VIRGINIA BEACH
The headline on the news release touting an advocacy group’s study released Monday blared: “Virginia Beach Leads the Nation in Rising Racial Disparity in Drug Arrests.”
Beach authorities, however, dispute the study’s methodology and conclusions.
The report, by criminal justice research group The Sentencing Project, said that, between 1980 and 2003, the ratio of black arrests to white arrests for drug crimes increased by nearly 11 times, the biggest such jump among the nation’s large cities. The numbers were based on arrest rates per 100,000 people by race.
“The war on drugs has been waged in the African American community, and Virginia Beach is a stark example of that,” said Ryan King, author of the study, which looked at drug arrests in 43 major cities with populations of more than 250,000.
“What they’re saying is nothing new,” said Jim Cervera, the Beach’s deputy police chief, citing the nationwide trend of disproportionate drug arrests and incarceration for blacks.
The department’s statistics, he said, showed that the disparity at the Beach wasn’t as large as claimed.
The report found that for every four black people arrested in Virginia Beach in 2003, one white was arrested. In 1980, Beach police arrested about three whites for every black for drug crimes, the report said.
Beach police said their statistics, also based on arrests per 100,000, showed that in 1980 they arrested 1.77 whites for every black and in 2003, they arrested 2.63 blacks for every white.
Using those figures, police said, the ratio of black arrests to white arrests would have increased by 4.7 times, not 11 times, as The Sentencing Project found. The police numbers would place Virginia Beach fifth among the 43 cities in the report, between Columbus, Ohio (6.7), and Atlanta (4.5).
Both sides agreed there’s no evidence to show that blacks are more likely to possess or deal drugs. So, why the higher arrest rate?
Cervera said the trend is related to the department’s shift toward “community policing ” in the 1990s. Officers were assigned to work high-crime neighborhoods instead of zones. Those areas tend to have more black residents, he said. “We put people in neighborhoods where crime occurs, and when we arrest people, a lot of the time they have dope,” he said.
Another theory, which King, Cervera and Old Dominion University professor Scott Maggard agreed on, is that blacks more often buy and sell drugs outside and to strangers, while whites tend to sell in homes to people they generally know.
In black neighborhoods, “a stranger will drive in and buy drugs, which is more visible to the police,” said Maggard, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice. “In more white areas and suburbs, people are selling and doing drugs, but they are inside their homes and not necessarily visible to police.”
The most obvious flaw in the study, police said, is that all the figures are derived using the city’s 1990 U.S. census racial breakdown of 10 percent black and about 86 percent white. By the 2000 census, Virginia Beach was 19 percent black and about 71 percent white. The black population in 2006 was estimated at about 20 percent of the total.
“If I’d turned a paper in grad school using data that was 18 years old, my professors would have said it was an invalid study,” Cervera said. “The African American population has increased tremendously.”
King acknowledged that not accounting for the increasing black population in Virginia Beach skewed the study toward showing that a higher percentage of blacks were arrested for drugs.
He said the main point of the study remained valid: Blacks still are being arrested more frequently on drug charges. “There are no studies of use, abuse or selling dynamics,” he said, “that support the scope of disparity we see.”
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
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Why should we care
Why should we care about the race, if the people getting arrested are criminals doing a criminal act?
Speechless!
I think I see a rabbit with a pocket watch and there's a mad hatter...
And Guess What Else? The Judges!!
Not only would there be no need to worry about skin color if people would simply quit breaking the law, but maybe fewer people would be willing to break the law if so many weak judges who eat lunch with the defense attorneys would begin to hand down some meaningful sentences instead of doing favors for their pals. Our justice system is failing the public miserably and we have the judges and politicians who appoint them to thank for that.
Racial profiling......
The news media seems to be quick to report a story on racial issues, but I think some eyes would be opened if the news media reported the race of people involved in crimes. We would then see in print where our crimes come from and if there is racial profiling involved.
They arrest criminals
The police arrest people caught committing crimes. They have no control over who is committing the crimes. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....
STATS again!
The question is, “Are they arresting drug dealers?” If so then who cares what the STATS are…first thing is to stop crying about being unfair and JUST stop dealing drugs! Now, if they are arresting blacks who are not drug deals etc…then there’s a problem.
opportunity
No opportunity for racial bias (actual or perceived) if you don't do the crime in the first place.
Many Reasons....
