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Note: I don't think this is a "city vs. city" sort of thing, since murder is not exactly a competition. It's more of a general set of data.
DC, Louisiana and Bahamas highest murder rate.... What do they all have in common??? High percentages of blacks. I'm not rascist! But I do see a common re occurring theme...
DC, Louisiana and Bahamas highest murder rate.... What do they all have in common??? High percentages of blacks. I'm not rascist! But I do see a common re occurring theme...
Then why do Missouri and Nevada have higher murder rates than Virginia and Georgia? Last time I checked, MO and NV have lower Black populations than GA and VA?
And why does El Salvador, a nation with barely any Blacks, have among the highest murder rates in the Western Hemisphere, far higher than the Bahamas or even anywhere in the Caribbean? And the last I checked, El Salvador has no coastline on the Caribbean.
And by the way, DC is not a state, it is a city. Among major cities, DC has a lower murder rate than alot of major cities in the USA. DC has a similar percentage of Blacks as St. Louis, but a lower murder rate than St. Louis. Kansas City has a much lower percentage of Blacks than DC, but a higher murder rate than DC.
Then why do Missouri and Nevada have higher murder rates than Virginia and Georgia? Last time I checked, MO and NV have lower Black populations than GA and VA?
Missouri has an unusually high black murder rate, so the high black murder rate makes up for the lower black %. I'd curious what the racial breakdown of the murder rate is for Nevada, it doesn't fit the usual demographic pattern.
California and Texas have the same murder rate even though Texas has about twice the black population by % and they have same hispanic %. I'd be curious what the breakdown is there as well. Problem is murder by race has a hispanic category, so all they get is black and non-black. Still gives a clue. My guess is California has a higher black murder rate and lower non-black murder rate than Texas.
Missouri has an unusually high black murder rate, so the high black murder rate makes up for the lower black %. I'd curious what the racial breakdown of the murder rate is for Nevada, it doesn't fit the usual demographic pattern.
California and Texas have the same murder rate even though Texas has about twice the black population by % and they have same hispanic %. I'd be curious what the breakdown is there as well. Problem is murder by race has a hispanic category, so all they get is black and non-black. Still gives a clue. My guess is California has a higher black murder rate and lower non-black murder rate than Texas.
Nevada has a high Black murder rate as well. Interestingly, in 1980, Nevada was the most murderous state in the USA, with a murder rate of 20 murders per 100,000. Only Louisiana has recorded a murder rate higher than that. Alaska isn't too far behind either. 1982, Alaska's murder rate ended at 18.5 murders per 100,000.
I have a theory about California and Texas. There have been many Blacks leaving California. Many of them middle class, and many have moved to Texas. I suspect the number of middle class Blacks leaving California and settling in Texas might be playing a part in California's Black murder rate being markedly higher than Texas.
The commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a tiny island in the middle of nowhere; honestly, who the hell cares? They have little impact on the overall murder rate in the US.
The states you mention are small states with populations of about four million apiece with most of their crime concentrated in the urban areas, New Orleans for example. Mexico is a huge country with a population of over 100 million people so they are a legitimate threat. I think building a wall would prevent a lot of that crime from spilling over into this country.
Actually Puerto Rico is not in the middle of nowhere, its in the center of Caribbean region, between Dominican Republic and Haiti to the west and the Virgin Islands and the Lesser Antilles to the east.
And its murder rate has a big impact on the US, being that its a US territory. Puerto Rico is already plagued by high (and increasing) crime and poverty, as well as a shrinking economy and almost hopeless atmosphere in some places. Because of all this PR, is experiencing its second largest migration wave, and because PR is a US territory, u can guess where most are going.
Some of those migrants are educated and well-off, some are your average working-class american joes, some are lower-class and ghetto, some are just outright criminals(the same criminals who bring Puerto Rico's crime rate up). Most of them are going to cities like Philadelphia, Orlando, New York, Tampa, Boston, Miami, Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, Norfolk where theres already large Puerto Rican ghettos. In fact, Northeastern states (where over half of the US Puerto Rican community lives) like Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York have some of the highest Hispanic incarnation and poverty rates in the country, mostly because of Puerto Ricans. LOOK IT UP
On a side note, Florida's Puerto Ricans (who are usually fresh off the boat and more socio-economically similar to Cuban Americans) are slightly better off than the large Puerto Rican populations in the Northeastern states like NY NJ CT PA etc as well as the Chicago area (there they are more assimilated and socio-economically similar to American Blacks)
DC, Louisiana and Bahamas highest murder rate.... What do they all have in common??? High percentages of blacks. I'm not rascist! But I do see a common re occurring theme...
Yeah OK. Mississippi has been the state with the largest percentage of black people, but not one time from 1960-2014, was Mississippi's murder rate the highest in the nation. Georgia has been the state with the 3rd or 4th largest percentage of black people, but since 1990, Georgia's murder rate has usually ranked around the 10th highest in the nation. Since Katrina, Mempis' black population is twice the size of New Orleans and a larger percentage than New Orleans, yet it's seen a smaller number of murders, and murder rate considerably lower than New Orleans every year since that time.
Yeah OK. Mississippi has been the state with the largest percentage of black people, but not one time from 1960-2014, was Mississippi's murder rate the highest in the nation. Georgia has been the state with the 3rd or 4th largest percentage of black people, but since 1990, Georgia's murder rate has usually ranked around the 10th highest in the nation. Since Katrina, Mempis' black population is twice the size of New Orleans and a larger percentage than New Orleans, yet it's seen a smaller number of murders, and murder rate considerably lower than New Orleans every year since that time.
Georgia currently has the highest number of Blacks in the USA, surpassing New York. The percentage of Blacks in Georgia is similar to Louisiana, at 30.5%. Georgia's murder rate has been dropping. It's lower than Missouri, and has a lower Black murder rate than Missouri.
It is important to look at the dynamic of what goes on.
Georgia currently has the highest number of Blacks in the USA, surpassing New York. The percentage of Blacks in Georgia is similar to Louisiana, at 30.5%. Georgia's murder rate has been dropping. It's lower than Missouri, and has a lower Black murder rate than Missouri.
It is important to look at the dynamic of what goes on.
If you look around online, you can find black murder rate maps which include almost every state, except Florida, and sometimes Alabama.
Mississippi does indeed have a very low black homicide rate compared to most other southern states.
In general, one thing that jumps out at me from this map is the degree to which the black population is rural versus suburban versus urban makes a big difference. Black homicide rates are relatively low in all of the traditional "black belt" states where there is a large rural black population. Black homicide rates are higher in states were most o the black population is instead concentrated into urban neighborhoods. The difference is probably partially attributable to less gang culture in the suburbs and rural areas, but differences in lead exposure probably make a big difference as well. Old urban neighborhoods have lots of lead (these days exposure is more from dust in the soil from leaded gasoline decades back, not paint. It's been proven that lead exposure leads not only to lower IQ, but to personality changes which make someone far more likely to have angry outbursts.
Edit: Some people could argue that given the charts track black victims, not black murderers, it's hard to draw conclusions. But most murderers kill someone of the same race, and there's no reason to presume this would vary dramatically from state to state. More importantly, while you can usually easily assign a race to the victim of a murder, there is no way to be sure what race the perpetrator was in unsolved murder cases (which sadly are all-too-many of those in blighted urban areas.
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