From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Sat Aug 04 2001 - 15:15:03 MDT
Barbara Lamar wrote:
>
> >Of Al Villalobos wrote:
> >
> > A while ago I reponded to Barbara Lamar's comment of
> >
> > "if
> > you're non-white, when, to the best of my knowledge, whites
> > commit at least
> > as many crimes per 100 people as do non-whites.
> I insted found a summary of that document here:
> >
> >
> > If recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 of every 20
> > persons (5.1%) will
> > serve time in a prison during their lifetime.
> >
> > Lifetime chances of a person going to prison are
> > higher for
> >
> > -- men (9%) than for women (1.1%)
> > -- blacks (16.2%) and Hispanics (9.4%) than for whites
> >
>
> Al, I stated that whites and non-whites commit about the same number of
> crimes per 100 people but that non-whites have a much higher chance of being
> arrested and convicted of crimes. Please be aware that the statistics you've
> quoted are based on people who've been arrested and formally accused of
> crimes. Even if they're true, they don't refute what I wrote. I have
> personally observed that whites commit at least as many crimes as non-whites
> per 100 people (naturally, this is estimated--I haven't kept formal
> records). It's true that whites are more likely to commit white collar
> crimes than non-whites, because white-collar work is what they DO more of.
> Your average white person's going to be more skilled at embezzling money
> from her employer and writing hot checks than at armed robbery.
I have to take significant exception to this, Barbara. Crime studies
don't only look at arrest and conviction data. Some deal with surveys of
victims for a more victim-centric view of crime as it is committed, not
as it is enforced. For example, the FBI claims that there are only
around 90,000 defensive gun uses per year, yet surveys show that the
actual number is somewhere around 2.5 million per year. (Google up the
work of Gary Kleck) Similarly, victim reports of the race of
perpetrators (and the race of their victims) shows that blacks commit
90% of the crime perpetrated against other blacks, but a majority of the
crime perpetrated against whites.
Of course, this could likely leave out victimless crimes, but other
studies of white collar crime, and its prevalence, should shed some
light on this. I would buy the fact that whites likely commit more white
collar crime than blacks, that being their more likely environment, but
what are the actual numbers?
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