Rise in the Number of Young Black Men Who Are Victims or Perpetrators of Murder

A study that is being released on Monday, December 29, 2008, states that black males between the ages of 14 to 17 and who have murdered another person or were murdered or killed, has significantly increased since 2000. With a 40% increase since 2007, 426 black males were killed in crimes involving a gun compared to an estimated 384 white males age 14 to 17, up from 368 in 2000. The study claims that the numbers of murders and violent crimes have risen approximately 8% in the last seven years, although nationwide, the same crimes have dropped overall. Noting that out of the 10,067 arrests in murder and non-negligent manslaughter cases in 2007, half of those arrested were black with 10% under the age of 18. Those same crimes committed by women, black or white, were few in numbers when compared to that of males.

Is this a case of black on black genocide as claimed by many or is it an indication of the lack of societal concerns within the nation? While some want to place the blame on the current administration, the problem has been in existence far longer. As with any other statistic measured in the United States, the trend fluctuates and has little to do with politics. Instead, there is a growing consensus that it is a combination of poverty with a low socio-economic status, single parent families (normally with just a female as head of household), lack of education, and the use of drugs.

Others believe it is because blacks fail to understand that they are responsible for their own actions and have "turned a blind eye" to what is killing their youth. Larry Aubry, in his article "Black on Black Violence: Part Pained Indifference" states, "Black-on-Black violence is a manifestation of race-based poverty, frustration and self-hate, spawned and nurtured by official neglect and the complicit indifference of Blacks themselves."

Does he mean that the apparent apathy and indifference to what happens around them leads to a lack of respect their own race? Does this then tend to cause blacks to overlook the death of their children as being unimportant? He does go on to say that, "A particularly poignant and disturbing example of violence's pernicious fallout is the steely nonchalance of many Black children towards the pain and suffering of others. They seem to have become impervious to violence, even violent death, and sadly, destined to perpetuate a culture substantially devoid of vision and hope." Do young black males feel so hopeless and helpless that they no longer care if they live or die? Is it more important to make a small mark on the world by becoming a murderer or a victim than to become educated and self-supporting? Is the availability of drugs, specifically in ghetto communities, so much more prevalent that the use of these drugs stops any progression towards self-awareness and making use of skills and other abilities?

A study in 2006 attempts to lay the blame on one particular drug by saying that the violence was perpetrated by prohibition-related violence concerning crack cocaine. In other words, had crack been legal, there would have been less crime and less deaths related to crack, including murder and accounts for the rise and fall of social problems within black and Hispanic communities over a 20-year period from 1980 to 2000. Again, as I noted above, trends fluctuate, but to say that one single indicator of crime (drug use) is the sole responsible agent is ludicrous. These researchers went on to claim that as the crack users became older and less children were born, along with the knowledge that crack was not good for babies, the amount of crime was lessened. Yet, according to these same researchers, the exception of a general decline in the homicide rate for black males aged 18 to 24 at that time was not the result of less crack use. I am not sure you can have it both ways.

Nonetheless, the increase in deaths of black or white males is not a race issue per se; instead, it is a societal issue that each and every one of the citizens of the United States needs to address. Murder is not confined or defined purely and solely by race, but by every thing that goes on (or is allowed to go on, even when illegal) within our communities. Placing more police officers on the streets can only do so much. People in the entire United States have to take responsibility and find solutions to a growing problem.

Sources:

Study: Murders among black youths on the rise

Black on Black Violence: Part Pained Indifference, by Larry Aubry, December 4, 2008

How Bad Was Crack Cocaine?, The Economics of an Illicit Drug Market, Research by Steven D. Levitt and Kevin M. Murphy, 2006