This basic question — Where is all the outrage over black-on-black crime? — is raised whenever black Americans protest a police shooting, or any other violence against unarmed black men. Nationally, nearly half of all murder victims are black, wrote conservative commentator Juan Williams after Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012, And the overwhelming majority of those black people are killed by other black people. Where is the march for them? There are huge problems with black-on-black crime, mostly dealing with the banality of intra-racial crime, the foolishness of attributing violent criminality to blackness — rather than particular conditions faced by some black people — and the injustice of treating all blacks as criminally suspect because of the actions of a small minority. Lets ignore those. Instead, lets look directly at the question raised by Murdock, Giuliani, and Williams — Do black people care about crime in their neighborhoods? They treat it as a rhetorical concern — a prelude to broad statements about black American concerns. But we should treat it as an empirical question — an issue we can resolve with some time and research. This isnt as easy as it sounds. While blacks are more likely to face criminal victimization than other groups, that doesnt tell us how black Americans feel about crime and where it ranks as a problem for their communities. For that, we have to look to public opinion surveys and other research. And while its hard to draw a conclusive answer, all the available evidence points to one answer: Yes, black people are concerned with crime in their neighborhoods. First, a little context: In the last 20 years, weve seen a sharp drop in homicide among blacks, from a victimization rate of 39.4 homicides per 100,000 in 1991 to a rate of roughly 20 homicides per 100,000 in 2008. Likewise, the offending rate for blacks has dropped from 51.1 offenders per 100,000 in 1991 to 24.7 offenders per 100,000 in 2008. This decrease has continued through the 2010s and is part of a larger — and largely unexplained — national drop in crime. But while black neighborhoods are far less dangerous than they were a generation ago, black people are still concerned with victimization. Take this 2014 report from the Sentencing Project on perceptions of crime and support for punitive policies. Using data from the University of Albanys Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, the Sentencing Project found that — as a group — racial minorities are more likely than whites to report an area within a mile of their home where they would be afraid to walk alone at night (41 percent to 30 percent) and more likely to say there are certain neighborhoods they avoid, which they otherwise might want to go to (54 percent to 46 percent). And among black Americans in particular — circa 2003 — 43 percent said they were very satisfied about their physical safety in contrast to 59 percent of Hispanics, and 63 percent of whites. More recent data shows a similar picture. In 2012, Gallup found that, compared to the general public, blacks were more worried about being attacked while driving their car, more worried about being the victim of a hate crime, and — most salient for our discussion — more worried about being murdered. Likewise, according to a 2013 survey for NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health, 26 percent of black Americans rank crime as the most important issue facing the area they live. Thats higher than the ranking for the economy (16 percent), housing (4 percent), the environment (7 percent), social issues (4 percent), and infrastructure (7 percent). And in a recently published survey for Ebony magazine and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 13 percent rank violent crime as a top issue — which sits in the middle of the rankings — and 48 percent say that the black community is losing ground on the issue. Finally, Atlantic Medias State of the City poll — published this past summer — shows an urban minority class thats worried about crime, and skeptical toward law enforcement, but eager for a greater police presence if it means less crime. Just 22 percent of respondents say they feel very safe walking in their neighborhoods after dark, and only 35 percent say they have a lot of confidence in their local police. That said, 60 percent say hiring more police would have a major impact on improving safety in their neighborhoods. And while urban minority includes a range of different groups, theres a good chance this is representative of black opinion in some areas of high crime and victimization, given the large black presence in many American cities. Its important to note that this concern with crime doesnt translate to support for punitive policies. Despite high victimization rates, black Americans are consistently opposed to harsh punishments and greater incarceration. Instead, they support more education and job training. Beyond the data, theres the anecdotal evidence. And in short, its easy to find examples of marches and demonstrations against crime. In the last four years, blacks have held community protests against violence in Chicago; New York; Newark, New Jersey; Pittsburgh; Saginaw, Mich.; and Gary, Ind. Indeed, theres a whole catalog of movies, albums, and sermons from a generation of directors, musicians, and religious leaders, each urging peace and order. You may not have noticed black protests against crime and violence, but that doesnt mean they havent happened. Black Americans — like everyone else — are concerned with what happens in their communities, and at a certain point, pundits who insist otherwise are either lying or willfully ignorant. daily-journal/opinion/editorials/actually-blacks-do-care-about-black-crime/article_540f2be0-05c6-5706-9cac-0e22dd089927.html
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 14:01:18 +0000
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