Violent Crime - Racial Differences In Murder

Rates of Violent Victimization by Race, 1973-2001

"A central problem — perhaps the central problem — in improving the relationship between white and black America is the difference in racial crime rates." So begins a thorough and sobering paper by Dr. James Q. Wilson on the existence of large crime rate differentials in the white and black populations of the United States⁹.

The graph charts violent crime victimization¹⁰ rates (per 1,000 age 12 or older) for whites and blacks. Also shown are homicide offender and victimization rates (per 100,000 population). Rates for the two races differ greatly. Over the period 1973 through 2001, blacks were almost twice as likely as whites of being the victims of a violent crime.

When the specific crime of murder is segregated from all violent crimes, the picture becomes even more disparate. On average, over the period presented, blacks were 6.3 times more likely to be murdered than whites and they were 7.7 times as likely to be arrested for murder. These figures represent a tremendous disparity. According to Dr. Wilson it is this difference that has done more to impeded racial amity than any other one factor.

The reasons for the higher rates of criminal activity in the African American community are complex — as are so many subjects that rest on an analysis of social structures. Throughout history, poor enclaves have tended to be areas in which the social structures that support a community are weaker than in other areas. There are many indicators of a weakened social structure. The presence of any one indicator does not necessarily signify weakness. The presence of several such indicators does, however, suggest that a community is in trouble. The following table lists a few such indicators and provides related data on the white and black populations in the United States.

Selected Social Indicators of a Weakened Social Structure

The term "rough neighborhood" does not refer to a rich enclave with a rocky terrain. It means a rough, tough neighborhood where it is hard to make ends meet. These places are usually crowded, densely settled, and frictions ignite into conflict easier. Such neighborhoods, historically, have had high rates of crime. Large proportions of African Americans live in such neighborhoods. Therefore, the black crime rate reflects this reality. The crime rate is not a black phenomenon so much as a broad indicator of social distress.

The white population has "rough" neighborhoods as well, with equally high crime rates, but detailed statistics to track these are not available. The much better-off white major-ity's statistics absorb such data and hide them.

Nonetheless, the disparity between black arrest rates and victimization and the white rates tends to focus the discussion on race when more may be gained by viewing the crime rates as an indicator of a community's overall wellbeing. Policies designed to combat the poor health of a community may have just as salutary an impact on crime rates as policies designed to increase aggressive law enforcement measures.

The late 1990s saw a time of economic expansion great enough to reach the lowest levels of society. Unemployment rates dropped to 20-year lows. Crime rates dropped sharply, especially among blacks. The mid-1990s also saw a rising awareness within black leadership circles of the social cost associated with the deterioration of the family structure. In the 1990s, research came out showing that failed marriages and poor single-parent families produce extremely high social costs, one of these being higher rates of crime, especially crime perpetrated by youths.

There may be reason for optimism. The declining crime rate has already reduced the differential between the black crime rate and the white crime rate and if the underlying ills of the communities involved can be addressed, this may establish a new trend. Such a trend would be helpful in improving relations between white and black Americans.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Homicide Trends in the United States, based on data from the National Crime Victimization Survey and the Uniform Crime Reports series, March 2001, available online at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/homtrnd.htm. The quote from Dr. James Q. Wilson is from Thernstrom, Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom, Beyond the Color Line: New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity in America, Hoover Institution Press, January 2002, p. 115. Educational attainment figures are from the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2001, "Educational Attainment of Persons 25 Years Old and Over, by State and Race/Ethnicity: April 1990," available online at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/digest2001/tables/dt012.asp. Figures on maternal mortality are from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health, United States, 2001, available online at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hus/tables/2001/01hus044.pdf Data on high school dropout rates are from the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Dropout Rates in the United States: 2000, available online at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/pubs2002/droppub_2001/. Unemployment rates are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Household Data Not Seasonally Adjusted, Quarterly Averages, "Unemployment Rates by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin," available online at http://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.cpseed17.txt.