Our wealth should enable us to have much lower crime rates. Yet, we far exceed many poorer countries. We have the highest incarceration rate in the industrial world. We also have a weaker social safety net. Income levels do not account for all of the difference in crime rates between blacks and whites.
Racism is a powerful factor.
The severe disadvantages caused by slavery and segregation remain uncured while programs to adequately compensate for the harm remain to be implemented. Policing has vastly improved in the thirty years since President Johnson's Crime commission identified a wide range of weaknesses that limited the effectiveness of departments in preventing and controlling crime. Officers are better educated. The use of force is more strictly controlled. Personnel are more representative of the communities they protect.