Title: Crime and race: Yes, let’s look at the stats | Coeur d'Alene Press
Headings: Crime and race: Yes, let’s look at the stats
Crime and race: Yes, let’s look at the stats
Content: One very disturbing survey was published in the Journal of Alcohol and Drug Abuse in the 1990s. Asking respondents to simply close their eyes for a second, envision a drug user, and describe them, 95 percent of respondents pictured a “black” user. Yet at the time the percentage of drug users in the U.S. who were African-American was 15 percent. According to a Human Rights Watch multi-state study in 2000, 80 to 90 percent of all drug offenders sent to prison were black. Nationwide, black men are still six times more likely to be imprisoned than are white men. Does that mean skin color is associated with higher offense rates? Consider what HRW also found: Facing the same charge, black offenders were 20 to 57 times more likely to be sent to prison than were white offenders. Maybe you’re wondering if one group had prior offenses or a different history; both can influence sentencing.