[P-Crume]

Why do young African-American men seem to commit a disproportionate number of crimes such as burglary and robbery?

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Name : P-Crume, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 34, City : Savannah, State : GA, Country : United States, Occupation : bookstore supervisor, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Mandi]

The answer to your question is: 1)because a disproportionate number of African American men are ‘at-risk’, ,i.e. are forced to live in poor areas, denied access to higher education(think: do a disproportiante number of professional African-American men commit crimes?) and 2)because a disproportionate number of crimes commited by Arican-American men are reported, and get media attention. When a crime is shown on TV and the picture of the assailant is not shown, think about what you assume the person looks like.(I generally think it must be a white male b/c if not they certainly would have shown the picture)

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[Jennifer R.]

Contrary to what white supremacists would have you believe, there is no genetic racial predisposition to crime. The FBI keeps statistics for crimes according to race and gender, but they do not have statistics controlling for socioeconomic background. Black people are disproportionately represented among the ranks of the impovrished. Poverty begets desperation and, in some cases, lawlessness. Granted, there are many, many poor people who do not engage in criminal activity– the majority, in fact. However, when presented with a legacy of seemingly inescapable poverty, people will often simply take what they need. ____________________

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[LSA]

Ask first why African Americans are subjected to a disproportionate amount of joblessness, poverty and racial discrimination, which tends to create a climate for crime. Then ask why African Americans are subjected to racial profiling, a disproportionate number of false police stops and searches, false arrests, false convictions and wrongful executions. And ask then if there are crimes that whites tend to commit that aren’t treated as harshly as similar crimes that blacks tend to commit.

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[DL31838]

When I first read your question I thought ‘disproportionate as compared to whom? Whites?’ So I’m assuming that is what you mean. To me the answer seems simple enough. First, all races commit crimes. Perhaps the type of crimes are more about socioecomomic factors than anything else. In a country in which Blacks are disproportiately improverished vis-a-vis Whites it seems elementary why when they do commit crimes, they are usually of the robbery and burglary type. But while we are on the subject of race and crime a compelling question for me is why do white men commit a disproportionate number of crimes such as white-collar crime, illicit drug use, rape, child molestation, serial killing and mass murder?

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[Ashley]

It’s not only the African-American men doing crimes, everywhere you there’s crime. It’s like someone saying why are all serial killers white. I guess it’s all according to where you live!

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[Ashley-M23487]

I highly doubt that black men commit more crimes, but that they are caught more often because of stereotypes which cause law enforcement to look for African-American criminals more often. Let’s say that I am a meter maid who only checks meters when I am suspicious and African-American make me suspicious. Of course the likely-hood is that I will catch more African-Americans. Same goes for robery and every other crime. You find what you look for.

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[Exton]

Because, unfortunately, black men (and women) also make up a disproportionate amount of the people living in poor urban districts. The propensity to commit crime is directly related to socioeconomic conditions; it just happens to be that black people are more plagued by poverty than other groups, and so burglary and related crimes tend to be commited more often by black men. Even the matter of poverty isn’t trully a racial matter; the poverty stems from the locations they live in (poor urban areas), which have poor educational institutions, high unemployment, and few good examples for an ambitious young person to follow.

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