Thus, when it comes to the homicidal violence of the contemporary inner city, we are
dealing with very bad boys from very bad homes, kids who in most cases have suffered
or witnessed violent crimes in the past. These juveniles are not criminally depraved
because they are economically deprived; they are totally depraved because they are
completely unsocialized.

-- J. J. DiIulio Jr. ( 1995)

"No matter how one adjusts for other demographic factors, Blacks tend to be
overrepresented by a factor of four to one among persons arrested for violent
crimes, and by a factor of nearly three to one among those arrested for property
crimes" ( J. Wilson & Herrnstein, 1985, pp. 461-462). To put it differently, if the
Black crime rate were no higher than the rate for Whites, violent crimes in the United
States would decrease by half. As can be seen in Fig. 15.1, the arrest rate of juveniles
for violent crimes was about six times higher for Blacks than for Whites by 1992. Black
male juveniles were seven times more likely to murder someone (or to be murdered
themselves) in 1980 than were Whites of the same age; by 1990, the ratio had increased
to 8:1 ( FBI, 1992). In 1987, arrest rates for robbery were 15 times higher, and for assault
7 times higher, for Blacks than for Whites ( Blumstein & Cohen, 1987). Although one
might suspect that the criminal justice system is quicker to arrest and to convict Black
than White suspects, reports by victims of the race of the person who robbed or assaulted
them correspond closely to the proportions of Blacks and Whites arrested for such
crimes ( J. Wilson & Herrnstein, 1985).

"In 1988, in the nation's 75 most populous urban counties, Blacks were 20% of
the general population but 54% of all murder victims and 62% of all defendants"
( DiIulio, 1994). In Little Rock, Arkansas, victims of more than 80% of the violent
crimes (97% of Black victims) reported during 1991 identified the assailant as
Black ( Uyttebrouck, 1993). Although African Americans make up only one-eighth
of the population of the United States (one third of the population of Little Rock),
one gets the impression that many more than one eighth of the perpetrators of the

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