An observed correlation between race and crime has been noted in a number of countries that have relatively multicultural populations. This has prompted controversy regarding the possible causes and social effects, and regarding which actions should consequently be taken.

Crime statistics

Worldwide

The Handbook of Crime Correlates (2009), a review of studies of correlates with crime, many of which are from the United States but also including other countries, states that studies on official data consistently finds higher crimes rates for blacks, especially regarding violent offenses. Also Hispanics have a higher official crime rates than whites. Studies on self-reported offences are more inconsistent. Both official and self-reported offending are higher for Native Americans than for whites. East Asians have lower official and self-reported crime rates than whites. The official offending rates for south Asian are similar to that for whites although self-report is higher. Both official and self-reported crime rates are higher for Pacific and Indian Oceanic Islanders than for whites.^[1]

J. Philippe Rushton collated crime statistics from the INTERPOL Yearbooks for different nations and presented the results as crime rates per 100,000 people for groups of nations with similar racial composition.^[2]

From the 1986 Yearbook, 12 East Asian countries, 48 European countries, and 28 African and Caribbean countries.^[2]

• murder, 6, 5, and 9
• rape, 3, 6, and 14
• serious assault, 29, 66, and 130

From the 1990 Yearbook, 12 East Asian, 41 European, and 23 Afro-Caribbean countries.^[2]

• murder, 3, 5, and 13
• rape, 3, 6, and 17
• serious assault, 27, 63, and 213

From the 1993–96 Yearbooks, 7 East Asian, 45 Caucasian, and 22 Afro-Caribbean countries.^[2]

• murder, 2, 4, and 8
• rape, 3, 5, and 6
• serious assault, 31, 34, and 136

There were similar or greater differences if instead analyzing subsets of nations from the more ethnically homogeneous northeast Asia, central Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. The same pattern also appeared when comparing total violent crime in six mainly White/Amerindian Caribbean countries to eight mainly Black Caribbean countries (72 vs. 449).^[2]

United States

There are large disparities in crime rates for the different racial/ethnic groups in the United States. A number of theories have been proposed as explanations.

Canada

Although aboriginal persons make up 3.6% of Canada's population, they account for more than 20% of Canada's prison population.^[3] Similarly, while black people make up only 2 percent of the Canadian population, they represent over 6 percent of federal prison population. Overall, the federal incarceration rate for aboriginal (185 per 100,000) and black Canadians (146 per 100,000) is many times higher than the rate for Whites (42 per 100,000) and Asians (16 per 100,000).

According to figures for admissions to prison in 1992 in Ontario, expressed per 1000 of the population, Chinese had the lowest crime rates at 3.5 per 1000, only half that of whites (7.1 per 1000). The South Asians had the next lowest rate at about two thirds that of whites. The Native American Indians had much higher crime rates (19.9) at more than two and half times that of whites. The blacks had by far the greatest crime rates (36.9) at more seven times that of whites. The seven-fold over-representation of blacks in crime in Ontario was almost exactly the same as that of Britain and the United States. The low crime rates of the Chinese are also found in both Britain and the United States.^[4]

Britain

Whites in Britain are the victims of race attacks more than Asians and Blacks put together. However, the proportion of ethnic minorities reporting being the victim of a racially-motivated crime is higher. In Bradford, 58% of victims were white, 35% were Asian and 9% were black.[1]

Almost twice as many black people are in prison as at university, according to a report by the Commission for Racial Equality.[2]

The black prison population has risen by almost 60% under Labour, according to shock new government figures. [..] New Home Office statistics show numbers of African-Caribbean prisoners has leapt a staggering 58% since 1997, with young black men making up over 90% of all black inmates.[3]

63% of mugging victims in London reporting that their attackers were black.[4] In 2005, blacks comprise 19% of those sentenced to prison for robberies, 8% of those sentenced for sexual offences and 23% of those sentenced for drug offences, although they make up 2% of the population.[5]

Five years ago, the threat from Jamaican gangsters and black British-born crack dealers could have been dismissed as a local difficulty for a handful of inner-city police forces. But today, as the most authoritative study into the threat reveals, Jamaican organised crime groups have infiltrated almost every part of the country.[6]

Blacks are more likely to plead not guilty than whites, are more likely to be released on parole than white prisoners and black defendants are more likely to be acquitted than white defendants. (Sources: Prison statistics England and Wales 2000 and Ethnic differences in decisions on young offenders dealt with by the CPS, Section 95 Findings No.1 (2000)

Black females are around 16 times more likely to go to prison than white females. (Source: Prison statistics England and Wales 2000)

A report by Britain's Home Office for the years 2003, 2004, and 2005 stated that of the "ethnic appearance" of persons arrested for "notable offenses", 84.3% were White, 8.8% were Black, 4.9% were Asian, and 1.4% were Other, with the remaining percentage classified as "Unknown". Additionally, the report stated that when cases of crime went to court, those of either Black or White ethnic appearance were convicted 51% of the time, and those of Asian appearance were convicted 24% of the time.^[5] It stated that:

"Black and Asian people experience a higher likelihood of being stopped and searched. Moreover, Black defendants are more prominent in the Crown Court caseload, although this is partly due to a tendency to elect for jury trial more often than other ethnic groups, including White. Furthermore, Black people are also overrepresented in the prison population reflecting, at least in part, the longest average sentence imposed upon them.^[6]

In London in 2006, 75% of the victims of gun crime and 79% of the suspects were "from the African/Caribbean community."^[7]

In 2005-6, 1,543 victims of racist crime in Scotland were of Pakistani origin, while more than 1,000 victims were classed as being "white British".^[8] Kriss Donald was a Scottish fifteen-year-old who was kidnapped and murdered in Glasgow in 2004.Five British Asian men were later found guilty of racially-motivated violence; those convicted of murder were all sentenced to life imprisonment.^[9]

The British Crime Survey reveals that in 2004, 87,000 people from black or minority ethnic communities said they had been a victim of a racially motivated crime. They had suffered 49,000 violent attacks, with 4,000 being wounded.

