Debunking the "Four Cities" Murder Myth

Gun Watch ^ | 30 September, 2013 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

 

Urban decay in Detroit from Imgur 

There is an urban myth floating around the Internet under some variation of the  the title:   The United States is ranked 3rd in Murders throughout the World. But, if you remove just 4 cities from the statistics :

The United States is 3rd in

murders throughout the

world.

But if you take out Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC and New Orleans, the United States is 4th from the

bottom for

murders.

These 4

cities also have the toughest

gun

control

laws in the United States.

This tell you anything?

PS: These cities are also run by DEMOCRATS! Imagine that.

The assertions in the above sound plausible, but they are false.  The United States is not "3rd in murders throughout the world."   This list, though incomplete, shows that their are dozens of countries with intentional homicide rates much higher than the United States, including Russia, Jamaica, South Africa, Brazil,  Ukraine, Latvia, Georgia, and many others.

The crime rate has been dropping in the United States, so the numbers should be even lower now, but looking at the numbers for 2011 shows these numbers of murders in the four cities mentioned:

Chicago murders, 2011 - 431  (The numbers moved up in 2012 to 532)

Detroit murders 2011 - 344

Washington D.C. murders, 2011 - 108

 New Orleans murders 2011 - 200

While Chicago murders are up about a hundred in 2012, it does not make a large difference in the analysis.   The four cities listed have a total of 1,083 murders in 2011.   Total murders for 2011 in the United States were 14,612.  The 1,083 is only 7.4% of the total.  This is not enough of a change to move the position of the  United States international standing on the rate of murder very much, let along from the mythical "third from the top" to the equally mythical "4th from the bottom".

As with many myths, there is a kernel of truth in the underlying idea.  If you remove the subcultures from the United States that do not originate in Europe, and have no significant numbers in Europe (African American and American Hispanics) the murder rate for the United States falls into the middle of European murder rates.

  ©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

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[Titus-Maximus]

Take the top 25 urban areas out of the numbers, and see where they fall.

[marktwain]

The top 25 would be an interesting exercise.

The FBI has the data. You could do it in a day or two if you like.

But we already know the answer that a very small demographic group commits most of the crime in this country.

[PapaBear3625]

Why am I not at all surprised that there are "no significant numbers" of African Americans and American Hispanics in EUROPE?!?!?!

The increased number of Muslim immigrants will soon get the European murder rates up.

[Mr Rogers]

In 2014, there were 11,961 murders. 5397 were white, and 31% of the victims were female. 6095 were black, and 14% of those were female. 93% of blacks were killed by other blacks.

At a minimum, then, if you remove blacks being killed, the US murder rate would drop in half.

Another statistic, from Chicago - in the two years where I saw the data, 70% of the VICTIMS had criminal records.

In 2013, where race of the offender was known, it was 4396 white and 5375 black. White include hispanics, and hispanics counted for 28% of the non-black offenders.

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_3_murder_offenders_by_age_sex_and_race_2013.xls

[marktwain]

There are credible numbers that 25% of all murders in the U.S. are committed by illegal aliens.

They are difficult to come by, but are derived from the number of illegal aliens in prisons for homicide.

[Roccus]

Evidently you totally missed the the implication of that line. Maybe this will help.

Why am I not at all surprised that there are "no significant numbers" of African Americans and American Hispanics in EUROPE?!?!?!

Now go back to the last line of my original reply and it may make sense to you.