This is Part 2 of a series on violent crime. See Part 1.
In my previous post on violent crime, I mentioned that the states with the least amount of crime were also states with extremely small minority populations. This one got me thinking; are minority-heavy states crime-ridden states? To test this hypothesis, I used the same violent crime per capita stats that I used in my previous post. For demographic data, I took the percentage of non-Hispanic whites in each state from the Census Bureau and subtracted it from 100 to get the percentage of minorities. Here are my results:
| Violent Crime Per Capita | Percentage of Ethnic Minorities | |
| South Carolina | 0.00788 | 34.70% |
| Tennessee | 0.00753 | 22.80% |
| Nevada | 0.00751 | 42.00% |
| Louisiana | 0.00729 | 37.70% |
| Florida | 0.00723 | 39.20% |
| Delaware | 0.00689 | 31.30% |
| New Mexico | 0.00664 | 57.70% |
| Alaska | 0.00661 | 33.90% |
| Maryland | 0.00642 | 41.90% |
| Michigan | 0.00536 | 22.40% |
| Illinois | 0.00533 | 35.00% |
| Arkansas | 0.00529 | 24.00% |
| California | 0.00523 | 57.30% |
| Texas | 0.00511 | 52.10% |
| Missouri | 0.00505 | 17.70% |
| Oklahoma | 0.005 | 28.20% |
| Georgia | 0.00493 | 41.50% |
| Arizona | 0.00483 | 40.90% |
| North Carolina | 0.00466 | 32.50% |
| Kansas | 0.00453 | 19.30% |
| Alabama | 0.00448 | 31.40% |
| Massachusetts | 0.00432 | 20.30% |
| Pennsylvania | 0.00416 | 18.20% |
| New York | 0.00414 | 39.70% |
| Colorado | 0.00348 | 28.70% |
| Ohio | 0.00343 | 17.30% |
| Indiana | 0.00334 | 16.50% |
| Washington | 0.00333 | 23.90% |
| New Jersey | 0.00329 | 37.80% |
| Nebraska | 0.00302 | 15.50% |
| Iowa | 0.00295 | 9.40% |
| Kentucky | 0.00295 | 12.00% |
| Wisconsin | 0.00291 | 14.60% |
| Mississippi | 0.00291 | 41.10% |
| Minnesota | 0.00289 | 14.30% |
| Montana | 0.00288 | 11.80% |
| Oregon | 0.00288 | 19.50% |
| West Virginia | 0.00275 | 6.40% |
| Hawaii | 0.00273 | 75.30% |
| Virginia | 0.0027 | 32.70% |
| Connecticut | 0.00256 | 25.60% |
| Wyoming | 0.00239 | 12.70% |
| Idaho | 0.00239 | 14.40% |
| Utah | 0.00235 | 17.70% |
| Rhode Island | 0.00227 | 20.70% |
| South Dakota | 0.00169 | 13.60% |
| North Dakota | 0.00142 | 10.10% |
| New Hampshire | 0.00137 | 6.60% |
| Vermont | 0.00124 | 4.70% |
| Maine | 0.00118 | 4.50% |
| Correlation | 0.54528 |
As I expected, there is a significant correlation between a state’s minority population and the amount of violent crime in that state. Specifically, NAM-heavy states are awash in violent crime. The reason I say NAMs and not minorities in general is that many of the minority-heavy that are low on the crime chart are states with large Asian populations. For example, Hawaii, the most notable outlier on the graph, is minority-majority but has little crime – because the minorities are mostly Asian. Other states with minorities and low crime rates such as New Jersey and Washington have a sizable percentage of Asians. The reason why minority-majority California is only 13th in violent crime is probably in part due to its high Asian population. Meanwhile, black and Latino heavy states such as Louisiana, Florida, Nevada, Maryland, and New Mexico top the violent crime charts. Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, the 47th, 49th, and 50th least diverse states, are the 48th, 49th, and 50th least violent states, respectively. Other low-crime states such as Utah, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Kentucky, and Rhode Island are also largely white. Almost all of the whitest states are in the bottom half of the crime chart.
Additionally, nine of the ten least violent states have nonwhite populations of less than 25 percent, and the one state that doesn’t, Connecticut, has a nonwhite population of 25.6 percent. All but two of the ten most dangerous states have nonwhite populations in excess of 30 percent, and three of those states (Nevada, New Mexico, Maryland) have nonwhite populations in excess of 40 percent. Three of the top fifteen most crime-ridden states (New Mexico, California, Texas) are minority-majority states.
Political correctness gets dealt another blow by reality.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
For even better analysis, get the percentage of NAMs. It might not change much because Asians are generally a small minority but I bet it’ll significantly raise your correlation coefficient. You have that huge outlier.
Your title implies a causational relationship, May I suugest you look at the relationship between Income and NAM’s in those states that have high crime rates?
Billarends,
May I suggest you look at the plethora on literature on race and IQ?
And in particular the study on the korean children being adopted into white homes and their IQs?
Awwwww…..I forgot..somethings we just cant do! And damn it to hell if it means we get to suffer more rapes murders drug dealing and other juicy stuff.
billarends,
I was thinking the same thing so I did a quick check and there is not that much of a relationship. Percentage of minoriites tends to have a stronger influence. For example South Carolina and South Dakota are 41 and 40 (with 50 being the poorest) but they are totally on different sides of the crime list. Both Maryland and Alaska in the top ten most wealth and most crime.
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