Title: Debunking Myths About Gender, Race and Murder | Psychology Today
Headings: Debunking Myths About Gender, Race and Murder
Scott A. Bonn Ph.D.
Debunking Myths About Gender, Race and Murder
Reality is not what you might think.

Content: According to more recent UCR data for the years 1980 to 2008, males were seven times more likely to commit murder than females. The data reveal that homicide offending rates for both males and females followed the same general pattern as victimization rates. Specifically, the offending rate for females declined from 3.1 offenders per 100,000 persons in 1980 to 1.6 offenders per 100,000 persons in 2008. The offending rate for males peaked in 1991 at 20.8 per 100,000 persons, and then fell to a low of 11.3 per 100,000 persons in 2008. Similar to homicide victimization, a white female is the least likely homicide offender of all possible race and gender combinations. The data reveal that she is far less likely than a black female or a male of any race to become a murderer in the U.S. According to my estimates which are based on the UCR data for 2013, females of all races comprised 10 percent of the 14,132 murder offenders that year, and white females accounted for less than 5 percent of all offenders. The offending rate for white females was .7 per 100,000 persons in 2013. This compares to rates of 3.7 black females per 100,000 persons, 6.2 for white males and 35.2 for black males. The data for 2013 reveal that the offending rate for black females was five times greater than the rate for white females. article continues after advertisement
The data further show that black males, similar to their homicide victimization rate, had the highest offending rate of all.