Black people commit 5 times more crime than white people?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070718/ap_on_re_us/prisons_racial_disparity

This says that black people are imprisoned at 5 time the rate of white people. Which, to me means that they commit 5 times more crime, right?

Not according to this guy. According to this guy, it is simply because America is racist, and we unfairly put more black people in jail.

In other words, the very violent inner city, which is predominately black, is no more dangerous than the mainly white suburbs, correct?

Am I the only one that finds this idiotic?

Answer 1

To end up in jail, you have to be caught, accused, convicted, and sentenced to serve time.

You do not actually have to be guilty, but it probably increases your chances of ending up in jail substantially if you are.


Blacks may not actually commit 5 times more crimes, yet still end up in jail at 5 times the rate for a number of reasons. For instance, whites could commit just as many crimes, but fewer crimes that carry jail sentences - or even that carry /shorter/ jail sentences, because how long you're in definitely impacts your contribution to the 'jail population.' There are also other factors than race that affect criminal behavior. If you compared only very poor blacks to very poor whites, you might find less of a disparity in rates of incarceration, for instance.

So there are a lot of factors that could cause the difference mentioned - beyond just race or racism.

Answer 2

Black people have not evolved differently from other races. We are all the same. Black people don't commit crimes any more than any other nationality but they do get more attention for the crimes. When a Black person robs a store or shots someone it gets more attention than when a White person does the same exact thing. It doesn't mean that they are commiting the crimes any more than the next race, it just means that Black crimes are shown on the media before a crime commited by someone else.

Answer 3

Ive seen black people that move out of the inner city and lead decent lives. Unfortunately many blacks are held hostage by their own people. When do we ever hear rappers celebrating things like college, education, living for God, examining your soul? No, its all about women, money, drugs, violence, and pride.

Im not saying black culture is a culture of corruption. But there is certainly a corrupted presence within the black culture that is holding them back. The youth are hypnotized by the worldly messages of fame andf fortune. And the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons crying about inequality but they themselves promoting injustice in many ways.

Until there are more voices rising up like Martin Luther King preaching responsibility, this kind of thing is going to go on.

Answer 4

I'm sure that is correct but other fators apply such as poverty and education. Lots of these criminals are poor and uneducated. I doubt you would find an educated person of any color commiting crime. The main stem of this problem is not about race it is about education which reflects on parents. When people cry racism because 5x more blacks are in jail it is ridiculous because even though I'm sure there are racist cops and maybe judges the majority of the people commiting the crimes are ignorant and poor.
Edit: What I meant to say was I doubt some of these people would commit certain crimes if they were educated and had jobs.

Answer 5

Well as a person who's been on the other side of the racial profiling, it's not that idiotic. I've been put on the side of the police car just for meeting a "description". That description was "A black male between 16 and 25". Notice no height, weight, light skinned, dark skinned, distinguishing marks are listed. That description given to me by the LA county Sheriff matched myself and both of my older brothers, a med student and a rookie police officer.

Frankly, when I was younger I was targeted. You may not want to believe that but it happens but it does. I never did anything wrong honor roll students usually don't do anything wrong but that didn't stop the sheriff from trying to dig something up.

Answer 6

That is soooooooo messed up! White people commit crimes JUST AS MUCH as blacks or any other group. The only thing is whites are smarter at not getting caught lol(or have friends to help them out i.e Scooter Libbey) This self righteous bullcrap is terrible! I haven't heard of a race yet better than another. Let's just be real! You all steal money in high corporate offices, bomb people, rape/murder, grow weed in the back of your SUBURBAN homes, and do all kinds of twisted stuff just like everyone else. I've grown up in the burbs ALL MY LIFE and known white people to do some crazy stuff and just flat out get away with it. Now I can't say the stuff African Americans do is right ( for the one's rightfully accused) and I definately won't excuse the ignorance of some of my people, but you all would be even bigger fools to assume you are less of criminals lol. I laugh at that! White man will hire someone to kill you, black man will just walk up to you and kill you...both murderers...one just better at not getting caught and/or will get caught in 15 years after they dig up the bones they found in his backyard....TAKE THAT TO THE BANK! you know it's true.

Answer 7

Black people take up I believe roughly 10% of the USA population, and they "commit five times more crime than white people?" I'm no statistician but that seems pretty unbelievable. It's an obvious sign of the needs for major social reforms.

Answer 8

The rate at which blacks are imprisoned does not reflect 1) all crimes; 2) rates of criminal activity...

It more accurately reflects how successful minorities are at securing an adequate defense.

Further, non-minorities commit a disproportionate number of crimes that may be resolved by fines, probation, etc...

Answer 9

This is related to many of the points I try to make on this site. You see, first of all, racism does exist today, but it isn't the cause of more than 1% of blacks' problems.

I am against welfare in its current for because it only adds to the problem.

Black America is in trouble... but although it isn't racism today that is the culprit, a lot of it is racism of yesterday. But you see, my problem is that right there, people close their eyes and ears. They don't want to hear the logic behind my theory. This is what I hate. People who have their opinions but will not even think about changing it no matter what anyone says.

You can blame it on whatever you want, but the fact of the matter is without education, without good parenting, without at least 2 square meals a day, very few people will make it out of poverty regardless of the past.

You add that to the past, and all of the bad influences around them and very few good ones, and these numbers don't shock you, they just make you feel sad for these people, those that are born with absolutely no chance at ever doing something to benefit mankind. They are only capable of hurting it with the conditions they grow up in.

Can someone please tell me why I get thumbs down for the above? What part of this can you argue with?

Whatever, you know my father wasn't allowed to go into the library while getting his PhD? His father wasn't allowed to go into a bank to ask for a loan and whites weren't allowed to hire blacks back then either. You want to know where the crime with blacks originated? Out of necessity. And with all the fatherless blacks out there today, mixed with no education, positive lineage, or crime all around them, it isn't going to change any time soon.

Answer 10

Why the hell are we even looking to see who did more crimes? Whether you are white black green or purple if you commit a crime you commit the crime it is not racist