Black Men Commit Nearly Half of the Murders in the United States

Certainly statistically AA males commit a preponderance of violent crime, but it is not due to race. There is only a difference of less 0.1% of genes from "race" to "race"--about the same as the genetic differences from individual to individual. Humankind as a whole are actually a genetically homogeneous group and "race" is more a social construct than a genetic one.
Article on Genetics in "Nature"

So why is the rate of violent crime so much higher among AA males?
The answer is, as usual, multifactoral (many reasons and situations working at the same time).

You have a culture that idolizes violence and gang behavior. Males of other "races" that embrace such a culture also tend to have a higher crime rates. When one idolizes the criminal, the abusive, the misogynistic, they tend to act out all of these things.

We have high rates of poverty and illiteracy--especially in the inner cities.

We have a higher percentage of single family households without positive male role models often over several generations. Women have children by several absent fathers as their mother did before her and her mother's mother did before that. The family used to be the center of the AA culture and young men were used to be taught respect and law abiding behaviors, now they are pushed out into the street where the gang becomes their new family.

originally posted by: conspiracy nut
a reply to: grandmakdw

agree with most of this but want to add that higher quality education be made available to the children and parents.

i would be willing to bet the level and quality of education that people committing crimes have is terrible.

family life + quality of education = better job opportunities and less crime.

I don't necessarily agree with you about the quality of education.

The mothers do not see education as necessary to live the kind of life they
have lived for generations.
The school in our town that is next to the "projects" has a mentoring program with many people with PhD's and science and math based Master's degrees
The school and the teachers try very hard,
the principal is very involved -
However, the parents basically undermine efforts at educating the children because they don't see the value in an education.
When education is not necessary for "success in life" as defined in generational welfare,
then achieving academically is not valued
and the children who do succeed academically are belittled by the other children and even their mothers.

In my opinion, it all stems back to the cold hard fact that
success as defined in the "projects"
is not based on academics
is not based on a work ethic (because no one is required to work any longer)
is hostile to the male and does not want adult males in the home
which marginalizes the adult males and leaves them two choices
a life of crime in which one might attain the "things" one desires
or a lifetime of poverty because of being sorely undereducated due to mothers who "diss" the importance of education
and a social circle that berates the academically successful male.

The educational opportunities are there, at least in my community,
it is the collective multi-generational mindset that discourages any sort of
achievement in academics, the work world, or in society outside of the
"projects" circle, they are berated as being uppity and betraying their brothers,
and as thinking they are too good to be with their "kin"

Why because to be accepted into the society of the "projects" success is defined
as having a child so one can be on welfare.

Success for the adult male in that society depends largely on bragging rights
as to how many baby mama's they have, not taking responsibility for the children
or even actually being a father in any meaningful way. Actually the current governmental
system encourages this type of behavior in men the way it is set up and has
run for generations.

originally posted by: NavyDoc
Certainly statistically AA males commit a preponderance of violent crime, but it is not due to race. There is only a difference of less 0.1% of genes from "race" to "race"--about the same as the genetic differences from individual to individual. Humankind as a whole are actually a genetically homogeneous group and "race" is more a social construct than a genetic one.
Article on Genetics in "Nature"

So why is the rate of violent crime so much higher among AA males?
The answer is, as usual, multifactoral (many reasons and situations working at the same time).

You have a culture that idolizes violence and gang behavior. Males of other "races" that embrace such a culture also tend to have a higher crime rates. When one idolizes the criminal, the abusive, the misogynistic, they tend to act out all of these things.

We have high rates of poverty and illiteracy--especially in the inner cities.

We have a higher percentage of single family households without positive male role models often over several generations. Women have children by several absent fathers as their mother did before her and her mother's mother did before that. The family used to be the center of the AA culture and young men were used to be taught respect and law abiding behaviors, now they are pushed out into the street where the gang becomes their new family.

You are right, and further as I said in earlier posts.

It is a direct result of policies set forth by the Democratic Party in the way welfare was set up, shortly after slavery when many blacks were in dire poverty.
Then Obama removed all incentive in the welfare program for women to better themselves through education or work, out of misguided paternalistic pity. (see my previous posts)

originally posted by: Gryphon66
All data points are important in anything approaching a real understanding of statistical analysis.

