POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY ANGELA LAWRENCE IN THE GUARDIAN
Regarding the incarceration rates cited above, everywhere there are detailed records kept, these kinds of differences are seen.
In the United States, literally half of all black young men have had experience with the penal system.
Close to half of all violent crimes are committed by black males.
That is, out of a population of about 300 million, the 13% who are black are responsible for the same amount of violent crime as the entire rest.
Since it is overwhelmingly males who commit violent crimes in any population, and if we allow for only young males, then we get something on the order of 2 or 3% of the American population responsible for about half of all violent crime.
The stats are similar in other places. In the small country of Jamaica with a population roughly 2.5 million, there are about 1,200 murders a year.
Were you were to take the Jamaican stats and blow them up to British size, roughly 60 million people, Britain would have nearly 29,000 murders a year.
There is clearly a terrible problem here, but I don't think it has anything to do with traditional British society or education or social programs.