I would like to see crimes committed as a percentage of each respective population. That would be a more accurate stat than just percentage of blacks vs. percentage of whites to the total, that was used in this rather lackluster research. I read an interesting stat a week or so back that found that less than 30% of white children come from a single parent home whereas nearly 70% of black children come from a single parent home. There have been studies done for decades that support the notion that children from single parent homes have a higher probability of failing in school, falling into trouble with the law, etc. Is there a tie there? I think that is a strong possibility.
give me a break...
It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out who is committing the majority of the crimes in Hampton Roads, just pick up the newspaper and look at the pictures. State and Federal inmate statistics reinforce this fact. What bothers me is WHY would you want to skew a report that is flawed in the first place. Accordingly, using the logic of this report I guess next you will be reporting blacks are getting their pictures in the paper at a unusually high level do to racial targeting.
GOOD GRIEF
Do the crime !!! Do the time !!! It's not a racial issue. So put your cards back in your pocket.
Crime In General
Don't do the crime...
if you can't do the time...
Don't do it...
Keep your eye on the sparrow....
"Baretta theme song...1970's"
Statistics
You can sway your statistics any way that you wish. That is the down side to statistics. There are plenty of reasons why there are more blacks in jail than whites, and the ones mentioned above in the article are great examples. What about the statistics on black on the police force. The reason was they couldn't pass the test in the same numbers as white officers. What do we do? We change the test. Does that make any sense? If you're not good enought to do something (in this case pass a test) as everyone else, you shouldn't do the job. If you're standing out on the corner with a glock in your pants after dark and you keep going up to cars, you're going to get suspected for dealing. Simple!
Totally Ridiculous
So now our police officers must analyze, before making an arrest or approaching anyone committing a crime as to whether they have their quota of red, yellow, black or white citizens - for the day or month or year - By then they could get blown away - not to mention have all kind of criminals running around doing the crime - just because an officer has arrested too many of a certain color - he must turn his head. Come on - get real - try this yourself sometime - sit and watch cars speeding -you notice the car speeding before you notice what kind of driver it is - Boy are we a screwed up world!
Blacks vs Whites
As far as stats,the great thing about numbers are they can be manipulated to tell any story you want.A study done in the 80's said we would be driving flying cars by the year 2000!If you gather figures from nearly three decades ago to compile a study for todays day and age it would tell a completely different story than if you did the same study using more recent data, its like comparing an athlete from the 80's with one from today, it depends on who does the comparisons, Michael Jordan will always be the best if you grew in the 80's Lebron James will be the winner for kids watching today, its all relative.It's not a matter of black or white its a matter of black and white,DONT SELL DRUGS DONT GO TO JAIL
YES-ME-AGAIN
Just maybe there are more black drug dealers then white. OR maybe they are more likely the ones standing on the street corner selling their drugs. A drug dealer is a drug dealer and who cares what color they are as long as we get them off our streets.
Confusing
"King acknowledged that not accounting for the increasing black population in Virginia Beach skewed the study toward showing that a higher percentage of blacks were arrested for drugs.
He said the main point of the study remained valid: Blacks still are being arrested more frequently on drug charges. “There are no studies of use, abuse or selling dynamics,” he said, “that support the scope of disparity we see.”"
Then why did he bother to do a study? So if green people commited a larger amount of crimes, and were convicted, would it be fair to say the system has it out for green people? Not only is this 'study' based on faulty information, it is devoid of logic. What a sophmoric attempt to sway the ignorant.
King needs to do his homework
The good Mr. King needs to get a life, get over the victim mentality, and, most important, do his homework. One very key piece of information left out of this article is that most violent crime in general is black-on-black, whether he happens to like it or not. A large percentage of that crime is drug related, so it is more likely that there will be drug arrests in the black community - because law enforcement spends more time responding to problems there. If he really wants to do something for the black community, King needs to stop whining and do something about the crime problem.
oh geeze
"He said the main point of the study remained valid: Blacks still are being arrested more frequently on drug charges."
I guess some people only see/hear what they want too. Ignoring any valid statistics or theories. THIS is what keeps the "racial bias" dribble going strong.
Keep it up there fella!
the sentencing project
I know a good way to keep people of all races from getting arrested for drug charges - don't buy/sell/possess drugs. Simple.
jmo
Why Publish bad data?
So if the author Mr King admits that the results are wrong based on incorrect data, why in the world would you publish it and make yourself look stupid, and even further invalidate a study which may have started out with good intentions? When I read something like this it makes me tend to discredit the author and discard everything he wrote simply because it looks like he's trying to treat people like they are uneducated.