house to a relative, then renting it out again (all from which constitutes fraud–another crime). “The GAO studied five unidentified federal cases in which executives and owners of companies found guilty of fraud were ordered to pay a total of $568 million to investors and shareholders. Only about $40 million, or 7% of what was owed.” (2) Also, 43% of those charged with fraud are never prosecuted (3), so white people not only commit these crimes, they get away with it!

Still, some critics argue that sentencing for white-collar crimes is over the line because the punishment is harsher than for some drug offenses and murder. But while the latter are undoubtedly heinous, white collar crimes can involve hundreds of millions, even trillions of dollars. This has an impact on the current living situation of the victims and, in the case of Enron, where the pensions were lost, on their future.

I know what you’re thinking, such momentous cases are rare, and on that point I agree. But most of the more common and petty financial crimes (involving banking, computers, and identity theft) are also perpetrated by whites (4).

Now let’s talk about a more common crime-murder: The estimated homicide rate in this country, excluding all those committed by blacks, is more than three times higher than the homicide rate in the other six major industrial nations. (5) Therefore, anything that forces white Americans to kill other people, causes blacks to kill at a much higher rate. (6) But at an extreme level, whites make up the vast majority of serial and infant killers. Gacy, Bundy, Dennis Rader (The BTK Killer), The Green River Killer, et al. they were not black. And in the latter group, who can forget Charles Stuart and Susan Smith, who blamed their sons’ deaths on black attackers. And what about Andrea Yates, the Houston woman who drowned her five children? As for other crimes against children, look at internet porn stars and loot bandits, child rapists in the Catholic church. How many of their faces are black?

And who are these right-wing fanatics (terrorists) who bomb abortion clinics and murder doctors for performing a legal act? And mad bomber/baby killer Timothy McVeigh wasn’t white? Weren’t the inventors of the drive-by and other organized crime kingpins white? Who was behind the lynchings of the 19th and 20th centuries? Who commits the most hate crimes?

Here is another crime that is white domain: TREASON. Aren’t these FBI, CIA and military agents selling secrets to the Russian and Chinese governments black? What about the “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh? These are men who will compromise the security of the country for a few dollars.

Do you see how dangerous it is to play with facts?

The author of “Correlating” probably doesn’t, as he wrote: “However, what I don’t like is being lied to. For decades, I’ve heard people deny, minimize, justify, and tone down black crime.” He then says that poverty is no excuse.

For starters, I have never heard anyone justify criminality on any level. But whether you want to admit it or not, high crime rates can be correlated with high poverty rates. This is not the only reason for such behavior. You state quite emphatically that “…there is very little real poverty in the United States. Anyone who thinks there is should visit the slums of Cairo, Rio de Janeiro, or Bangkok. Then they will see what poverty really is.” . Compared to what? While the poor people of this country cannot sleep in mud huts, going for days on end without food or clean water does not make their poverty any less “real,” especially when compared to America’s immense wealth.

The white bias of police officers, prosecutors, and the courts also plays a role in black crime rates, as do character weaknesses (caused by a lack of a strong social organization, such as a church), single-parent households and the residual effects of slavery (Wilson). Other factors include “the ecological concentration of ghetto poverty, racial segregation, population change, and unemployment…profound changes in the urban fabric of minority communities in the 1970s may be the key to understanding the recent increases in violence. (7)

This article was written for two reasons: (1) To offer some reasons for the concentration of crime in particular areas, not just in the black community. In fact, both the author of “Correlating” and my own argument about racial predispositions to criminal behavior can be dismissed. (2) To paraphrase an old saying, numbers are sometimes used in the same way that a drunk uses a lamp post: for support rather than illumination. My point is that anyone can crunch numbers to meet her own needs and “validate” a stereotype. This is what I believe the author was guilty of. I wanted to show you that such a knife can cut both ways and is therefore a very dangerous implement.

Sources:

(1) Devine, PG and AJ Elliot. 1995. “Are Racial Stereotypes Really Dissolving? The Princeton Trilogy Revisited.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21(11): 1139-50

(2) Richard Willing, “Study: White Collar Criminals Dodging Tickets,” Richard Willing, USA TODAY, March 3, 2005

(3) Howard Gleckman, BusinessWeek, “Where White Collar Criminals Belong: Jail Careers,” January 2, 2002

(4) Randall Kennedy, “Race, Crime and the Law,” (New York: Pantheon), 1997, p. 145

(5) James Q. Wilson, Hoover Institute, “Crime,” (Hoover Press), p. 115

(6) Neil Weinberg Mary Ellen Egan, “Are Sentencing for White Collar Crimes Over the Line?” Fornes.com and MSNBC.com, April 21, 2004

(7) Robert J. Sampson and William J. Wilson. 1995. “Toward a Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality” in Crime and Inequality, J. Hagan & R. Peterson (eds.), (Palo Alto. CA: Stanford University Press), pp. 37-54.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report, 2003

Lincoln Quillian and Devan Pager, “Black Neighborhoods Increased Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Neighborhood Crime Assessments,” American Journal of Sociology, Nov. 2001, p. 717

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