Five Myths About Crime in Black America—and the Statistical Truths - COLORLINES

[MrScorpio]

In the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death, we’ve seen a lot of discussion of the larger societal issues that play into how and when people are perceived as criminals. There were hoodies, there were marches, and there were frank talks from parent to child about how to minimize the danger of being a young person of color. On the other side, there were justifications of George Zimmerman’s actions: a smear campaign against Martin’s character, and plenty of writers explaining that statistically, blacks are simply more dangerous to be around.

That framing ignores the realities behind the numbers. Here are five myths about crime and people of color.

—Shani O. Hilton

http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/04/crime_myths.html

[Odin2005]

1. Myth 4 is code for "blacks are mentally inferior".

It implies that black people are too stupid to control their impulses.

[Overseas]

2. K&R.

[andybinga]

3. The Statistical Truths

Like the 911 calls, Justice Department statistics are a click or two away. Click on the links below and it has links to the US Department of Justice and Census sites that proves all the stats are facts. The site listed by Shani actually lies about the statistics.

From 1976 to 2005 --94% of blacks are killed by other blacks.

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/race.cfm

Between 1976 and 2005, African-Americans, 12.6% of the population in the last census, committed 52.2% of all homicides.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/race.cfm#orace


That is, over the 30-year period, African-Americans committed murder at about 7.33 times the white rate. (Whites here include Hispanics.)

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/tables/oracetab.cfm

Of homicides committed by strangers, on average, 18.77% involved blacks killing whites, while in 5.08% of the cases, whites killed blacks. African-Americans were therefore nearly 3.7 times more likely to kill a white than a white to kill a black

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/tables/ovrelracetab.cfm

To provide some raw numbers, in 2005, the last year for which the DOJ statistics are available, 10,285 African-Americans committed murders. As 8.8% of these were "black on white," there were, assuming only one death per murderer, 905 whites killed, almost 2.5 per day. In the same year, again assuming one killing per perpetrator, 267 blacks were murdered by whites (3.2% of 8,350 killings).

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/tables/ovracetab.cfm

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/tables/oracetab.cfm#numbers

Crime is a young man's métier. The vast majority of the 52.2% of U.S. murders committed by African-Americans are the work of the roughly 2% of the population who are black males between the ages of 15 and 25.

Would these figures, courtesy of Eric Holder, surprise most Americans?

[MrScorpio]

4. Hey, I'm a black guy…

I know a lot of other black guys too…

Wanna have us over for lunch?

[patrice]

5. I don't think andybinga is saying the CAUSE of the difference between White & Black crime

statistics is race.

He's not saying, in this case, that being Black causes the higher incidence of murder that the numbers describe.

Statistics, by themselves, do not formulate cause and effect relationships. Statistics are used to count things and then organize the count, so that people can look at what people's experiences are.

In describing whatever is counted, sometimes co-relations manifest themselves. The data can sometimes show that changes in one thing that is counted, changes that can be either increase or decrease, can be accompanied by changes, increase or decrease, in something else that is counted. One type of change associated consistently with another type of change is called co-relation. Co-relation is not assumed to be a cause and effect relationship. Researchers are not saying that the changes are due to one thing causing changes in the other. They are not saying that being Black causes one to engage in violent crime and being "White" causes one to NOT engage in violent crime. Co-relation ONLY means that, because changes in one are associated with changes in the other, there MIGHT BE somekind of relationship between different sets of data and it is not assumed that that relationship is cause and effect.

To be able to hypothesize cause and effect, other, very different, kinds of research must be carried out, not just statistical co-relations and that kind of research may not actually be possible, because it may have to do with information that cannot be captured so that we can look at it, e.g. transient biochemical events.

One thing that is done about these kinds of research problems is to look for additional co-relational data. Look for other related factors in the experiences in question. It is often discovered that some OTHER factor(s) is more strongly related to the question. In the case of the kinds of statistics the DOJ has compiled here, I strongly suspect that at least two other factors, which may ALSO be co-related with race, things such as economic justice, or handicapped personal develop due to inappropriate education, are more strongly co-related with violent crime than race is.

Looking for other such factors CAN contribute to understanding, but as long as it reveals only co-relation that is not causation, iow, it's only description of the rates of change between things and it doesn't conclude that one of those things, being Black in this case, causes the other, violent crime.

