Monday, June 29, 2015

Crime and Groups

Let's examine a logical issue that few if any logic textbooks explain. (All current logic textbooks I have seen are not good but that's another issue.)

Many writers argue that massive disparities in interracial violent crimes result from the fact that the white population in the former U.S. is larger, thus having far more potential and actual victims.

But a larger group also has more potential perpetrators, all other things being equal.

To take another example, the number of inter-letter violent crimes between individuals with last names beginning with s and z would be roughly equal if almost all other things were roughly equal, despite the fact there are more individuals with last names beginning with s.

Imagine a fictional society having only 9000 esses and 1000 zees, both groups having twenty percent of their populations committing one random violent crime, all other things being equal. Both the eses and zees commit roughly 180 violent inter-letter crimes.

But in our world, all other things are not equal.

Random crime is almost nonexistent. Victims are chosen for their age, race, ethnicity, proximity, body language, and other reasons. Ethnoracial groups have differing genetic and environmental histories, causing them to commit inter-group crimes at differing rates.