Do blacks commit a disproportionate percentage of crimes in the US?

Do blacks commit a disproportionate percentage of crimes in the US?

Some background stats and random unscientific observations and presumptions...

- In the 2010 census whites made up roughly 72.4% of the nation's overall population, black roughly 12.6% ( QuickFacts )

- I live in a medium-sized city where whites are roughly 88.0% of the overall population, blacks roughly 5.6%, again 2010 census.

Yet, and here's where the unscientific observations come in, when I watch the news and/or read the newspaper, and they cover local crime, the provided mugshots and stories are overwhelmingly about black people. I've never counted, but I would venture to guess in the 70%-ish range. That is highly disproportionate. When I lived on the west coast, which is much more diverse, the seemingly overwhelming disproportion was still evident, albeit probably not as drastic.

Anyway, this should cause some questions, such as...

1) Is this perception true and/or at least reasonably accurate?

2) If so, why is it true?

3) If not, why does it seem so?

4) If it's not technically true that blacks commit disproportionately more crime, but the observations are correct, does this mean the media is purposely choosing to portray only blacks as much as possible?

5) Is there some other factor as to either the disparity in crime rate (or lack of) and the public portrayal that is being missed and not talked about?

:inandout:

radcen said:

Do blacks commit a disproportionate percentage of crimes in the US?

Some background stats and random unscientific observations and presumptions...

- In the 2010 census whites made up roughly 72.4% of the nation's overall population, black roughly 12.6% ( QuickFacts )

- I live in a medium-sized city where whites are roughly 88.0% of the overall population, blacks roughly 5.6%, again 2010 census.

Yet, and here's where the unscientific observations come in, when I watch the news and/or read the newspaper, and they cover local crime, the provided mugshots and stories are overwhelmingly about black people. I've never counted, but I would venture to guess in the 70%-ish range. That is highly disproportionate. When I lived on the west coast, which is much more diverse, the seemingly overwhelming disproportion was still evident, albeit probably not as drastic.

Anyway, this should cause some questions, such as...

1) Is this perception true and/or at least reasonably accurate?

2) If so, why is it true?

3) If not, why does it seem so?

4) If it's not technically true that blacks commit disproportionately more crime, but the observations are correct, does this mean the media is purposely choosing to portray only blacks as much as possible?

5) Is there some other factor as to either the disparity in crime rate (or lack of) and the public portrayal that is being missed and not talked about?

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Apparently this kind of conversation is being discouraged, which means there's unlikely to be any improvements soon.

yes, but why is more important.

My guess is that its partially an economic thing but more so a cultural thing. There are way more poor whites than blacks, so it cant be completely economic in nature.

Shhhh!

It's the 500 pound gorilla in the room we do not seem to be able to acknowledge.

I can simplify the whole process and we would never have to discuss this again if the world would just follow my lead.

Don't commit crime, don't go to jail. No matter what color you are.

The numbers silently speak for themselves. All the picket signs, pulpits and soapbox chatter drowns out the reality of the facts on the ground.

But I hear the numbers........

Hard to piss on my head and convince me it's raining. Just sayin'.

Luftwaffe said:

yes, but why is more important.

My guess is that its partially an economic thing but more so a cultural thing. There are way more poor whites than blacks, so it cant be completely economic in nature.

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I think you're right that it's cultural. But race is easier to define and requires less reasoning.

Captain America said:

It's the 500 pound gorilla in the room we do not seem to be able to acknowledge.

I can simplify the whole process and we would never have to discuss this again if the world would just follow my lead.

Don't commit crime, don't go to jail. No matter what color you are.

The numbers silently speak for themselves. All the picket signs, pulpits and soapbox chatter drowns out the reality of the facts on the ground.

But I hear the numbers........

Hard to piss on my head and convince me it's raining. Just sayin'.

Click to expand...

And get an education.

humbolt said:

FBI ? Table 43

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That is arrests, not convictions.

Here are conviction previously posted conviction stats.

It's an economic thing. I'd also say an enforcement thing as well because both blacks and whites commit the same amounts of crime and have the same amounts of drug usage but blacks are targeted more for something whites are doing too.

radcen said:

Do blacks commit a disproportionate percentage of crimes in the US?

Some background stats and random unscientific observations and presumptions...

- In the 2010 census whites made up roughly 72.4% of the nation's overall population, black roughly 12.6% ( QuickFacts )

- I live in a medium-sized city where whites are roughly 88.0% of the overall population, blacks roughly 5.6%, again 2010 census.

Yet, and here's where the unscientific observations come in, when I watch the news and/or read the newspaper, and they cover local crime, the provided mugshots and stories are overwhelmingly about black people. I've never counted, but I would venture to guess in the 70%-ish range. That is highly disproportionate. When I lived on the west coast, which is much more diverse, the seemingly overwhelming disproportion was still evident, albeit probably not as drastic.

Anyway, this should cause some questions, such as...

1) Is this perception true and/or at least reasonably accurate?

2) If so, why is it true?

