I'm sure many readers are aware that there are far more African-American males in prison, in proportion to the size of the African-American population in the USA, than there are males of other races. Many on the left routinely blame this on racism, whether personal or institutional.
Fortunately, we can move past the 'politically correct' shenanigans of racial apologists and examine the raw numbers - which tell a different story. Witness, for example, the FBI's 'Bank Crime Statistics' for 2010. Here's a screenshot taken directly from the FBI Web page.
Telling, isn't it? According to the US Census Bureau, in 2010 African-Americans made up only 12.6% of the US population, compared to 72.4% that was White. However, according to the FBI's figures above, the two races committed roughly equal amounts of bank crime - 39.70% of the 6,753 persons identified were White, and 40.54% were Black. Clearly, the proportion of criminals among the US Black population is significantly higher than it is among the White population. (This same correlation is borne out in other areas of crime as well.)
Let me say, before I continue, that I'm not racist in the least - those of you who've read my accounts of the apartheid era in South Africa will know that - and I don't write this blog post from a racist perspective. However, we're never going to get to the bottom of problems like this unless and until we confront them head-on: and the strident cries of "RAAAA-cism!" from the left when they're confronted with these figures have obscured a very important question - namely, why is there such a disparity? I would have thought that we as a nation would be much better served by identifying the factors that produce criminals in each community or race group, and working to alleviate those that are susceptible to improvement, rather than tippy-toeing around a controversial subject. However, that approach is clearly not 'politically correct' enough to warrant serious attention. (I have little doubt that racial discrimination and related factors have played, and may continue to play, a part in the problem; but I emphatically disagree that they're the primary reason for the problem. Sadly, because of the stultifying effect of political correctness on institutions and individual researchers, we're no closer to identifying the true reasons for this phenomenon.)
It's also clear that political correctness has blinded many researchers to basic, simple logic. While I was working as a prison chaplain, I lost count of the number of people - including sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and other clergy - who alleged to my face that, apart from racism, inner-city poverty and slum conditions were largely responsible for the preponderance of Black criminals. When I pointed out that those same conditions had produced vastly more Black people who were not criminals, and that therefore the conditions under which they lived clearly could not be primarily responsible for the crime situation, they just didn't want to know . . .
*Sigh*
Peter
5 comments:
Peter,
I hardily agree with your analysis of the facts. It is a fair and balanced look at solid statistics.
However,
When factoring in the P.C. you are left with the old trite adage: "Trying to piss up a rope will only result in severe burns to the cornea resulting from contact with concentrated ureic acid".
Toejam
The problem is that people keep looking at it as a race problem; it is a cultural problem, and should be dealt with on that basis.
First off I'd like to say that I'm a big fan of your blog and enjoy your writing style.
You're right, screaming racism as the cause of the higher per capita incidence of incarceration in the black community is stupid and holds no water. However, in your dismissing of the effects of slum conditions and poverty with regards to crime, I think you've erred. Poverty may not be the direct cause of crime, but it would be foolish to overlook the other risk factors that poverty indicates: lack of education, underemployment, lack of opportunity, absentee parents, etc. I think the real problem on both sides of the argument, liberals and conservatives both, is that each side is looking for the magic single indicator of the disease that is crime, but it's less a case of x=y and more of risk factors having a cumulative effect and eventually it reaches a tipping point. BobG made a good point that it's a cultural problem, but I would like to elaborate. In the last 35 years or so, the model of law enforcement has changed to a decidedly more punitive crime control perspective and with it, incarceration and crime in impoverished communities has become normalized. I feel that you would at the very least find Todd R. Clear's book Imprisoning Communities to be an interesting perspective on an otherwise cloudy issue. I apologize if I'm out of line and have overstepped the boundaries of semi-anonymous blog reader.
@Neil P: Not at all! Intelligent comments, even if they disagree with my perspective, are always welcome. I'll look for that book. I'm always open to becoming better informed.
Ann Coulter opines that when the factor of having a single parent is worked into the numbers, the percentages straighten out to reflect actual racial demographics.
I don't hake the skilz or time to do the work, but it sure seems like there is a higher percentage of black men raised by a single mom than in the white population.
Daddies ARE important!
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