Black On Black Crime

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Black-on-Black Crime
Imagine growing up in a community where you are more than likely to have lost friends and families to violence. Imagine living in a place where you are scared to walk to school or walk alone. This is what it is like for many people in poverty-stricken neighborhoods, especially black dominated neighborhoods. In such neighborhoods exist black-on-black crime and people have become too familiar with violence amongst each other. In analyzing black on black crime, it is important to try to understand what black on black crime is, what may be the causes of this type of crime, and solutions that can be implemented to eradicating this type of crime from society.
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines black-on-black crime as crime …show more content…

Department of Justice, within the years 1980 and 2008, 47.4% of homicide victims were black (Cooper & Smith, 2013). When one considers that the black population accounts for less than 15% of the United States population, it is apparent why this percentage is problematic. Of this 47.4%, 93% of these victims were killed by other black people (Cooper & Smith, 2013). Black-on-black crime is not limited strictly to homicides. From the year 2001 to 2005, of all violent victimization of African Americans, 77.1% of these victims were assaulted by other African Americans (Harrell 2007). Violent victimization includes but is not limited to gang-related violence, physical assault, and aggravated …show more content…

Black-on-black crime is the result of years of an “unjust society that has instilled the wrong values in them, failed to make them feel worthy and placed insurmountable barriers before them” (Tesfamariam 2012). Many of the perpetrators of this crime are young black men that have inherited the obsession over material possessions. These are people that are born into poor social and economic situations. Countless people in neighborhoods that have a black majority are born into broken homes. Children in these homes grow up to be accustomed to domestic violence, child abuse, neglect, and out-of-wedlock births. These families are also at an economic disadvantage since they often cannot acquire higher paying jobs, either due to underprivileged public education, or because they must support their family around the house. This creates a cycle of poverty that is often too hard to overcome, so some people result to gangs and crime, in hopes of supporting themselves and their families. Once a person has chosen a life of gangs and crime, they may have to sustain a tough appearance to other gangs and criminals that live within their communities. Since the communities are subjugated by blacks or other people of color, the results are the large percentage of black-on-black crimes.
Although many of these offenders

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