Nationwide — Almost every day a news report about police brutality and Black Lives Matter is getting coverage, and usually a conservative counters it by claiming that Blacks kill Blacks as well, neverminding the underlying truths. A new study debunks the notion that being Black means more violent occurrences, and confirms that crime happens regardless of race.
On the other hand, when a police officer shoots an unarmed Black man, they often get away with it and some even remain in authority. Now, a new study completely tackles the different sides of the Black-on-Black crime argument.
A study from the Vera Institute of Justice entitled An Unjust Burden: The Disparate Treatment of Black Americans in the Criminal Justice System concludes that crime is the same despite race and Black-on-Black crime is actually no different than white-on-white crime.
According to the evidence brief, “A report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that most violence occurs between victims and offenders of the same race, regardless of race. The rate of both Black-on-Black and white-on-white nonfatal violence declined 79 percent between 1993 and 2015. The number of homicides involving both a Black victim and Black perpetrator fell from 7,361 in 1991 to 2,570 in 2016.”
Therefore, many would agree that instead of putting all the weight on black-on-black crime, it is just right to look into the white-on-white crime as well. The real issue is not about who commits the crime but who is selectively punished.
Moreover, most of the issue is connected to the criminal justice system. The study confirms that racism in the criminal justice system dates back to slavery to Jim Crow to the mass incarceration.
Nevertheless, “A 2010 study found that white Americans overestimate the share of burglaries, illegal drug sales, and juvenile crime committed by Black people by approximately 20-30 percent.”