A 31 percent increase in murders of African-Americans in 2010 accounted for all of last year’s nearly 14 percent rise in New York City homicides, says a police analysis reported by the Wall Street Journal. Blacks, who comprise 25 percent of the city’s population, accounted for two-thirds of the 536 murders in 2010. Black men 15 to 29 years old were most likely to be killed. They are under 3 percent of the population but were one-third of homicide victims.
The Brooklyn District Attorney asked Ric Curtis, an anthropology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice to look into whether gangs are behind the spike; 11 percent of all murder victims were gang members. Curtis doesn’t think gangs are necessarily to blame.