[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 88 (Monday, July 11, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          THE BLACK CRIME GAP

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, freedom from crime is the most important 
civil rights issue for the 1990's.
  In an article appearing in today's Wall Street Journal, Prof. John 
Diiulio, Jr., points out that while the ``poverty gap between blacks 
and whites may be shrinking, the crime gap is growing.'' According to 
Professor Diiulio, in 1992 the violent-crime victimization rate for 
blacks was the highest ever recorded. Blacks suffer disproportionately 
at the hands of parolees who have slipped through the revolving prison 
door--legally--only to commit more violence and destroy more lives.
  No doubt about it, white racism still persists in America. Our 
criminal justice system is not perfect. Unfortunately, justice is not 
always meted out in a colorblind fashion, as it should be. But whatever 
these shortcomings may be, they pale in importance when matched against 
the carnage inflicted on the black community by violent crime each 
year. Fighting crime is, and should be, our No. 1 civil rights 
priority.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the article by Professor 
Diiulio be reprinted in the Record immediately after my remarks.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Wall Street Journal, July 11, 1994]

                          The Black Crime Gap

                       (By John J. DiIulio, Jr.)

       The poverty gap between blacks and whites may be shrinking, 
     but the crime gap is growing. No group of Americans is more 
     devastated by crime than black inner-city citizens and their 
     children. No wonder black urban residents overwhelmingly cite 
     crime as the single biggest problem in their neighborhoods.
       In 1992, the violent-crime victimization rate for blacks 
     was the highest ever recorded. Some 113 out of 1,000 black 
     teenage males were victims of violent crimes. This compared 
     with 95 for black teenage females, 90 for white teenage males 
     and 55 for white teenage females. The rate was 80 for young 
     (age 20-34) black men, compared with 52 for young white men. 
     And the rate was 35 for adult (age 35-64) black males vs. 18 
     for adult white males. The chances that a black male teenager 
     would be victimized by violent crime were 6.2 times that of a 
     white adult male, 7.5 times that of a white adult female, 
     18.8 times that of an elderly white male and 37.6 times that 
     of an elderly white female.
       Black residents of cities are most at risk. From 1987 to 
     1989, the average rate of violent-crime victimization among 
     city residents was 92% higher than among rural residents, and 
     56% higher than among suburban residents. In 1992 the rate at 
     which black males in central cities experienced violent 
     crimes was 2.5 times the rate at which nonmetropolitan white 
     males experienced them. Even within central-city populations, 
     the rate at which black males experienced violent crimes was 
     53% higher than the rate for white males (up from 31% higher 
     in 1989).


