This might sound like a racist but I want to know what others think...
From the left: Joseph Fritzl, Jeffrey Dahmer, Dennis Rader (BTK), Ted Bundy The most gruesome kind of individual crimes seem to have been committed by white males. The latest case in point: Joseph Fritzl, the
I don't know much about criminal history, but these particularly heinous, repulsive crimes appear to be committed by white men led a successful double-life while their crime was getting worse.
Possible explanations for my perception:
- Such crimes happen at a similar rate in all races, but:
- the media focuses on the white male cases. This makes me wonder, wouldn't this be a sensational story regardless of the race of the criminal? Why would this focus exist? Is it a reflection of the media itself or the society it serves?
- because the U.S. is still majority white, most of these crimes are white due to the racial makeup.
- because the U.S. media is still dominantly white, they report mostly stories from white-dominant societies.
- I selectively remember only the white male ones. Does this make me a racist?
- Such crimes happen less among whites, but... [repeat subsections above]
- White males do commit these crimes more, and my perception accurately reflect reality.
- Only the people of the dominant social group (white males for a while) can get away with the crime for an extended period of time, because others are less likely to suspect them. When people of non-dominant groups start committing these crimes, they're nipped at the bud. This would be similar to how the priest sex abuse continued.
I'm leaning toward 1.a, 1.c, and 4.
Comments (2)
Because white people are the master race, you see.
In all seriousness, I have no idea.
I go with 4, plus either 1(b) or 3.
But I think it's even more complex. In my experience, white men and black men commit different types of crimes, and it has to do with culture. White men are more likely to be solitary loners, which means that they are more likely to be serial killers. The more sociable nature of black males causes them to be more likely to run in packs or gangs (for mutual protection also), so the crimes they commit are more of the gang-type crimes.
But of course that's all just speculation. It would be interesting to examine the statistics on rape, because rape is usually a solitary crime.