Research Guy Wrote:
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> A nationwide research has shown that the public
> perceives that blacks are involved in a greater
> percentage of violent crime than official
> statistics indicate they actually are.
>
>
http://www.sagepub.com/gabbidonstudy/articles/Welc
> h.pdf
Blacks are indeed involved in a disproportional amount of crime in general and violent crime in particular (Blumstein, 1982; Harer & Steffensmeier, 1993; Tonry, 1995; Wilson, 1987). In fact, for violent crimes such as robbery and homicide, there have been times when Blacks were arrested in absolute numbers that surpassed those of Whites (Flanagan & Jamieson, 1988; Young, 1985). In more recent years, however, although Blacks did not surpass the actual number of Whites in nationwide arrests, their presence in these statistics has been greater than their representation in the general public. For example, although Blacks compose approximately 13% of the U.S. population, in 2002 they accounted for 38% of arrests for violent crimes and nearly 30% of arrests for property crimes. Juvenile arrest statistics indicate that during the same year, Black youth accounted for approximately 43% of arrests for violent crimes and 27% of arrests for property crimes (U.S. Department of Justice, 2004). Researchers have suggested that crime committed by African Americans may be especially salient not only because it exceeds what would be expected based on the racial composition of the country but also perhaps because the violent crimes that tend to be most fearsome are the ones that are most disproportionately perpetrated by Black males (Kennedy, 1997; Stinchcombe et al., 1980)