Truth, Lies and In Between

I was looking at homicide statistics for 2007, just for shits and grins, and noticed an interesting trend.

The perpetrator of the homicide based on age and race trend is what caught my eye.

At ages 9-12 it’s about even with white and black commission of homicides. At age 13 there is a rather significant jump, almost double of blacks over whites committing the crime. Ages 17-19 it seems to have the same trend, double by black individuals. Are the differences here gang related? That would be my theory.

From 20-24 it seems to level off a bit and the whites catch up a bit, in fact, it is almost even again. Then from 25-29 the trend drops in both, but the difference is again about the same as the last group. Is this due to fewer gang members in this age range?

From age 30-34 it seems that whites have passed up the blacks in homicide. That trend continues all the way into the 75 and over category.

Now remember, homicide is counted as a homicide even for self defense. Are the older white dudes killing more in self defense as the age progresses? Are the older whites more likely to own a gun for self defense?

Are the fewer black homicides in the later years a direct result of these blacks being less likely to be in gangs, likely more successful and likely home owners, and also more likely to be self defense?

Another interesting thing about this report is that it doesn’t list Hispanics as a category. Are they listed in the “Other” category with Asians, or are they lumped in with the whites as “White Hispanic”? What gives? 30% of the inmates in California are Hispanic. Why are they left off as a group?

Questions abound…