The greater the focus on one aspect of the data (like race, age, sex, homelife, etc.) the more likely the conclusion is skewed.

As we've seen here.

Indeed, we need to understand as many parameters that impact the situation as possible in order to make proactive and productive changes to combat the trends we've been discussing,

Yet, a compelling suggestion is that the tendency toward committing most but not all violent crimes can also be directly and profoundly affected by economic status particularly when that status is below the poverty line both in child home life and as adults.

Sources:

Inequality and Violent Crime - World Bank Report

Poverty, Income Inequality, and Violent Crime: A Meta-Analysis of Recent Aggregate Data Studies - The Criminal Justice Review


Recent studies and trends have currently demonstrated that the connection of single parent households, particularly single-mother households are not as significant indicators as they were once thought to be.

Sources that specifically address the notion that single mother families are a primary determinant in crime and violent crime:

Single Mothers Now off the Hook for Crime Wave! - Mother Jones

Single Moms Can't Be Scapegoated for the Murder Rate Anymore - The Atlantic

Sources: Crime data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, family structure from the US Census Bureau.

I invite any to read the sources and review the data and conclusions for themselves. Also, rather than attempt to dismiss evidence based on political bias alone, perhaps we should consider the sources of the actual DATA first (rather than the messengers.)

EDIT: Yes, I understand the need to take my own medicine on the last statement.

I appreciate the graph and your effort to make a logical response. However, the decline in violent crime does not necessarily negate the correlation with single mothers. The correlation is pretty clear from the graph. However, there could be other factors that are helping to reduce the number of violent crimes IN SPITE of the high number of single mothers.

Maybe trauma medicine is better. Maybe we've locked up more criminals. Maybe abortion as claimed by Freakonomics. Maybe less gun control. Maybe basic community awareness and intervention? Maybe it is a stronger economy.

Regardless, even with the decline in crime overall, there is still a huge amount of violent crime in the black community. I'm in Chicago and young black males are killing each other at higher rates than soldiers in war zones. It is a travesty. I stand by my position that broken homes is still the most influential variable.

a reply to: grandmakdw

higher quality education needs to be across the board, across the u.s. not just in good neighborhoods, and i'm not talking about programs i'm talking about entire schools. schools in bad neighborhoods have 1 teacher to 40 students. i don't think the changes will happen overnight in fact it might take generations for education to reverse the cycle. the tendency to make fun of education and glorify gangster culure is part of the cycle that needs to be reversed.

a reply to: Edumakated

Yep. Correlation does not prove connection or causation. Given.

I can appreciate your understanding of the issue and the restatement of your opinion.

However, as you point out, there are a multitude of possibilities here because there is no ONE right ANSWER.

I live in Atlanta. We certainly have our share of violence, though, thankfully for us woefully for you, nothing like Chicago. I see families everyday that are and have been single parent as well as having both parents, or grandparents, or other configurations. When the household has to run on not much money, there are more problems, some of which become criminal.

Economic status makes more sense to me because as I look across the spectrum of crimes, what I see repeatedly is either monetary need or greed at the base of so many.

Doesn't the Bible say that the love of money is the root of all evil?

I'm certainly not offering that as evidence, but, it's worth thinking about.

EDIT: Thanks again for your even-handed response; much appreciated.

a reply to: grandmakdw

Horsefeathers.

Welfare hasn't worked the way you're implying in almost 20 years. (See previous posts.)

Obama hasn't removed anything, anywhere. (See previous posts.)

You're just repeating ideology. (Sigh.)

a reply to: Gryphon66

This is where we disagree: and I know you will hate this source: sorry, but I respect it.

Work requirements formed the foundation of the welfare reform law of 1996. However, in July, the Obama Administration issued a directive declaring that states no longer need comply with the law’s work standards. Contrary to media reports, the Obama Administration is not merely “tweaking” the law’s workfare system. Rather, HHS explicitly asserts that it will lower the number of recipients who are required to work or, even worse, allow states to bypass the law’s work requirements entirely. The Administration is turning welfare reform on its head by jettisoning the legislative goal of reducing welfare caseloads. Under the Administration’s new welfare performance standard, the pre-reform welfare system is judged a rousing success and the 1996 welfare reform is a failure.

