Hacker Read

newbie789 | karma 1109 | avg karma 2.47 · 2021-01-20 04:21:42+00:00

>African Americans commit more than 50% of violent crime,

Out of curiosity, I understand that you're simply citing statistics from a source but I'd like to know if you think this reflects reality? If so, what reason would you suggest creates this?

reply

hombre_fatal | karma 18663 | avg karma 3.79 · 2021-01-20 08:10:34+00:00

Statistics, measurements, are the only lens on reality that we have. It's something we have to be able to talk about.

Be very wary of someone who thinks their intuition is stronger than our best pursuits of data. And, based on what, Reddit r/videos and Twitter?

reply

newbie789 | karma 1109 | avg karma 2.47 · 2021-01-20 18:08:01

That’s fascinating. I personally haven’t found any statistics on how many crimes of any type are committed that didn’t include estimates, only statistics that count arrests(1) since those are discrete and easily countable.

I agree that statistics are an incredibly powerful tool to understand the world but I disagree that they’re the “only lens on reality” since in some cases, ideologues are able to summon numbers that fit a preconceived notion.

Edit: oops, forgot the link (1) https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-...

reply

rj_kidwin | karma 15 | avg karma 2.14 · 2021-01-21 19:50:29+00:00

I believe it reflects reality, or is at least a strong approximation of reality.

I think the cause to first order is economics. Second and third order terms with much less but still contributing importance are political (decades of policy failures like the War on Drugs and welfare expansion, for-profit prisons, etc), and cultural (there is far too much celebration of crime culture, gang culture, and respect culture that normalizes the state of things in the black community).

reply