[MrScorpio]

6. What do you think that Eric Holder crack was about?

Especially since the source data predates his term of office.

[patrice]

11. I didn't get where he was going with that closing question.

Supposed to look like an authentic question, but could imply he knew the answer, so it was rhetorical, although it IS unlikely that he did know what MOST Americans would think.

[Number23]

7. He can't hear or hurt you anymore.

[Zalatix]

10. A few footnotes to those statistical truths

http://truthinjustice.org/exoneration-study.htm

April 19, 2004

Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions

By ADAM LIPTAK
A comprehensive study of 328 criminal cases over the last 15 years in which the convicted person was exonerated suggests that there are thousands of innocent people in prison today.

Almost all the exonerations were in murder and rape cases, and that implies, according to the study, that many innocent people have been convicted of less serious crimes. But the study says they benefited neither from the intense scrutiny that murder cases tend to receive nor from the DNA evidence that can categorically establish the innocence of people convicted of rape.

Prosecutors, however, have questioned some of the methodology used in the study, which was prepared at the University of Michigan and supervised by a law professor there, Samuel R. Gross. They say that the number of exonerations is quite small when compared with the number of convictions during the 15-year period. About 2 million people are in American prisons and jails.

The study identified 199 murder exonerations, 73 of them in capital cases. It also found 120 rape exonerations. Only nine cases involved other crimes. In more than half of the cases, the defendants had been in prison for more than 10 years.

[limpyhobbler]

8. k+r

Thanks for posting this. There are so many misconceptions out there that contribute to an environment where stuff can happen like the Zimmerman and Trayvon.

[hfojvt]

9. not much of a debunking

As far as #1, from the 2001 SAUS (which I have a paper copy of and I still prefer a book to a link)

Homicide rate 1980 - white male 10.9, white female 3.2, black male 66.6, black female 13.5
1996 - white male 7.0, white female 2.5, black male 51.5, black female 10.2

that's a rate for victims, but since your link says that 94% of black victims are killed by other blacks, it is almost a measure of black on black homicide. A murder rate that is 6 to 7 times higher than a corresponding white on white rate certainly seems "uniquely bad". As in, it happens way too damned often.

Not sure how prevalent the other myths are. Who is it that says, or believes, the violent crime rate is increasing? And what does that general claim have to do with specifically black America? If there even is such a thing. My neighborhood, my city, seems pretty inter-racial, except in the churches. Perhaps not many white people going to Bethel AME.

As for #5, I do not doubt that most blacks are not committing crimes, but from the homicide rates, it seems likely that the crime rate really IS higher in the black community, but like the homicide rate, most of the victims of black crime are - other blacks.

And why shouldn't there be some pushback to the myth advanced by the murder of Martin, that black people are in a huge amount of danger from gun toting racists. Most white people are not gonna shoot a black person for no reason other than hate.

[limpyhobbler]

12. But there are still some real prejudices based on myths that affect access to equal justice.

And why shouldn't there be some pushback to the myth advanced by the murder of Martin, that black people are in a huge amount of danger from gun toting racists. Most white people are not gonna shoot a black person for no reason other than hate.

What's this myth that needs pushing back against? Who supposedly thinks or is promoting the idea that"black people are in a huge amount of danger from gun toting racists"?

The Trayvon controversy was amount multiple issues. Most importanly it was about unequal treatment of people of color by the criminal justice system. It's also about the presumption of guilt that Trayvon had to face, first from Zimmerman and then from the cops. And some common misconceptions about crime do help create an environment where stereotypes about black people as criminals can flourish.

A lot of people face George Zimmermans every day, who just don't happen to have a gun on them. They just treat you like a guilty criminal for no reason. Pull you over for no reason, folllow you around a store just in case you might be stealing. In some cities cops can stop you and search you for no reason. Smaller indigities like ladies clutching their purses at the sight of you. These are all related to negative stereotypes about criminal behavior.

Nobody thinks "black people are in a huge amount of danger from gun toting racists". That's not what the Trayvon controversy was about. It was primarily about equal justice under the law. And also about a social attitude, which affects the behavior of both private citizens and law enfocement, whereby people of color are presumed guilty.

In my opinion this info-graphic in the linked article was trying to take on some myths that contribute to the stereotype of black people as criminals, and it was not unsuccessful at doing that.