The Racial Demographics of School Shooters, Mass Shooters and Serial Killers in the U.S.
To most people, the terms ‘school shooter’ and ‘mass shooter’ probably evoke the image of a lonely White teenager. When it comes to serial killers, White psychopaths like Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer are the most popularised figures in modern culture. Approximately 90% of national media coverage pertaining to interracial violence shows White-on-Black incidents, such as the George Floyd death which sparked nationwide riots.
So are Whites disproportionately committing these crimes? Let’s find out…
Summary
- In 2022, the majority (52%) of school shootings were committed by the Black demographic while only 3% were committed by Whites
- Since 2000, approximately a third of mass school shootings were committed by White people
- Since 2019, only 14% of mass shootings were committed by White people. In contrast, 72% were committed by Black people
- African-Americans are disproportionately represented as serial killers in every decade since 1900 and since the turn of the century, they have been the majority of serial killers despite only making up 12–13% of the population
- According to the National Crime Victimization Survey of 2021, Black people are 35 times more likely to attack a White person than the other way around
- Approximately 85% of interracial crime is Black-on-White, yet 90% of national media coverage in the U.S. focuses on White-on-Black violence
- A study from the Philadelphia Police Department found that Black and Hispanic officers were more likely than White officers to shoot unarmed Black individuals
- Between 2017–2022, 74% of all known individuals fatally shot by the police were not Black
- According to FBI statistics, the Black population (13%) committed 60% of the homicides in the US
- According to the FBI tally for 1956, the Black population (10%) accounted for 60% of all violent crimes
- In London, the Black population accounts for 13% of all residents yet they commit 61% of the fatal stabbings in the city
- In New York, Latino (23%) and Asians (23%) have higher rates of poverty than Blacks (19%), yet the Black murder arrest rate was nearly 9 times higher than Asians
- A state-by-state covariance analysis showed that percentage of Black population was emphatically the strongest predictor for a high murder rate, with low average income and high gun ownership barely registering a blip in comparison
- The sons of Black families from the top 1% had around the same chance of being incarcerated as the sons of a White family earning $36,000 per year
Contents
- School Shooters
- Mass Shooters
- Serial Killers
- Interracial Crime & Police Bias
- Causes: Debunking Myths
1. School Shooters
The FBI studied 18 school shootings and found the shooters to fit the following profile: “male, Caucasian, and middle class.” However in 2022, over 50 or so incidents, only 3% of school shooters were White. It’s worth noting that many of the incidents where the race of the shooter was unknown were described as gang-related, suggesting that the Black and Hispanic numbers are higher.
So where does this discrepancy come from? Perhaps it comes from the definition of a school shooting. The data used in this article defined a school shooting as incidents where at least 1 person (excluding suicides) was deliberately harmed or killed with a gun. The 18 school shootings used by the FBI may have only included severe mass shootings. Using the same database, we find that Whites did account for the majority of school shootings where at least 5 or more people were deliberately harmed or killed since the turn of the century. However, there is only a 2.8% difference between the Black and White demographic, showing Whites are underrepresented for population size and Blacks are overrepresented.
2. Mass Shooters
Outside of school shootings, the overarching narrative is that White men are responsible for the majority of mass shootings in the US as well. However according to Statista, 52% of mass shooters since 1983 have been committed by the White demographic, which shows underrepresentation to population size. Yet, when we comb through recent data from this database, we find far different results.
3. Serial Killers
The US media uses a handful of tropes when portraying serial killers in film and television — most frequently presented are the creepy loner archetype or the charismatic psychopath, however there is a constant; they are almost exclusively White men. However, research from Radford University shows that African-Americans are disproportionately represented as serial killers in every decade since 1900 and since the turn of the century, they have been the majority of serial killers despite only making up 12-13% of the population.
4. Interracial Crime & Police Bias
When the Jussie Smollett hate hoax originally broke, the media, politicians, and celebrities were quick to announce the United States as a White supremacist nation where it’s dangerous for Black men to walk the street. We know now that Jussie Smollett lied about his racial attack, but what does the data say?
According to the National Crime Victimization Survey 2021, Black people are 35 times more likely to attack a White person than the other way around. In the 2018 survey, Black people were 48 times more likely to attack a White person.
