Culture over race

From Haitian-American fact of the day by Tyler Cowen. This is an example why I believe it is important to focus on class and ethnicity (as a proxy for culture) as opposed to race or any of the many other victimhood groups.

Despite all of their adversities, Haitians had rather low crime rates. Martinez and Lee’s 1985-95 study reported a homicide victimization rate of 16.7 for Haitians, which was lower than those for non-Hispanic whites and Latinos and far lower than the rate for American blacks. In fact, the Haitian crime figures may be inflated, since over 54 percent of the suspected killers of murdered Haitians were African American. In other words, the Haitian victimization rate is not an especially good indicator of Haitian offending, because, contrary to the usual situation, Haitians were the victims of an inordinate number of out-group killings. They were believed to have been only 3.5 percent of the murder suspects at a time when they were 14 percent of Miami’s general population.

The source of text is from The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America by Barry Latzer.