During the four decades that preceded the 1996 welfare reform, the AFDC caseload never experienced a substantial decrease. However, within just a few years of TANF’s implementation, the caseload was cut in half, and employment rates and earnings among single mothers soared.[1] Child poverty rates declined significantly. Roughly 3 million fewer children lived in poverty in 2003 than in 1995, including 1.2 million fewer black children, marking the lowest level of black child poverty in the nation’s history.[2]

Contrary to press reports, the Obama Administration did not merely “tweak” the law’s workfare system. The proposed changes are not temporary responses to the current recession; they constitute a permanent long-term change in the TANF program. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asserts that it has authority to “waive compliance” with every provision in Section 407, which means all of the work rules in the TANF law.[4] The Obama Administration is planning to fundamentally change the TANF work rules in two ways: First, in its July 12 guidance memorandum, HHS clearly states that it is empowered to change the “definitions of work activities, and engagement, specified limitations, verification procedures and the calculation of participation rates.”[5] HHS is proposing to alter the core elements of the TANF work rules by lowering the work participation rates and the hours of required participation and by broadening the definitions of work. Second—and more radically—HHS proposes to permit states to bypass the TANF work rules of Section 407 entirely and operate under alternative standards devised unilaterally by HHS without consultation with or approval from Congress. HHS clearly explains that its aim is to develop policies and welfare rules “other than those set forth in Section 407.”[6]

2005 Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of 10 states, which found that several states had sought to skirt the federal work requirements by counting welfare recipients as working if they engaged in activities such as “personal journaling,” “motivational reading,” “exercise at home,” “weight loss promotion,” and “helping a friend or relative with household tasks.”[25]

In the 10 years prior to welfare reform (1986–1995), the number of employment exits nearly doubled, and the AFDC caseload increased by almost 30 percent. In the 10 years after welfare reform (1997–2006), the TANF caseload fell by 50 percent, and the number of employment exits fell by 7 percent. Because employment exits are inherently misleading, Congress deliberately excluded them as a performance standard when crafting the 1996 welfare reform law. The Obama Administration is reviving this bogus measure and plans to focus the TANF program around it.[32] According to the Administration’s preferred measure of welfare performance, the pre-reform AFDC system was a stunning success (employment exits nearly doubled), and the post-reform TANF program was a failure (employment exits declined). President Barack Obama has not merely gutted welfare reform; he has turned it on its head.

Now the Obama Administration is seeking to make employment exits the central performance standard of a radically revised TANF program. Paradoxically, by this standard, the pre-reform AFDC program was a stunning success: Employment exits nearly doubled in the decade before reform and caseloads increased by a third. By the same deceptive standard, the post-reform TANF program has been a decided failure: Both exits and caseloads have fallen.

www.heritage.org...

I personally saw the success of welfare reform in my classrooms and now the requirement can be met by personal journaling or trying to lose weight, what a joke.

originally posted by: Gryphon66
a reply to: grandmakdw

Horsefeathers.

Welfare hasn't worked the way you're implying in almost 20 years. (See previous posts.)

Obama hasn't removed anything, anywhere. (See previous posts.)

You're just repeating ideology. (Sigh.)

Also, Obama has consistently claimed the economy has improved since he took office in 2008.

Yet federal spending on welfare has gone nationally from below $600 billion a year to over $800 billion a year during his tenure.
www.budget.senate.gov...

In 2009 approximately 97 million people were on welfare in the US, by 2012 that had risen to over 106 million on welfare.
www.wealthdaily.com...

originally posted by: Gryphon66
a reply to: Edumakated

Yep. Correlation does not prove connection or causation. Given.

I can appreciate your understanding of the issue and the restatement of your opinion.

However, as you point out, there are a multitude of possibilities here because there is no ONE right ANSWER.