At the same time 92,000 white people said they had also fallen victim of a racially motivated crime. The number of violent attacks against whites reached 77,000, while the number of white people who reported being wounded was five times the number of black and minority ethnic victims at 20,000. Most of the offenders (57%) in the racially motivated crimes identified in the British Crime Survey are not white. White victims said 82% of offenders were not white.^[10]

On the other hand, the Home Office report above-mentioned state that:

Black victims (32%) were more likely to be shot compared to Asians (10%) and White (5%) victims. Twenty-three homicides were recorded as being racially-motivated over the three years-old.^[11]

Sweden

Immigrants are overrepresented in Sweden's crime statistics. During the period 1997-2001, 25% of the almost 1,520,000 offences were committed by people born overseas, while almost 20% were committed by Swedish-born people with a foreign background. Those from North Africa and Western Asia were overrepresented.^[12]

Australia

According to the Australian government's June 2006 publication of prison statistics, while only 2.3% of the national population, Indigenous peoples make up 24% of the overall prison population in Australia.^[13] ("Indigenous" meaning those identifying themselves as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin^[14])

New Zealand

In 2004, Maori made up just 15% of the total population but 49.5% of prisoners. Maori were entering prison at 8 times the rate of non-Maori.^[15]

Czech republic

Roma make 2-3% of population in the Czech republic. According to Říčan (1998), Roma make up more than 60% of Czech prisoners and about 20-30% earn their livelihood in illegal ways, such as prostitution, trafficking and other property crimes.^[16] Roma are thus more than 20 times overrepresented in Czech prisons than their population share would suggest.

Racial group conflicts

The relationships between different racial groups are sometimes tense and have in some cases caused large scale criminal violence with genocide being the most extreme case. The book World on Fire described tension and violence against successful ethnic minorities worldwide.

Theories of causation

Criminologists from the United States have proposed a large number of theories attempting to explain the US data as described in the Race and crime in the United States article. However, these do not necessarily work for other nations or for worldwide statistics.

Some argue that because a majority group in a population will usually have an easier time to reach their goals and plus explicit and implicit discrimination of the minority groups, tendency to commit crime by minority group increases. For instances in African American ghettos, there is obvious lack of economic opportunity, segregation, and social discrimination that make people more susceptible to commit crime than in a neighborhood and population where there is abundant work opportunity, education level and relative social acceptance. The economic condition of certain groups make committing crime higher to achieve their ends. However, this theory does not explain why certain minorities such as East Asians are underrepresented regarding crime to the majority.

Nature v. nurture

Race and crime were studied by criminal anthropologist Cesare Lombroso, who belonged to the Italian school of criminology of the end of the 19th century. Lombroso divided Northern Italian and Southern Italians in two different "races." Henceforth, he thought that "Southern Italians were more crime-prone and lazy because they were unlucky enough to have less Aryan blood than their northern countrymen.^[17]" Enrico Ferri, a student of Lombroso, considered Black people to be of an "inferior race" and more prone to crime than others ^[18]

Such theories were criticized by later works of criminology, which argued that only social, economic and cultural factors explained criminality. Genetics as an explanation was largely abandoned in criminology after WWII.

Race (classification of humans) has also been criticized as a biological concept. However, crime rates can be studied for any arbitrary population.

Recent research in ares such as sociobiology, which aims at explaining behaviour by biological factors, or in the area of race and genetics, have caused a renewed interest in genetic explanations, reviving the old debate of nature versus nurture. Scholars critical of this include clinical psychologist Jay Joseph in The Gene Illusion (2002).

Richard Lynn has in the books Race Differences in Intelligence and the The Global Bell Curve argued that there is a relationship between IQ and crime which is an important explanation for differing crime rates across the world.

Linda Gottfredson has argued that denying or trying to conceal real biological differences between groups on average IQ instead cause people to seek something to blame for the differing average group achievements, causing resentment and hostility. She argues that "virtually all the victim groups of genocide in the Twentieth Century had relatively high average levels of achievement (e.g., German Jews, educated Cambodians, Russian Kulaks, Armenians in Turkey, Ibos in Nigeria; Gordon, 1980)."^[19]

See also

• Race and crime in the United States
• Race and crime in the United Kingdom
• Indigenous Australians and crime

Dynamics:

• Nature versus nurture
• Genetics and violence
• Race and Intelligence
• Racial profiling
• Sex and crime
• White flight
• Race, Evolution, and Behavior

References

External links

• All Most Wanted - official website of THE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT
• New York State's 100 Most Wanted Fugitives
• NYPD - Official New York City Police Department Web Site
• Metropolitan Police Service - Scotland Yard's Wanted
• Houston Police Department
• Quebec's 10 Most Wanted Criminals
• In London in 2006, 79% of the suspects of gun crime were black
• In London, the Metropolitan Police report that 62 percent of people arrested for robbery are black

The Color of Crime

• The Color of Crime (about)
• The Color of Crime PDF file