is it true that Blacks are responsible for 36% of violent crimes?

[OfTheCross]

A typical talking point that I come across in conservative areas is that quote "blacks are only 13% of the population but 36% of violent crime
offenders."

I decided to look into it today to see if these people were lying. They're not. According to the FBI, it's true that blacks are 36% of violent arrests:

Table 43

ucr.fbi.gov

But... that's where their academic curiosity stops.

I looked into it a bit more, and figured... There are about 41 million black people in America:

2020 Census Illuminates Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Country

Today’s release of 2020 Census data provides a new snapshot of the racial and ethnic composition of the country.

www.census.gov

About 500,000 are currently incarcerated:

https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Trends-in-US-Corrections.pdf

So, to round things down, that leaves a free population of 40 million.

According to the FBI data above, there were about 130,000 Black offenders for violent crimes.

So, 0.325% of black people are responsible for 36% of violent crimes.

I know these people don't bring this up in good faith, but that's a quick way to knock down that talking point and the insinuation that Blacks are inherently violent while using their own FBI statistic.

 

[NZA]

"1350" is way more commonly used online than 36%

 

[Mook]

Stop worrying about cacs and what they say. You know black people are actively targeted by law enforcement. You also know police racial profile and harass black people more. Knowing that who cares what numbers they bring up.

 

[Black Man of the Nile]

Cacs have been more violent than black people historically.

 

[Black Man of the Nile]

"1350" is way more commonly used online than 36%

Especially on Reddit

 

[OfTheCross]

"1350" is way more commonly used online than 36%

I've not heard of this.. what's the "1350" talking point?

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Small issue in your statistics - you're assuming 130,000 different people account for those 130,000 arrests. Some of them are going to be arrested more than once though, which reduces the total # of people responsible.

 

[NZA]

I've not heard of this.. what's the "1350" talking point?

they usually say "13% of the population; 50% of the murder"

 

[Kuro]

violent crime: white 59%, black 36%. 59>36

Rape: white 69%, black 26%. 69>26

 

[OfTheCross]

Small issue in your statistics - you're assuming 130,000 different people account for those 130,000 arrests. Some of them are going to be arrested more than once though, which reduces the total # of people responsible.

Yea, it's not exact. It also doesn't account for the people that commit violent crimes and aren't arrested.

It's a ballpark, but it's good enough to cancel out the talking point at least

 

[OfTheCross]

violent crime: white 59%, black 36%. 59>36

Rape: white 69%, black 26%. 69>26

The White # isn't accurate either cause they include a lot of Hispanics in there

 

[OfTheCross]

they usually say "13% of the population; 50% of the murder"

Smdh. Ok, i have heard that...just forgot...

The same logic in the OP applies there too. The number is a miniscule % of the Black population

 

[Jcotton1]

I would say Yes.

A lot of brehs wanna be in denial about it like . some single mothers who can't face the reality of who their kid is when he's in a courtroom .

The communitay champions certain attitudes and behavior this is the outcome. Il

 

[bright black]

I think aggravated assault is attempted murder. Interesting that most of the attempted murder is white people but most murder is black people.

 

[21stCenturyColiMascot]

I would say Yes.

A lot of brehs wanna be in denial about it like . some single mothers who can't face the reality of who their kid is when he's in a courtroom .

The communitay champions certain attitudes and behavior this is the outcome. Il

Yea.. but no one ever address why that is.... and why han't it been consistent since the founding of the country....