Lately, there has been a claim circulating on social media that Black females commit murder at higher rates than White males.
Most states no longer publish a state-wide breakdown of the race and gender of murder suspects. Even when they do, some include all Latinos as “White” suspects. Most Middle Easterners, Central Asians, and even many Blacks with Spanish surnames are also included as White.
South Carolina:
South Carolina is a state with a large Black percentage of the population that publishes a race/gender breakdown, in which “White” suspects are sub-classified as either Latino or non-Latino. However, not all police departments in the state bother to sub-classify suspects as Latino or non-Latino. The South Carolina reports only have three racial categories, White, Black, and Other. It is not entirely clear know who is being called “other.”
To compensate for the fact that large numbers of non-Whites are counted as “White” suspects, we took the total number of non-Black male suspects.
The most recent report from South Carolina state police is from 2023. From 2020-2030, there’s an average of 111 non-Black male and 56 Black female “murder and non-negligent homicide” suspects per year.
There are approximately 1,843k non-Black males and 750k Black females in South Carolina. This gives us rates of 6.0 and 7.5 per 100k being suspects. The rate for Black females is 25% higher than the rate for non-Black males.
State crime reports from South Carolina State Police.
Michigan:
Michigan has a fairly high Black percentage and publishes a race/gender breakdown of “murder and non-negligent homicide” suspects. However, all Latino suspects are counted as White. Also, Michigan has a significant number of Arab homicide suspects who are all or mostly counted as White. The Michigan reports list seven racial categories: White, Black, American Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Unknown.
Once again, we took all non-Black males to account for all the non-White suspects counted as “White.”
The most recent report published is for 2022. From 2019 – 2022, there were an average of 78 non-Black males and 38 Black females arrested for “murder and non-negligent homicide” each year.
Michigan has approximately 4,314k non-Black males and about 725k Black females. This gives us rates of 1.8 and 5.2 per 100k being suspects. This means the rate at which Black females are arrested is astronomical compared to males of other races. They are about 189%, or nearly triple, as likely to be arrested.
State crime reports from Michigan State Police.
Members of Michigan’s large Arab community are also classified as “White” when they commit crimes, such as Zayed Albodour, who was convicted of a 2023 murder in Dearborn.
