[Martin]

I read a statistic that stated that blacks make up 14 percent of the population but are responsible for 78 percent of violent crimes. Is this accurate, and if so, what can we do to change this trend?

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Name : Martin, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 27, City : San Diego, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Adventurer, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[ACC]

Those often-quoted statistics are not exactly a lie, but they do give a distorted picture that often becomes misused as an excuse by many for fear of blacks and other non-whites. Most of those statistics come from the FBI’s reports of who gets arrested. Blacks make up a much higher proportion of that, and even a greater percentage of the prison and jail population, but they do NOT make up the majority of actual criminals. The Justice Department makes annual surveys of crime victims that give a much more accurate picture. By their figures, about 2/3 to 3/4 of the violent criminals in the United States are white, not too different from the proportion in the general population. What this says is that blacks and other non-whites get the great majority of law enforcement attention, which has some pretty disturbing implications for the amount of continuing racism among cops.

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Name : ACC, Race : Mexican and American Indian, City : W. Lafayette, State : IN, Country : United States, Occupation : Grad student, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 

[C. Thomas]

According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States (1998), more blacks are victims of crimes, while more whites are offenders. More whites were charged with serious crimes than blacks (62.2 percent vs. 35.1 percent). My thinking here is that blacks are portrayed more in the media than whites. And, being minorities, they are watched more closely.

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Name : C. Thomas, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Age : 57, City : Renton, State : WA, Country : United States, Occupation : Photographer, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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