Looking at numbers of any ethnic group committing crimes in any one area is disingenuous if you don’t look at the percentage of each group that live at or below the poverty line.

In my observation, being poor has a much higher impact on crime rates. Where I spent my teenage years, after my father retired from active military duty, was an area that was predominantly white in the northeast, had a prepredominantly white underclass and the crimes were usually committed by whites in our local area. Now, I live in the southeast where the racial make up is much more diverse and appears to be more equally divided. (Read, I’ve never sought out actual data and I’m relying on observation.) However here the underclass is made up primarily of people of color, latinos and blacks. Crimes are committed primarily by latinos and blacks. It’s not a coincidence.

I’ve lived in more than the average number of places and states. One move was from Florida to Washington State to give an example. Correlations between underclass and crime works better than simply looking at crime rates in every place I have lived. If you find an area where this is not true, I’d love to know about it.