Jesse Hasty

FEBRUARY 2, 2012, 11:59 AM

Flag this comment

@ Danielle

The demographic statistics are easily available from the 2010 census. These figures are very accurate since they are actual counts. Poverty does not really cause elevated levels of crime, rather elevated levels of crime cause poverty. What does cause both poverty and elevated levels of criminal behavior is the lack of intact two parent families, and more specifically the lack of a father or father figure in the home. The other demographic cause of elevated criminal behavior is the percentage of the population which are males between the ages of 15 and 25. In the black community the percentage of both single parent homes and the percentage of young males is elevated with respect to the general population. It is these elevated percentages which largely explain the elevated levels of criminal behavior among blacks. It is not blackness or whiteness which causes or does not cause higher levels of criminal behavior, but rather it is the brokenness of the homes in both black and non black communities which increases the problem of criminal behavior. I don’t think the observation of this fact argues in favor of discrimination against African Americans in any way, but rather observing the results argues in favor of carefully looking at the wisdom of single parent homes and the raising of young males.

This is getting pretty far afield here since the original discussion of this opinion piece concerned the unwillingness of bystanders to assist crime victims.

http://boysraisedbysinglemums.blogspot.com/2009/01/single-mothers-children-responsible-for.html

By 1996, 70 percent of inmates in state juvenile detention centers serving long-term sentences were raised by single mothers. Seventy percent of teenage births, dropouts, suicides, runaways, juvenile delinquents and child murderers involve children raised by single mothers. Girls raised without fathers are more sexually promiscuous and more likely to end up divorced.

A 1990 study by the left-wing Progressive Policy Institute showed that, after controlling for single motherhood, the difference in black and white crime disappeared.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1928221&forum_id=2/en-en/#20501099)

Discrmination and poverty would contribute significantly to crime rates.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1928221&forum_id=2/en-en/#20501219)