We also see organisations like BLM propagate the idea that Black men are disproportionately killed at the hands of White police officers, yet in between 2017–2022, 74% of all known individuals fatally shot by the police were not Black. When it comes to unarmed criminals, Blacks are more likely to be killed by the police than Whites. However, 6.83% of unarmed Whites are killed compared to 7.28% of Blacks, this is an insignificant difference, especially when we consider that Blacks are 2.88 times more likely to be involved in violent crimes. Further, analysis from Roland Fryer found that there were no racial differences in police shootings. Another study from the Philadelphia Police Department found that Black and Hispanic officers were more likely than White officers to shoot unarmed Black individuals. A paper analysing data from the New York Police Department found that Black officers were 3.3 times more likely than White officers to use their guns. Despite this evidence, the media promote the agenda of White-on-Black violence as a serious issue in the U.S. (and other Western countries). Around 85% of interracial crime is Black-on-White, yet approximately 90 percent of national media coverage in the U.S. focuses on White-on-Black violence — what is being communicated to the public is a complete inverse of reality.
5. Causes: Debunking Myths
Last year, the FBI released data showing that the Black demographic (13%) now account for 60% of homicides in the US (only 64% of law enforcement agencies submitted data, excluding large cities such as New York & Los Angeles, suggesting the the Black percentage is greater in reality). There have been many reasons to explain away this social phenomenon, many of which absolve the Black demographic of accountability and lay blame on historic racism and the unique history of America. Ultimately, it’s White people’s fault that Black people are killing and committing violent crime at hugely disproportionate rates.
However if we look across the pond, we also find almost identical statistics. 13% of London’s population is Black, yet Black Londoners account for 61% of knife murder perpetrators — furthermore, only 1 in 6 knife crime cases are solved, suggesting the numbers are probably far worse. The overwhelming majority of Black Londoners are from families who have arrived within the last 70 years as economic migrants and therefore the generational trauma of slavery and Jim Crow laws cannot be used to justify these numbers. Nor can poverty, as the in the UK, Pakistani and Bangladeshi households are below Black households regarding weekly income. In New York, Latino (23%) and Asians (23%) have higher rates of poverty than Blacks (19%), yet the Black murder arrest rate was nearly 9 times higher than Asians. If poverty was a primary cause of criminality, then we’d expect the Asian crime rates to be higher, not substantially lower.
A state-by-state covariance analysis tested the U.S. murder rate by average income, gun ownership and percentage of Black population. The data showed that percentage of Black population was emphatically the strongest predictor for a high murder rate, with average income and gun ownership barely registering a blip in comparison. For example, the state of West Virginia has the fourth-lowest income and the third-highest levels of gun ownership, but has a low murder rate — the Black demographic only accounts for 3.58% of the population.
Furthermore, research has shown that the sons of Black families from the top 1 percent had around the same chance of being incarcerated as the sons of a White family earning $36,000 per year. Many would argue this is evidence that the judiciary system is racist, yet bias often operates in the other direction. The epiphenomenon of White flight is Bronx juries, where Black criminals are acquitted for cut-and-dried cases because the jury is majority Black.
Economists such as Thomas Sowell argue that the Great Society programs of the mid-1960s have caused a breakdown in the African-American family, leading to a 50% decrease in marriage between 1970 and 2004.
“The black family, which had survived centuries of slavery and discrimination, began rapidly disintegrating in the liberal welfare state that subsidized unwed pregnancy and changed welfare from an emergency rescue to a way of life.” — Thomas Sowell
The destruction of the Black nuclear family and ‘fatherless homes’ have been cited as a main driver for Black overrepresentation in crime, however a Times article from 1958 shows that the same crime trends were prevalent even back when Black families were intact. According to the FBI tally for 1956, the Black population (10%) accounted for 60% of the arrests for crimes involving violence or threat of bodily harm. Yet in the 1950s, the marriage rate was around the same between White and Black demographics.
Curiously, the article uses terms like “subconscious racial persecution” and argues that the police are more likely to arrest Black people for petty crimes. We also read that even back then, there was a “conspiracy of concealment” around Black criminality, pushed by Black interest groups like the NAACP. Despite all the efforts to equalise Black and White achievement with the civil rights movement and affirmative action, 65 years later the crime rates and the excuses remain the same.
