What percentage of violent crimes in Us are white and black
Executive summary
Two different government data streams give different lenses: victim‑based surveys (NCVS) found that in 2018 about 52% of violent‑crime perpetrators were identified as White and about 29% as Black, while arrest and law‑enforcement counts show a higher share of Black arrestees for violent offenses relative to population share (and a lower share identified as White in police records) [1] [2] [3]. Differences reflect measurement method, classification (including how Hispanic people are counted), and reporting biases rather than a single uncontested “true” percentage [4] [2].
1. What the victim survey (NCVS) measures and what it finds
The National Crime Victimization Survey asks victims about the race of offending suspects and reported that, in its 2018 analysis, victims perceived about 52% of violent‑crime perpetrators as White and about 29% as Black, with Hispanics and other groups making up the remainder—figures that represent perpetrators as identified by victims rather than arrest statistics [1] [2]. The NCVS captures crimes not reported to police and therefore tends to show a higher share of White perpetrators than arrest statistics do, because it reflects victims’ reports and population distribution rather than only law‑enforcement outcomes [1] [2].
2. What arrest data and homicide counts show
Arrest data and FBI/UCR counts present a different picture: Black people are overrepresented among those arrested for violent crimes compared with their share of the U.S. population, with arrest rates for violent crime several times higher than White arrest rates in recent summaries, while White offenders account for larger absolute numbers for many violent crime categories including some homicide counts in recent years [3] [5]. For example, state and federal arrest tallies have long shown racial disparities in arrests [3], and proprietary compilations of homicide offenders show large absolute counts for both White and Black offenders in 2023 [5].
3. Why the percentages diverge: measurement, classification and reporting
The gap between NCVS victim‑reported perpetrator shares and arrest/UCR proportions is explained by three problems: different denominators (victim reports vs. arrests), inconsistent race/ethnicity coding (many Latino/Hispanic people are classified as White in some datasets), and differential reporting rates to police across communities—only about 42–48% of violent victimizations are reported to police in some groups, and reporting rates vary by race and ethnicity [3] [6] [7]. Researchers and federal analysts explicitly warn that Hispanic growth and classification can shift apparent White and Black shares, and that socioeconomic and geographic concentration of crime also drives observed disparities [4] [2] [8].
4. Context: who is victimized and intra‑racial patterns
Victimization rates and offender‑victim relationships complicate simple racial attributions: some BJS analyses find higher victimization rates for Black and American Indian people for serious violent offenses, while other NCVS summaries show Whites with higher overall victimization rates per 1,000 in certain recent years—differences depend on definitions and year [6] [9] [8]. Moreover, most violent crime (particularly non‑lethal assault) tends to be intra‑racial—studies report that around 70–72% of violent offenses against Black victims involved Black offenders when the offender’s race was known—so “who commits most violence” must be qualified by where and between whom those incidents occur [10].
5. How to read a headline percentage responsibly
A single headline percentage—“X% of violent crimes are committed by White people, Y% by Black people”—is incomplete without specifying the data source (NCVS vs. UCR), the year, whether the measure counts victim‑reported perpetrators, arrests, or convictions, and how Hispanic/Latino ethnicity was categorized [1] [2] [4]. Federal reports and scholars stress that socioeconomic context, policing practices, and survey methodology all shape the numbers, and that media framing can amplify particular narratives [4] [11].
Conclusion
The best short answer: using the BJS/NCVS victim‑based measure cited by DOJ analysts for 2018, about 52% of violent‑crime perpetrators were identified as White and about 29% as Black [1] [2]; arrest and UCR statistics show higher relative representation of Black arrestees and different absolute counts for specific crimes such as homicide, reflecting different measurement choices and structural factors that must be considered whenever these percentages are used in public debate [3] [5] [4].