Review: The Color of Crime, 2016

Gun Watch ^ | 13 April, 2016 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Image courtesy of The Color of Crime

When I was doing research on homicide rates and attempting to determine what the primary factors were that resulted in varying homicide rates between states and nations, I came across the 2005 version of The Color of Crime.  The study looks at crime and tests hypotheses about crime and arrest rates in the United States that have been forbidden from general discourse in the media.  The topic is beset by unproven assumptions and political correctness.  The Color of Crime has been updated to use the latest data available as of early 2016, and now includes a section on police killings of suspects.

The research uses government sources for data; there is little else to go by.  Some cities and states collect data that the federal government has stopped collecting.

The results of the evidence and analysis are startling, and turn many modern political assumptions on their head.

In The Color of Crime, for example, the authors compare victim surveys with arrest rates.  Victims would have little reason to misidentify criminals; and most crimes are intra-racial.  Comparing victim surveys with actual arrest rates show that overall, blacks are arrested at a slightly lower rate than the rate that they actually commit crimes.    Thus, if there is a bias, it is against black victims, rather than against black criminals.

The 2016 updated version is loaded with bar charts showing the statistical differences in crime rates between Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites.  There is also a fairly new category: "other" which appears to suffer from varying definitions in the government data.

The study analyzes new data dealing with officer shootings and killings of suspects, an area for which there is little official data or analysis.  Using data collected by the Washington Post,  it was found that black people were 2.45 times as likely to be shot by police as white people.  Black people were also 4.46 times as likely to kill a police officer than people of other races.  Black people are arrested for violent crimes at 5.35 times the arrest rate of White people.

There is little editorializing in the research, with a small amount of speculation that crime rate differences have something to do with economic status.

The study gives numbers and measurement to the stark facts that the vast majority of residents of large cities in the United States already know, and know that it has become politically correct to ignore.

There are no dearth of speculation for the differences in crime rates among Asians, Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics.

The important part of these statistics is that they destroy the idea that availability of guns is the driver of violent crime. If that were so, then inner cities, where there are few gun stores and legal guns are harder to come by, would have lower violent crime. But most of the killing is concentrated in small cultural groups. The groups that have easy access to legal guns have far lower violent crime.

At the minimum, it shows that the instruments are not the drivers of violent crime, other cultural factors are. Culture drives violent crime, not guns.
We can argue what the cultural factors are; fatherless homes; the remnants of slave culture; economics; attitudes toward authority; attitudes toward education. But it is clear that access to firearms is close to neutral, and may be positive or negative, but is not a driver.

This study shows that bias in arrest rates and incarceration rates is not one of them.  If anything, it points in the opposite direction.

If you wish to be knowledgeable about differing crime rates, arrest rates, and incarceration rates, and whether these rates can credibly be laid at the feet of bias in the judicial system, The Color of Crime is a must read.

 Link to The Color of Crime

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch 

[marktwain]

The vast difference in crime rates between cultural groups living in the same areas show that access to firearms is not the driver of violent crime.

[TwelveOfTwenty]

Who kills the most blacks? Democrats and Democrat supporters.

Who runs the cities where the most blacks are killed? Democrats.

It isn't about race, it's about who's buying into the Democrat entitlement mindset.

[Spok]

Most striking is the observation that the federal government no longer collects data on this subject. The conscious decision has obviously been made to replace facts with politically correct narrative. The truth, once again, proves to be the mortal enemy of the left.

[Neoliberalnot]

This is the manifestation of African culture, both here in America and around the world. It would have been better if no white had ever set foot on the African continent. Since Africans never built a boat, a car, a plane, or much of anything, contact with the civilized world would never have happened.

[FreeInWV]

The FBI does collect crime data, but its not perfect. Its called Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR). I think its all available online.

After lots of reading and reflection, I think a lot of the crime is due to the culture of poverty and the uneven/unfair application of law enforcement in big cities. The Broken Windows policing strategy used in alot of those places has eroded respect for law enforcement and the rule of law in general. Selling a cigarette or drinking a beer on your porch will get you sent to jail just as quick as robbery or dealing drugs. Those people bitterly distrust the police. They have little hope of succeeding in life in the first place. Each time they are arrested and sent to jail for loitering in front of their house while waiting for a cab, they lose a little more hope and become a little more bitter.

[Buffalo Head]

Thanks for this excellent post.

[marktwain]

I suspect it is the opposite or a combination.

When people respect the police, cooperation goes up and crime goes down.

When people do not respect the police, cooperation goes down and crime goes up.

Not enforcing the law breeds disrespect, violating the law breeds disrespect, selective enforcement breeds disrespect.

Urban crime communities can suffer both ways, insufficient policing and policing that is unjust. It is a tough job to be a police officer in an area where you are not trusted.

[Neoliberalnot]

A welfare family of 4 can obtain more than 60k annually in handouts. I wager most older freepers grew up with far less and had parents that worked hard and paid taxes, yet lived with little to show for it. Still they never thought of committing crimes. African culture is the same in many other countries.

[armydawg505]

The great hidden facts of American life. Blacks are arrested more because they commit far more crimes per capita than any other race. BLM, Obama and his henchmen ignore the massive crime rate and present the fallacy that black men are arrested out of racism and successfully turn the spotlight to the police, with the help of their media and Hollywood friends. So now the police back off and blacks kill even more. None of the “elite” give a wit about blacks killing blacks or anyone else, they are protected from that mayhem.

[ronnie raygun]

And the social justice bullsh## the obama DOJ and government are pushing is telling us that black men are unfairly being jailed for crimes they did not know were crimes, jailed because of thier color only, jailed because there only crime was being born black, jailed becuase there is no equality in the system to many blacks over others. Its all a big load for those who want to believe it

[kearnyirish2]

African culture is actually a cultural vacuum; when South Africa’s president Zuma openly practiced polygamy, the gulf between Africa and the civilized world was laid bare. For decades our government told us South Africans were just like us; absurd.

[SunkenCiv]

"These stats are skewed, and to prove it, I'm bringing 100s of 1000s of jihadists in as 'refugees'. and btw, Death to America!"

[Neoliberalnot]

Queers are getting married here. You tell me which practice is worse.

[GOPJ]

The important part of these statistics is that they destroy the idea that availability of guns is the driver of violent crime. If that were so, then inner cities, where there are few gun stores and legal guns are harder to come by, would have lower violent crime. But most of the killing is concentrated in small cultural groups. The groups that have easy access to legal guns have far lower violent crime.

At the minimum, it shows that the instruments are not the drivers of violent crime, other cultural factors are. Culture drives violent crime, not guns.

Take THAT Hillary...

[kearnyirish2]

Good point, though I’ve never defended American “culture”.