Harriet Vane Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Can you help me out with some links? A young acquaintance told me today that police arrest African-Americans more because they commit more crimes. I know this is not true and not accurate. I lived in an African-American neighborhood for fourteen years. I have plenty of experience and plenty of reading that tells me otherwise. History tells otherwise. This young friend refused to listen to any discussion and insisted that her friends ("some of my best friends are black...") agree with her. Suffice it to say that I know this young person does not have the context she claims to have. I cannot let this ugliness stand unchallenged. Because truth. Because my African-American brothers and sisters deserve so much better. This rhetoric will invade more discussions as I am leading a group to read both Huck Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird. (And the statements were made in the context of discussing Frederick Douglass' autobiography. Ironic and sad...) Can you help me out with some links? I really appreciate your help. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Not a link, but I found The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander to be very eye opening and informative on this general topic. I'm going to go google search to see if there are related links that could provide information with less of a reading time commitment, but given that you want to go deeper with a group, it may be worthwhile to read the book. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Looks like there are several good links from google searching black crime incarceration statistics. Here are the first two links with some quick info for you: http://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-farbota/black-crime-rates-your-st_b_8078586.html 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 (edited) Pew Research Institute is a good source for data. I will keep an eye out for specific studies and reports. This may be overbroad, but it is a start: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=racial+bias+in+arrests+and+suspensions&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJpoiq4e_RAhVD04MKHWhxDwwQgQMIGjAA Also, this: http://abc7news.com/news/report-finds-racial-disparities-in-traffic-related-arrests-across-ca/1287007/ Edited February 1, 2017 by MomatHWTK 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obsidian Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 https://www.aclu.org/report/report-war-marijuana-black-and-white This is fairly specific, but talks about how whites and African Americans use marijuana at roughly the same rate, but African Americans are nearly 4x as likely to be arrested for possession. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChocolateReignRemix Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 https://www.aclu.org/report/report-war-marijuana-black-and-white This is fairly specific, but talks about how whites and African Americans use marijuana at roughly the same rate, but African Americans are nearly 4x as likely to be arrested for possession. There is some similar research showing the frequency of finding drugs at traffic stops which supports your link, but I can't recall where I saw it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacbeaumont Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 If you have netflix, you can have them watch the documentary "13th". It touches on this topic quite a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 You have it completely wrong on statistics. This is about what actually is causing the statistics, the races of people or the environment. In cities, crime is far more likely to be reported. In small towns and rural areas, people will deal with it themselves. Heck, some rural areas and small town areas do not have a regular police force. I have family that live in towns with no police or just one police officer who does everything. Look at this statement on this reliable source website, Across the nation, four out of five whites live outside of the cities and 86 percent of whites live in neighborhoods where minorities make up less than 1 percent of the population. In contrast, 70 percent of Blacks and Latinos live in the cities or inner-ring suburbs. http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-03-08.htm So rather than saying this percent of the country is this race so that should be the amount of people arrested for this crime, look at this percent of this race in this city ..and compare by city. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Here's a new article from Seattle: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/seattle-police-resorting-to-force-less-often-report-shows/?utm_content=buffer8229a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=owned_buffer_tw_m Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 These questions can actually be quite tricky, because you need to take into account all kinds of other demographic aspects. Are a higher % of blacks living in poverty, for example, and what effect does that have on overall crime rates. Where do they live? What kinds of crimes are most likely to be caught? Even if its true that black Americans commit proportionally more crimes, it really is just a tiny bit of the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 (edited) Oops -- I thought I was responding to an entirely different thread! Never mind -- I hope no one read my reply because it came across entirely the wrong way and was insulting to the OP. Serves me right for having too many windows open at the same time! Sorry!!!! And now back to your regularly scheduled thread... and I'm off to close all of my different windows and concentrate on only one forum at a time!!! I feel like such an idiot. Edited February 1, 2017 by Catwoman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Okay, let's see if I can reply to the right post this time. Here we go again... I cannot let this ugliness stand unchallenged. Because truth. Because my African-American brothers and sisters deserve so much better. I don't have any quotes for you but I wanted to say I admire you for wanting to provide this kid with actual facts and for wanting to challenge and help this kid think through thoughts that are either racist, inadequately informed, or both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 They do commit more murders than other races and that is the one crime which is most reliable because it doesn't matter what victims do as in report or not report. https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4863 It isn't racist to believe criminal justice statistics. When you look at different crimes, you have different statistics.The arrest records are showing that for crimes like robbery more blacks are arrested. Robbery is another one that is again more likely than some to be reported. Burglary arrests are much more problematic just because burglars tend to do a lot of crimes and most burglary busts are done with multiple cases. It also is a crime that is underreported in the poorer neighborhoods in particular and since most crime is done by the same ethnic group that the victim belongs to, one can see how the race statistics for that crime are particularly iffy. DUIs are more likely to be done by whites and they are a big category of crime. Other arguments made are that corporate crime and white collar crime is underreported. But violent crimes are, as closely as researchers can be determined, done more by AA people. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 Statistics that represent arrests don't prove who commits crimes, they only demonstrate who is most likely to be arrested and prosecuted. I believe this was the point OP was seeking to make. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 This article lists several studies and examples: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/07/data-police-racial-bias A report by retired federal and state judges tasked by the San Francisco district attorney’s office to examine police practices in San Francisco found “racial disparities regarding S.F.P.D. stops, searches, and arrests, particularly for Black people.†http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/18/ferguson-black-arrest-rates/19043207/ On the disparities between arrest rates for different ethnicities: "That does not mean police are discriminating. But it does mean it's worth looking at. It means you might have a problem, and you need to pay attention," said University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris, a leading expert on racial profiling. This from 2014: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/opinion/charles-blow-crime-bias-and-statistics.html?_r=0 A damning report released by the Sentencing Project last week lays bare the bias and the interconnecting systemic structures that reinforce it and disproportionately affect African-Americans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.