                             criminal data

       Now let's look at the data about those who commit crimes.
       Statistics show that the vast majority of violent crime in 
     intraracial. About 84% of violent crimes committed by blacks 
     are committed against blacks, while 73% of violent crimes 
     committed by whites are committed against whites.
       In 1991 black youths were arrested for weapons-law 
     violations at a rate triple that of white youths. In the same 
     year, the violent-crime arrest rate for black youths was five 
     times higher than that of white youths (1,456 vs. 283 per 
     100,000). From 1976 to 1991, the murder rate among white 
     youths was stable at two to three per 100,000. Between 1976 
     and 1986 the murder rate for black youths fluctuated between 
     around seven and 10, then rose steadily to about 14 in 1988, 
     18 in 1990 and 20 in 1991.
       The tragedy of thousands of black youths killed by black 
     youths might be expected to concentrate hearts and minds on 
     the question of how to stop the violence. Instead, this 
     national tragedy has been trivialized by those who spout 
     errant nonsense about racial disparities in the justice 
     system.
       In fact, once one controls for such characteristics as the 
     offender's criminal history or whether an eyewitness to the 
     crime was present, racial disparities melt away. To cite a 
     typical example, a 1991 study of adult robbery and burglary 
     defendants in 14 large urban jurisdictions found that a 
     defendant's race or ethnic group bore almost no relation to 
     conviction rates or other key outcome measures.
       In 1980, 46.6% of state prisoners and 34.4% of federal 
     prisoners were black. As the prison population increased 
     during the 1980s, the percentage of blacks changed little. By 
     1990 48.9% of state prisoners and 31.4% of federal prisoners 
     were black. Compared with white prisoners of the same age, 
     black prisoners are more likely to have committed crimes of 
     violence. In 1988 the median time served in confinement by 
     violent offenders was 24 months for whites vs. 25 months for 
     blacks. For crimes of violence, the mean sentence for whites 
     was 110 months vs. 116 months for blacks, while the mean time 
     in confinement differed by only four months (33 months for 
     whites vs. 37 months for blacks).
       At the federal level, a 1993 study showed that the 
     imposition from 1986 to 1990 of stiffer penalties for drug 
     offenders, especially crack cocaine traffickers, did not 
     result in racially disparate sentences. The amount of the 
     drug sold, the offenders' prior criminal records, whether 
     weapons were involved, and other characteristics that federal 
     law and sentencing guidelines establish as valid 
     considerations accounted for all the observed variation in 
     sentencing.
       In short, the best available evidence indicates that race 
     is not a significant variable in determining whether a 
     criminal is arrested, sentenced to probation or prison, or 
     given a long or short term.
       Of course, American justice is not yet fully color-blind. 
     But rather than celebrate our progress in approximating this 
     ideal, some prefer to focus attention on whatever evidence of 
     racial disparities they can muster.
       For example, there are hundreds of post-1969 studies of 
     minorities in the juvenile justice system. Barely two dozen, 
     however, actually offer evidence of any overall pattern of 
     racial discrimination. But based on an interpretation of 46 
     of 250 of these studies, a much-cited ``research summary'' 
     published by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and 
     Delinquency Prevention last December asserted that there was 
     ``substantial'' evidence of racial discrimination against 
     minority juvenile offenders. This report was drafted in 
     October 1989, peer reviews were ready in February 1991 and 
     the report itself was not published until December 1993. But 
     the report's postscript states that because of ``time 
     pressures'' and ``numerous requests for the final document,'' 
     OJJDP ``decided not to update the research'' or ``make any 
     major substantive changes.'' Congressional overseers should 
     see to it that OJJDP, a bureaucratic bastion of sociological 
     cant on crime that has enjoyed large budgetary increases 
     under Attorney General Janet Reno, straightens house.
       There is also some evidence that blacks who kill whites are 
     more likely to be sentenced to death than blacks who kill 
     blacks. This is the focus of the Racial Justice Act, which 
     some House Democrats have made the perverse price of their 
     support for the proposed crime bill. But most of the evidence 
     centers on pre-1972 rural Southern jurisdictions; it is 
     hardly conclusive.
       The black crime gap is real, not rhetorical or racist, and 
     black Americans' rising fear of crime at a time of declining 
     crime rates nationwide must be addressed. There are at least 
     three things that government can do.
       First, give low-income people vouchers so they can protect 
     their homes against crime. The private foundations that have 
     spent tens of millions of dollars to analyze inner-city 
     problems have never spent a penny on such mundane things as 
     deadbolt locks for public-housing residents or private 
     security for public housing complexes. Uncle Sam should also 
     lend a hand in erecting gates on crime-plagued inner city 
     streets, automatically evicting drug dealers from public 
     housing, installing metal detectors in public schools and 
     cutting aid to cities that don't zone away liquor stores in 
     areas where they serve as magnets of crime and disorder.
       Second, redirect existing police personnel to high-crime 
     neighborhoods, add new police manpower and target it on the 
     same neighborhoods, and empower police to work with law-
     abiding residents and community leaders, aggressively check 
     disorders (vagrancy, graffiti, public drunkenness, aggressive 
     panhandling) that are associated with crime and citizens' 
     fear of crime, and last but not least, arrest the bad guys, 
     charging them to the full extent of the law.
       Third, follow through with truth-in-sentencing and related 
     measures, and start keeping track of how many citizens from 
     which neighborhoods are victimized or murdered each year by 
     the roughly 3.5 million probationers and parolees. The 
     federal government can tell us how many prisoners are in 
     various treatment programs. But it cannot tell us how many 
     poor black children have been gunned down by plea-bargained 
     violent criminals. Existing data are limited, but we know 
     that about one-quarter of those arrested for murder are on 
     probation or parole at the time of the offense. Blacks suffer 
     disproportionately from crimes by parolees and probationers 
     since many violent and repeat offenders call the inner city 
     home.


                          a civil-rights issue

       Inner-city crime must be understood as a civil-rights 
     issue. The little Linda Browns of today's urban neighborhoods 
     are being deprived of basic governmental protections and 
     civil rights. It is a contorted conception of civil rights 
     that requires government action against segregated schools 
     but does not require it against violence-ridden ones. It is 
     an empty jurisprudence that sees a civil-rights interest in 
     enabling children to attend the local public school of their 
     choice but sees none in enabling children to walk to school 
     without having to dodge stray bullets or run from drug 
     dealers.
       In a speech last November to black pastors, President 
     Clinton imagined that if the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 
     could return to the pulpit today, he would say: ``I fought to 
     stop white people from being so filled with hate that they 
     would wreak violence on black people. I did not fight for the 
     right of black people to murder other black people with 
     reckless action.'' Amen.

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