Posted on 12/29/2008 4:01:56 AM PST by reaganaut1
The murder rate among black teenagers has climbed since 2000 even as murders by young whites have scarcely grown or declined in some places, according to a new report.
The celebrated reduction in murder rates nationally has concealed a “worrisome divergence,” said James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University who wrote the report, to be released Monday, with Marc L. Swatt. And there are signs, they said, that the racial gap will grow without countermeasures like restoring police officers in the streets and creating social programs for poor youths.
The main racial difference involves juveniles ages 14 to 17. In 2000, 539 white and 851 black juveniles committed murder, according to an analysis of federal data by the authors. In 2007, the number for whites, 547, had barely changed, while that for blacks was 1,142, up 34 percent.
The increase coincided with a rise in the number of murders involving guns, Dr. Fox said. The number of young blacks who were victims of murder also rose in this period.
Murder rates around the country are far below the record highs of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when a crack epidemic spawned violent turf battles.
“Regrettably, as the nation celebrated the successful fight against violent crime in the 1990s, we grew complacent and eased up on our crime-fighting efforts,” the authors said.
The report primarily blames cutbacks in federal support for community policing and juvenile crime prevention, reduced support for after-school and other social programs, and a weakening of gun laws. Cuts in these areas have been felt most deeply in poor, black urban areas, helping to explain the growing racial disparity in violent crime, Dr. Fox said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I believe those numbers are skewed because hispanics are counted as whites in the perp column.
Frankly while the geneticists make a good hypothesis, it is not even needed, the left is its own worst argument. If they say it is the enviroment then we should look at the influences that these perps claim as theirs. Such as the Detroit punks who murdered a 21yr old pregnant white woman as she was leaving her job, they need to be Interogated as to their influences and motivations.
I am not nearly as worried re black teen murderers as hispanic ones. Check out crime stats in CA.
I feel certain that the Times failed to mention the significant statistic that those 851 murders did by blacks were committed by a pool of 14 to 17 yr. old black teens that totals less than 20% of the pool of whites of that age that did the 539 white murders. That equals a murder rate by blacks of about 8.5 times the white murder rate for that age group.
And apparently that rap-fueled gap is widening.
Would have been nice if the New York Times informed us of the total number of white and black people, ages 14 to 17, so that we could put the stats in perspective and determine the percentage of each group that are committing the murders.
The report primarily blames cutbacks in federal support for community policing and juvenile crime prevention, reduced support for after-school and other social programs, and a weakening of gun laws.
The report neglects to blame unwed teenage mothers; absentee fathers; poor parenting; welfare mentality; victim mentality; moral breakdown; poor study skills; poor work skills; poor communication skills; illegal immigration; global warming; or any other factor that points to personal responsibility.
BTW, what gun laws have been weakened since 2000? The so-called assault weapon ban did not expire until the end of 2004, but the increase in murders by black yuts began in 2000. What am I missing?
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