3) If not, why does it seem so?

4) If it's not technically true that blacks commit disproportionately more crime, but the observations are carrect, does this mean the media is purposely choosing to portray only blacks as much as possible?

5) Is there some other factor as to either the disparity in crime rate (or lack of) and the public portrayal that is being missed and not talked about?

Click to expand...

Shame on you.

By including your admittedly unscientific observations, you inadvertently prefaced your questions in such a way as to make it absurdly easy for certain individuals here to say (in so many words), "See? It really is because of race! This proves what I've been thinking all along!"...and some are already doing so. This is the kind of discourse that perpetuates racism.

You should have asked yourself if you could present your question in a way that would be more circumspect, so that it would not be so easy for either one side or the other to use your initial observations to their own ends. If you want to ask a question that is sociologically controversial but which would also require sincere research, hard data, and scientific reasoning, then take care to construct your question so that it can't be so easily rhetorically twisted by those of lesser moral fiber.

Excon said:

That is arrests, not convictions.

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Television and newspaper reporting, which is the primary focus of the thread, generally report arrests more than convictions. They'll report convictions in high-profile cases, but for the average convenience store robbery and similar not so much.

Note: The purpose of this response is to correct you for the benefit of other readers. I fully expect you to retort with one of your usual dumb-ass off-topic rabbit-hole crap-fests. Carry on. :2wave:

Excon said:

That is arrests, not convictions.

Here are conviction previously posted conviction stats.

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I stand corrected. There's little doubt blacks commit a disproportionate number of crimes here. The reasons why are a subject of intense debate, but there's little doubt that socio-economic factors contribute significantly, along with the collapse of the family in many areas. The statistics don't lie, but they don't tell the whole story either.

Glen Contrarian said:

Shame on you.

By including your admittedly unscientific observations, you inadvertently prefaced your questions in such a way as to make it absurdly easy for certain individuals here to say (in so many words), "See? It really is because of race! This proves what I've been thinking all along!"...and some are already doing so. This is the kind of discourse that perpetuates racism.

You should have asked yourself if you could present your question in a way that would be more circumspect, so that it would not be so easy for either one side or the other to use your initial observations to their own ends. If you want to ask a question that is sociologically controversial but which would also require sincere research, hard data, and scientific reasoning, then take care to construct your question so that it can't be so easily rhetorically twisted by those of lesser moral fiber.

Click to expand...

Have at it. I'm not stopping you. Prove me wrong.

humbolt said:

FBI ? Table 43

Click to expand...

This would suggest there's maybe a little of both going on... a higher percentage of blacks committing crimes, though not as much as perceived and still over-reported.

radcen said:

Television and newspaper reporting, which is the primary focus of the thread, generally report arrests more than convictions. They'll report convictions in high-profile cases, but for the average convenience store robbery and similar not so much.

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What you want your thread to be about is up to you, but your statement of reporting arrest more than convictions says you pay attention to what you want to, or in other words mostly headlines.
Convictions do not generally make the headlines but are reported.

radcen said:

Note: The purpose of this response is to correct you for the benefit of other readers. I fully expect you to retort with one of your usual dumb-ass off-topic rabbit-hole crap-fests. Carry on. :2wave:

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Hilarious as well as dishonest.

As the the information I provided was germane, there has been no real correction.

It is germane to your first and base question of; "Do blacks commit a disproportionate percentage of crimes in the US?"
Relevant stats are germane to that question. Or don't you know that?


How you use those stats to further discuss your other inquires is up to you, but those stats are germane whether you like it or not.

radcen said:

Have at it. I'm not stopping you. Prove me wrong.

Click to expand...

Y'know, I constructed my reply with the assumption that your question was sincere, that your intent was to determine what really lay behind the disparity in the statistics. It appears I was wrong.

And because of that, I have to add your name to a (thankfully still pretty short) list of individuals on DP who can't seem to grasp that yeah, people really are all pretty much the same, all over the world...and who can't seem to understand that when a group's been crushed by the heel of "lawful" persecution for many generations, it takes a heck of a lot more than two generations for that group to recover...or for that group's former oppressors to get out of the habit of oppressing them.

akrunner88 said:

It's an economic thing. I'd also say an enforcement thing as well because both blacks and whites commit the same amounts of crime and have the same amounts of drug usage but blacks are targeted more for something whites are doing too.

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Way more dead black bodies killed by violence show up in black neighborhoods on a per capita basis. On the average 6 times as many as whites per capita. The number of dead bodies is a pretty hard piece of data, very difficult to finesse. Very difficult to blame on "targeting", bias, and whatnot. Unless you think whites are sneaking into black neighborhoods and killing people without being seen, of course.

Glen Contrarian said:

Y'know, I constructed my reply with the assumption that your question was sincere, that your intent was to determine what really lay behind the disparity in the statistics. It appears I was wrong.

