Do Black People Commit More Crimes Than Other Races?

A simple question, I think.

To get us started, here are some facts from the NAACP website, the veracity of which I have no reason to doubt, and will simply believe to be true / right / accurate:

Link: http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet

I see information that speaks to increasing incarceration rates, black people are incarcerated at a higher rate than their representative percentage of our citizens or admitted drug users, they get longer jail sentences (for some crimes) than whites, for those which involve drugs, and otherwise.

But I don't see the answer to my question: Do black people commit more crime than whites, or other races?

Is the fact that they are arrested and incarcerated at a rate above their representative numbers amongst our national populace the automatic result of racist beliefs / tendencies / practices?

If all of the racist practices, undertones, overt actions, and means of pure racially-based causation were magically reduced to zero (meaning, insignificant) - would our incarcerated population perfectly mirror our societal demographic (e.g. 55% whites, 15% blacks, etc.)? And if some disparity did remain - let's say that 60% of our incarcerated population were white - would that necessarily mean that 5% of that criminal justice system must then be racially biased against whites?

Why hasn't anyone asked this question, to this point? Isn't it an entirely reasonable and valuable one?

Take it any direction you may so wish to take it, if at all.

 

Yes

 

Can it be that simple?

What would be the implications if it were true, and that they did?

And if true, how come I don't ever hear anyone say it?

 

I can only speak for myself, but I personally don't want to spend time in jail/prison, so I try not to do things that would cause me to end up there. I think if more people lived the same way as me, more people would find themselves spending less time in jail. Can it be that simple?

 

Yes

No. And anybody who believes that is naive, stupid, or both, inter alia. And if they also believe that standardized tests are biased because black people perform more poorly on them than other races, then they are certainly a full blown retard. I mean, like an actual retarded person. Like they race against Corky from Life Goes On in the special olympics.

No.

I think they have, my friend.

 

I'm waiting on Un or IP to weigh in, hopefully, from a different angle.

 

I don't think it's racial, but a product of where you come from.

If all you see is crime and poverty, that's all you know

 

I do believe non-whites commit crimes at a higher percentage than whites. That said, I also believe that whites obviously commit a large percentage of crimes but the 'white' race as a whole is not held suspect for the actions of white criminals. On the other hand, when african-americans violate the law, society seems to hold all members of that race suspect. JMO.

 

yup. try dominating the verbal section of the SAT with this disadvantage.

http://literacy.rice.edu/thirty-million-word-gap

In other words, children from families on welfare heard about 616 words per hour, while those from working class families heard around 1,251 words per hour, and those from professional families heard roughly 2,153 words per hour.

This resulted in a gap of more than 32 million words by the time the children reached the age of 4.

 

Poor white kids raised by single teenage moms fail at an equal level to poor black kids raised by single teenage moms. It's not a coincidence that the "model minority" is at the bottom of the chart below.

 

This is what it boils down to, IMHO. It isn't that blacks are more prone to crime, it is just a byproduct of poverty, lack of a family structure for many young black men and inherently unfair drug laws.

 

Respectfully, I call all of this as being so much mush-mouth nonsense, and chicken-shit.

There hasn't been this much hemming and hawing since a hot Christian chick asked IP if he believed in God.

I'm not asking about why they may commit more crimes.

I'm not asking if whites also commit a great number of crimes.

I'm not asking if one black person is made to represent the totality of all black people, in the feeble minds of some.

I'm not asking if they commit more crime as a result of poverty, family structure or the alleged "unfairness" of drug laws.

I'm asking if black people actually commit more crime than whites, and other races, or not.

So, go again, from that starting point.

 

Probably so, but it's got a lot more to do with where they're from than skin color.

 

So, black people do actually commit more crimes, IYO.

Thank you.

Norris? Smokey?

 

I disagree with this. You start by saying blacks commit crimes at a higher percentage and then claim or at least imply that all blacks are held suspect for the crimes of some blacks for a reason other than said higher percentage.

 

Unfair to who? People in poverty or people of a certain race? And unfair why?

 

The racial discrepancy in standardized test scores is true even after controlling for income levels. There is SOOOOO much data on this. It's a 1 standard deviation gap. This is not KidB's opinion.

 

Of course. I don't think it is debatable.

 

Unfair to anyone that gets caught selling a few grams of pot three times and are incarcerated for the rest of their lives.

 

I agree with this. I by no means think that black people have a biological predilection to crime.

I'm simply answering Tenny's questions, which were: (a) do blacks commit a proportionately greater number of crimes and if so, can this be attributed to systemic institutional biases. My assertion is simply that they certainly do and at a rate much much higher than can be explained away by pinning it on institutional racism/bias.