Doubt cast on racial bias logic
‘BLACK-ON-BLACK’ CRIME FAR LESS PREVALENT THAN ‘WHITE-ON-WHITE’ CASES
ANALYSIS of ten years of homicide data have cast doubt on claims that “black-on-black violence” justifies the targeting of black people by police.
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, we revealed that police in the UK are also disproportionately targeting black people.
Black people are far more likely to be targeted by stop and search, have force used against them such as handcuffs and tasers, and be detained under the Mental Health Act compared to white people.
One response to this has been that this is somehow justified by the prevalence of violent crimes committed by black people against black people. However, figures from the Ministry of Justice show that this is a misconception.
In fact, white victims of homicide are far more likely to be killed by another white person than black victims are to be killed by a black person.
Between 2009/10 and 2017/18, an estimated 272 homicides were committed in West Yorkshire. The number includes both murders and manslaughters. Of that number, 206 victims were white, and 14 were black.
When compared with the population, it means black people were more than twice as likely as white people to be the victim of homicide. The number of deaths works out as a rate of 28 homicides for every 100,000 black people, and 11 for every 100,000 white people.
Figures on the ethnicity of the suspect are not given on a local level, but national figures reveal that of the white people killed between 2009/10 and 2017/18, 92% were thought to have been killed by another white person and just 2% by a black person.
In comparison, of the black people killed during that time just 55% were killed by another black person, and 33% by a white person.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “Racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system is not about who has broken the law. It is rooted in inequality throughout our society.”