And because of that, I have to add your name to a (thankfully still pretty short) list of individuals on DP who can't seem to grasp that yeah, people really are all pretty much the same, all over the world...and who can't seem to understand that when a group's been crushed by the heel of "lawful" persecution for many generations, it takes a heck of a lot more than two generations for that group to recover...or for that group's former oppressors to get out of the habit of oppressing them.

Click to expand...

It was/is sincere. The question is about perception and if said perception is rooted in reality, or not. And, if not, then why not? The answer is important. How do you propose to get past unfair perceptions if we can't talk about them? You accuse me of being unable to grasp the obvious, yet you come off as one who (unintentionally, I'll grant) perpetuates the problem with stances like this.

radcen said:

1) Is this perception true and/or at least reasonably accurate?

Click to expand...

A little of both. There are clearly disproportionate results in actual crime statistics but probably not to the extent that many people imagine (especially if you consider all crimes rather than just the kind that lead to mugshots appearing on news reports). Of course, looking at arrest or conviction statistics, you can’t discount the possibility of there being some active discrimination shifting reality there. There is also an issue of confirmation bias, where you’ll notice examples of black criminals (or suspects) as specifically black but not add to a similar subconscious count when you see examples of white ones.

I personally think there is a true imbalance in the proportion of black criminals to white ones in the US. The reasons behind crime are many and complex but skin colour is obviously not going to be a factor in itself though. It’s also worth remembering that regardless of how big a proportion of criminals are black, the vast majority of black people are not criminals. The US obsession with race above all else can only serve to mask any of those real issues, many of which will be entirely cross-racial while others may well be more relevant to some racial/social/cultural groups but for various reasons that would be worthy of more detailed consideration.

A long as you’re only talking about a percentage of blacks on one side and a percentage of whites on another (sometimes with a percentage of Hispanics in the middle), you’re not going to actually achieve anything.

radcen said:

Do blacks commit a disproportionate percentage of crimes in the US?

Some background stats and random unscientific observations and presumptions...

- In the 2010 census whites made up roughly 72.4% of the nation's overall population, black roughly 12.6% ( QuickFacts )

- I live in a medium-sized city where whites are roughly 88.0% of the overall population, blacks roughly 5.6%, again 2010 census.

Yet, and here's where the unscientific observations come in, when I watch the news and/or read the newspaper, and they cover local crime, the provided mugshots and stories are overwhelmingly about black people. I've never counted, but I would venture to guess in the 70%-ish range. That is highly disproportionate. When I lived on the west coast, which is much more diverse, the seemingly overwhelming disproportion was still evident, albeit probably not as drastic.

Anyway, this should cause some questions, such as...

1) Is this perception true and/or at least reasonably accurate?

2) If so, why is it true?

3) If not, why does it seem so?

4) If it's not technically true that blacks commit disproportionately more crime, but the observations are correct, does this mean the media is purposely choosing to portray only blacks as much as possible?

5) Is there some other factor as to either the disparity in crime rate (or lack of) and the public portrayal that is being missed and not talked about?

Click to expand...

They most certainly commit an ungodly number of the total murders...and, their victims are almost exclusively other blacks. It's a disgrace that more attention is not paid to this while the yammer of the day is "Black Lives Matter."

radcen said:

Do blacks commit a disproportionate percentage of crimes in the US?

Some background stats and random unscientific observations and presumptions...

- In the 2010 census whites made up roughly 72.4% of the nation's overall population, black roughly 12.6% ( QuickFacts )

- I live in a medium-sized city where whites are roughly 88.0% of the overall population, blacks roughly 5.6%, again 2010 census.

Yet, and here's where the unscientific observations come in, when I watch the news and/or read the newspaper, and they cover local crime, the provided mugshots and stories are overwhelmingly about black people. I've never counted, but I would venture to guess in the 70%-ish range. That is highly disproportionate. When I lived on the west coast, which is much more diverse, the seemingly overwhelming disproportion was still evident, albeit probably not as drastic.

Anyway, this should cause some questions, such as...

1) Is this perception true and/or at least reasonably accurate?

2) If so, why is it true?

3) If not, why does it seem so?

4) If it's not technically true that blacks commit disproportionately more crime, but the observations are correct, does this mean the media is purposely choosing to portray only blacks as much as possible?

5) Is there some other factor as to either the disparity in crime rate (or lack of) and the public portrayal that is being missed and not talked about?

Click to expand...

Blacks get arrested unproportionally for crimes while committing the same in percentage amount of crime.

Take drugs for instance:

poweRob said:

Blacks get arrested unproportionally for crimes while committing the same in percentage amount of crime.

Take drugs for instance:

When It Comes To Illegal Drug Use, White America Does The Crime, Black America Gets The Time​

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Do whites sell drugs on street corners and shoot up neighborhoods fighting over those corners? That may be one reason more blacks get arrested for selling drugs. Just a thought :roll:

calamity said:

Do whites sell drugs on street corners and shoot up neighborhoods fighting over those corners? That may be one reason more blacks get arrested for selling drugs. Just a thought :roll:

Click to expand...

Or you could actually read the article. :roll: