    >>>Does the greatly increased rates of incarceration amongst
    >>>blacks show that they are dysfunctional or that the majority
    >>>of them support criminal activity?
    >>>
    >Isn't this a matter of demographics? Doesn't this simply show
    >that since criminal behaviour is common (or apt to be common)
    >in the 18-34 (insert your favorite correct numbers here) year
    >old range and since the percentage of blacks in this range is
    >higher than in other groups, then it follows statistically
    >that more blacks in prison is an expected result?
    >
    >Note that I haven't said anything about blacks being given
    >stiffer or longer sentences than other groups. I'm sure this
    >has to have an effect on the issue of over-representation of
    >blacks in prison...

Blacks have the same (+- 2%) crime report rate, arrest rate, and incarceration
rate for violent crimes.

So I doubt that for violent crimes, that there is any inherent bias mechanism
present.

There is a wider discrepancy for all crimes for blacks wrt to 3 categories.

Interestingly enough, the discrepancy is the largest in the Southern
United States -- where blacks are incarcerated well BELOW the average in
the rest of the United States! Which points to an anti-bias-against wrt
blacks.

In any case, for violent crimes and burglary and drug selling, blacks are
reported 53%, arrested 44%, and are present in jails/prisons 47% (1988).

Considering that 12% of the population is black, 6% are black males, and
some percentage of that is out of the high/low age groups, we do have a
situation where (if I remember my old calculations right) 4% of the
population commits almost half of the really nasty crimes.

Blacks with similar histories (crime) to whites get the same sentences,
except in the South, where they receive around 20% less on paper!!



-- 
There are actually people that STILL believe Love Canal was some kind of
environmental disaster. Weird, eh?