I live in Atlanta. We certainly have our share of violence, though, thankfully for us woefully for you, nothing like Chicago. I see families everyday that are and have been single parent as well as having both parents, or grandparents, or other configurations. When the household has to run on not much money, there are more problems, some of which become criminal.

Economic status makes more sense to me because as I look across the spectrum of crimes, what I see repeatedly is either monetary need or greed at the base of so many.

Doesn't the Bible say that the love of money is the root of all evil?

I'm certainly not offering that as evidence, but, it's worth thinking about.

EDIT: Thanks again for your even-handed response; much appreciated.

Here is why I blame single mothers. All the other ills stem from it both directly and indirectly. For example, a lot of people try to blame poverty. If you look at the data, something like 40% of single mothers are in poverty whereas less than 10% of married couples are below poverty line. Simply not having kids out of wedlock removes the poverty component for most people.

I see it everyday in my hood where these teen girls or young adults (early 20s) get knocked up by their boyfriends. It basically straps them from being able to complete school, move up in the work place, etc. At first, the guy hangs around, but eventually the relationship falls apart. The mother moves to an impoverished area and her kids basically get raised by the streets as there are no positive male figure to be found. It takes a special woman to be able to raise a kid successfully in these environments and unfortunately, 95% of these hoodrats aren't special. This culture of baby mama's is an EPIDEMIC in the black community. No community can survive with 35 year old grandmothers.

Black people have always been poor, however, we did not have the same level of dysfunction affecting us 50 years ago. This is why you can't blame poverty. The difference was families were intact. You also cannot blame racism because if it were racism, you would have seen the same pathologies when segregation was the law of the land, but you didn't.

Jason Riley, an editor at the WSJ (I think it is called "Please Stop Helping Us"), has a book out now exploring this very issue how liberal policies have literally destroyed the black community. It has been covered extensively by Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, and other black conservatives as well.

By the way, I'm a native Atlantan. Morehouse College grad too.

a reply to: Edumakated

both male and female are at fault, it takes two to tango. both sides need to practice safe sex.

a reply to: Edumakated

You graduated from a fine university and still live in the hood?

Move away, move away as fast as you can. You deserve it. Move to the good part of town. Make yourself known. Move into "whiteys" neighborhood. Assimalate yourself. Be part of your city and not just be part of a neighborhood.

Get down and go for yours. Make them accept you.

Stop keeping it "real".

Because your actions keep your people " real dumb".

originally posted by: Foderalover
Wow I never knew this, I just happened to see it . On top of being responsible for nearly half of the murders in the US, black men only make up 12-13% of the population, could it get any worse ? *SNIP*
blogs.channel4.com...

Mod Edit: Snipped Snide Staff Jab

What's the point of this post though?

You don't put any context in here. Is it that the court system is corrupt and that black people are more likely to be convicted? Or are you saying that most black people are evil? Are you saying there is a problem with our inner cities irregardless of race? Are you telling me to be paranoid when I see two guys walking down the street and to get away from teh black guy because he's more likely to kill me?

Do continue.

a reply to: Edumakated

Atlanta and Memphis are not that much different-problem wise.

And-at least in the case of Memphis-we have one of the most expensive (to taxpayers) school systems in the country but at the same time have some of the lowest grad rates in the country.

About half of the female students in one of our almost all black middle schools got pregnant at around the same time and it was quickly swept under the rug so it wouldn't point out the failure of the board and parents.

Another reason it was hushed so quickly was that there were obviously quite a few black teachers involved.

That is what liberalism has done to our cities-awarding stupidity/criminals and shunning personal responsibility.

Frankly, we seem to be doing little more at this point than circling the drains of our respective opinions.

Let's assume for the moment that government policies that were intended to help have caused more harm than good.

Let's assume for the moment that Republicans gain unstoppable control of the Government in the next election.

What is the solution for Black America?

a reply to: Edumakated

Yeah, I've read Riley's book; some good points, seems one-sided overall.

Morehouse huh? West Georgia and Tech here. Atlantan born and bred.

My partner is finishing up at Emory.

