[Previous entry: "EU treaty still alive despite Irish "No": Barroso"] [Next entry: "Jewish National Fund president arrested for soliciting prostitutes"]

06/14/2008: "Do Crime Figures Mask A Truth?"

Both violent and property crimes declined in 2007 from the previous year, nationally and in most of Connecticut's largest cities, the FBI reported Monday. But one expert warned the figures could mask rising murder rates among young black men.

Because the FBI preliminary figures do not contain the detailed age, race and gender breakdowns available in the final report later in the year, they may unintentionally mask a growing murder rate among black male teenagers and young adults, particularly with guns, said James Alan Fox, professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University.

"We shouldn't be fooled into thinking our problems are over," Fox said. He pointed out that from 2002 to 2006 the rate of murder committed by black male teens rose 52 percent.

"Violence is down among whites of all ages and both genders; it's up among black males, not black females," Fox said. "When you blend all the national numbers together you fail to see this divergence. There are many more whites in the population, so their decline can dwarf the increase among young black males."

[ There is no reasonable excuse for the level of crime amongst black men. If it was rising poverty, the trend would affect other races, and if it was oppression then black females would also be increasingly taking part in crime. This is down to the growth of gang culture, and its particular appeal to black men. ]

http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-crime0610.artjun10,0,7257500.story