Dear Jay,

If we look at the statistics published each year by the
FBI in its "Uniform Crime Reports," they tell us that
50 per cent of all persons arrested were under the
age of 25, that males were four times more likely than
females to be arrested, that persons arrested were much
more likely to live in large citties than in small towns
or rural areas and that they were disproportionately likely
to be black. In fact blacks constituted the highest percentage
of all arrests.

The problem with this is that official statistics don't
always give an accurate picture of society's "criminal
element." A great deal of crime is not reported at all,
even if it is detected - it's the ones who get arrested,
prosecuted and convicted that make up the stats.
And these people are the ones who actually experience formal
negative sanctions are the product of a long process of
social selection.

Only a proportion of crimes are detected, only a proportion
of those detected are reported to the police, only a
proportion of those reported lead to an arrest, only a
proportion of arrests lead to prosecution, only a
proportion of prosecutions lead to convictions, and only
a proportion of convictions lead to imprisonment.

The chances of going from one stage to the next depend
largely on two factors: the seriousness of the offense,
and the social status of the offender.

Studies have shown that police were guided by such things
as as race, dress, demeanor. Of those who were polite,
contrite, and co-operative, less than 5 per cent were
arrested; but those who were defiant, uncooperative,
fully two thirds were arrested.

Dear Poirot,

Thanks.

Your input, as always, is greatly appreciated.

Lexi,

Yoiu should be thanking me and others for that fact. In threads on similar subjects before it has been pointed out to you many times that violence in the US is not 'men' and nor is it because of inanimate objects as in a 'gun culture'. Gun crime and violence generally is black on black and often associated with drugs.

By comparison, in Australia violence is also associated with drugs, especially alcohol, and the low gun crime that Australia has always enjoyed is associated with the criminals and gangs involved in the illegal drug trade. However there is another parallel being found: the extreme violence and gun use (as well as machetes, knives and other brutal methods) are strongly associated with ethnic gangs. The ethnic gangs that are taking over outlaw motorcycle gangs for instance are not only ethnic, but the criminals concerned don't even ride motorcycles.

So again I put to your the obvious conundrum that while there are many, many poor and deprived people all over the world and in the US and Australia too, that regrettable poor and downtrodden status alone does not result in a crime wave by the people concerned. There are people living happy family lives in dumps for instance. Happiness and good citizen behaviour are not dependent upon income or on the rather convenient and self-serving excuse and rationalisation of 'discrimination' as you would have it.

to be continued..

continued...

However violence including gun crime are strongly associated with (say) diversity and multiculturalism. That is where ethnic or religious sub-populations keep themselves separate withing a culture and do not assimilate. So the real questions have to do with that, noting that the separateness is cultivated and imposed by the sub-populations themselves with the encouragement of government and taxpayers' money. It is how fundamentalism can bloom and where antisocial thugs and psychopaths can be encouraged and hide to escape detection.

It is interesting too how many toxic traditions including criminal gangs have been imported whenever immigration officials are too overwhelmed by numbers to perform proper checks, or when the idiotic appeals system in abused. But you along with the Greens Protest Party also want an open door to all who want to come here.

Also, you favour the extreme multiculturalism in Australia and the diversity-we-have-to-have which do, as demonstrated, present risks. Those risks are not being managed effectively. That is obvious from the gang violence that is occurring and from the arrest of many would-be terrorists.

'Gun culture' is a diversion to avoid accountability for some rather nasty unintended consequences of Left policy. While I have mentioned some factors that contribute and even spawn the violence seen in the US and in other countries, there is a whole range of social policies that ought be examined. The Left's interference in education for example.

Lexi,

We should examine modern consumer culture and institutionalised life.

This article from Joe Bageant homes in on America's miasma:

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/12/america-y-ur-peeps-b-so-dum.html

So much for civilisation.....

it seems some have found studies to find why its understandable to be racist if you are coloured but you are plain evil if you are white. It certainly supports their world view. No wonder progress is never made with such obvious discrepencies.