The U.S. ‘race gap’ in the commission of violent crime has narrowed substantially, yet persists — with murder arrest rates for African Americans still out-distancing those for whites — concludes a new 80-city study by the University of Maryland, Florida State University and the University of Oregon…. LINK.
The most informative bit…
Based on FBI Uniform Crime Report arrest data from 1960 to 2000 in 80 of the largest U.S. cities (listed below), the researchers found:
- 1960-1979: The gap between black and white homicide arrests dropped 55 percent, on average.
- 1980-1999: The gap re-widened — on average more than 20 percent — with the explosive growth of the crack cocaine epidemic in major U.S. cities.
- By the end of the century, nearly 30 percent of the largest U.S. cities had black homicide arrests rates that were more than 10 times higher than white rates.