I hear what you're saying, I can't dispute what you're saying, except to say that I think there's more to it, and I don't think the solution is just to pull the safety net out from everyone at once.

originally posted by: Gryphon66
a reply to: Edumakated

Yeah, I've read Riley's book; some good points, seems one-sided overall.

Morehouse huh? West Georgia and Tech here. Atlantan born and bred.

My partner is finishing up at Emory.

I hear what you're saying, I can't dispute what you're saying, except to say that I think there's more to it, and I don't think the solution is just to pull the safety net out from everyone at once.

There is a lot to it no doubt. I don't claim all the answers. However, I do believe that any "solution" has to start first with personal responsibility which is the one thing that is missing today. Until the black community is willing to acknowledge it is in fact phucked up and no is responsible for its current state except black folks, then I don't think any progress will ever be made.

All I know is that we are now two or three generations deep into this dysfunction. It will not be fixed over night.

a reply to: Foderalover

Murder is murder we know that, now think for a second, who really was one from the beginning and who probably has the record for worldwide murder stats, I mean we can find a statistic for any sort of political purpose, both for vilification and unfortunately to justify actions of any given group who are the highest percentage committing an action or crime, so its just like white collar and blue collar crime, some use the constructs of commerce to steal and rob the unknowing blind using stealth methods.

While the up close and personal thief are the ones that generally are exposed, for their petty crimes and theft, when the educated or stealthy criminals can steal millions or even billions and rob even taxpayers of their hard earned money..... well I believe statistics have two sides, just like every story does... so I can't ooh and ah over this OP post... chickens always come home to roost, we also know that....

Now the more controversial are the usage of the constructs of war, war fighting under cause that in many cases are under false pretenses, truly if you look at some of the atrocities attributed to this policy, these statics become dwarfed and meaningless, that unless you have some point to attempt try and prove without regard to correlation of the facts and history, when I say history, I mean genocidal actions by those who are not blacks throughout history, the culture killers are who I speak of, the one that will use economic output from all, then choose to make weaponry that is highly effective in administering much more effective and large scale murder, especially if the wars being fought are under false pretenses or motives.

I respect those who ponder over statistics, but I have an even greater respect for those that can see past those very numbers and recognize real truths that time should never forget, but only because of the classification of what is "Good", "Evil" or "Righteous" are the prosecution of war, anti humanity and murder given an excuse to occur, and be statistically swept under the rug, when people pull these demographic slices out of the pie and actually think that they can convince someone, that group are killers, are violent or at the top of the chain when it comes to the object of the statistics being presented.

Just my thoughts

I would like someone to dig up some lifetime statistics for murder, when I say lifetime, I mean from the beginning as the starting point.

a reply to: Edumakated

. Until the black community is willing to acknowledge it is in fact phucked up and no is responsible for its current state except black folks, then I don't think any progress will ever be made.

Which Black community are you talking about.
FORT WASHINGTON, MD.
MITCHELLVILLE, MD.
BOWIE, MD.
LADERA HEIGHTS, CALIF
HILLCREST, N.Y.
ELMONT, N.Y.
WHEATLEY HEIGHTS, N.Y.
OLYMPIA FIELDS, ILL.
I could go on and on and on!!!!
but do folks from the average White community feel they need to fix poor or dysfunctional white folks from Kentucky,Alabama etc or is this an American problem that need fixing, listen Black folks can do this and to some extent there are folks out there doing something about it, but I have the feeling that they will then get bitched at for being inward looking and racially chauvinistic concerned with AAs only issues, right here on ATS I had folks being appalled that "Blacks" had their own or what is known as HBCUs or organizations dedicated to promote AA group up-liftment or advocacy.

Are not Hispanics included with Caucasians in Federal Crime Stats? I know they were a few years ago. Last time I had to go digging for data was probably 2010 / 2011. For some reason Hispanic violent crime was lumped in with whites.

This would inflate the white crime numbers obviously, and be favorable to the detractors of the OP's claim.

This may no longer be the case, and if so I am sure someone will point me in the right direction.

If this is still the way data is being congealed, then the OP's original stance is even more supported. It's also where the term "white hispanic" comes from, which many heard for the first time in the Zimmerman case.

I only have one dog in the hunt, and it's truth