African-American Serial Killers

The article continues to talk about how African American serial killers receive less media attention than white offenders. There were two examples shown in the article of two similar serial murders. One done by a white man and one done by a black man in Philadelphia. The 3 murders done by the white man received national attention, he had a book written about him and was even mentioned in the movie Silence of the Lambs. The 7-murders done by the black guy was never heard of outside Philadelphia.

People were shocked to hear everything the elderly lady, Dorothea Puente, was capable of. Investigators weren’t suspicious of her even after corpses were found on her property because she didn’t fit the typical serial killer profile. The average serial killer is a white male in his mid to late 20’s. More than 90% of serial killers are men according to research done by criminologists James A. Fox and Jack Levin, and among these 73% were white. Only 4% had graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Victims were 67% female, with children, prostitutes, and the elderly and other common victims while 20% were males who had been raped by their attackers.

Baldus study was based on more than two thousand murder cases in Georgia, and “the study found that defendants charged with killing white victims received the death penalty eleven times more often than defendants charged with killing black victims.” (Alexander p.110) Baldus Study was significant to this chapter because it shows patterns of discrimination and how the government and police enforcement use race to harass African Americans.

Starting off, this will show a comparison between white and black crimes, based on facts from the website for the Federal Bureau of Investigations. All statistics throughout this research paper, are from 2012, and have been collected from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Department of Justice, and multiple news organizations. The data collected from these different agencies has been analyzed and put into it’s best format to fit what is being asked in this topic. All sources have been checked out, and found that they are not biased toward any of the races discussed in the article. Some crimes are committed by whites at a higher rate than other races, although these results that have been gathered to complete this paper could show that African

The racial stereotyping of minority groups is a prevalent problem within the United State’s criminal justice system. It is a regrettable issue which permeates American society. The young Black male, in particular, is often portrayed as a criminal based on incorrect assumptions regarding who perpetrates crime. There are several components contributing to the criminal stigma of Blacks. The way crime is conveyed by American culture is possibly as important as how crime actually functions. The widespread belief that Black males commit the majority of crime skews the view society’s perception of Blacks. Typifications of Black males include a violent, threatening, thug-like character. The connection between race and crime is so deeply seeded in

Recently I saw a post online, that really opened my eyes and made me think, The post was speaking about racial bias in the media, The post talks about how the media portrayed Nikolas Cruz the recent mass school shooter as a kid with a mental illness. But it also showed how when the news speaks about african american shooters in the media they never give them a second look or give them any consideration they are automatically seen as “thugs” Is this an example of how African american suspects are treated differently than white suspects? I think so. Why does the media portray white suspects in a better light than African American suspects? Could this show how our world and society is stuck in a racist way of thinking and living?. Another example of how African American suspects are treated unfairly and differently than white suspects is the recent news story of Stephon Clark. In this news story it talks about , Stephon Clark who was an unarmed black man. Who was shot eight times by police officers in his backyard. Only because the police officers were suspicious that he was doing something wrong. When, he didn't do anything wrong at all. Yet, the police officers still took his life away. How is this fair? If we compare this story to the recent story of nikolas cruz, how is

Nearly 80 percent of murder victim in cases resulting in an execution have been white while 50 percent of murder victims are white 82 percent was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty.Senator RussFeingold stated "we simply cannot say we live in a country that offers equal justice to all Americans when racial disparities plague the system by which our society imposes the ultimate punishment" (senator RussFeingold 108th congress 2003). A 2007 report concluded that one-third of African American death row inmates in Philadelphia would have received sentence of life improsement if they had not been African-American.In 1990, non-partisan US General Accounting found a pattern of evidence Indicating racial Disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of death penalty (Feb 1,2001)."Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life"(Writer Activist and Civil Rights Leader Coretta Scott King Feb7, 2006).

On August 14, 2014, the infamous case of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, took place. A police officer shot an unarmed black teenager after an incident which was clouded in unclear details. At first, no one really knew whether the officer had been in the right to shoot Brown, or what the circumstances were for either side of the incident. However, eventually, the details started to not matter. The events around Michael Brown’s case became the spark that ignited a nationwide movement to fight against police brutality towards minorities, specifically African Americans. Protesters of police violence toward minorities created a phrase that was used all over the country after Brown’s death: “hands up, don’t shoot”. Many have used the events behind Brown’s death as a springboard to consider what makes a criminal. One side of the issue claims that race directly affects criminality, while others believe class to be the cause of criminality.

A number of recent investigations have concluded that news programs often systematically misrepresent black Americans as perpetrators of crime and whites as victims of or defenders against lawbreaking (Dixon 1). According to those investigations by Dixon and Linz (2000a), “Blacks were twice as likely as Whites to be seen as perpetrators, six times more likely to be portrayed as perpetrators than officers, and overrepresented as criminals.”

White called The Utilization of Forensic Science and Criminal Profiling for Capturing Serial Killers, he gathered information about 200 captured serial killers. This information for each serial killer was then analyzed and places in 12 different categories that explain how the serial killers eventually got caught. The categories are, victim released which means the serial killer released their victim and the victim went to law enforcement for help, murderer killed during the time which means the serial killer was killed by their victim during the act of killing them, voluntarily went to police and confessed which is self-explanatory, identified as being with victims just prior to the murder which means the victim was seen with the serial killer before they were murdered, communication with police or media which means the police or media figured out who the serial killer was because they overly communicated with them , caught in the act which means they were caught performing the murder, victim survived attack after being left for dead, which means the serial killer meant to kill their victim, but the victim lived, Victim escaped which means the serial killer made a mistake and the victim was able to escape, linked to crime scene which means that there was a piece of evidence left behind that linked the serial killer to the murders, Linked to victim other than by eyewitnesses which means that the serial killer the connected to the victim,

Many of us are naive to believe that race no longer exist in our criminal justice system. Darryl Hunt is not the only black man to be accused of a crime that he did not commit. In 1979 James Newsome was charged with armed robbery, and murder of a white proprietor of a grocery store in Chicago. The prosecutors did not find any physical evidence at the crime scene, and his fingerprints were not found on any items that the killer touched in the store. Mr. Newsome had a strong alibi, but three witnesses identified him as the killer. Similar to Darryl Hunt, James Newsome was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to life in prison. After fifteen years in prison AFIS compared the fingerprint found at the crime scene and identified another man as the killer (Chapter 5, slide 5).

In March 1906, Tennessee native Ed Johnson was sentenced to death for the rape of eighteen-year-old Nevada Taylor. Mr. Johnson supposedly choked the victim with a leather strap and subsequently sexually assaulted her. When testifying, the woman only had one adjective to describe the perpetrator, a word that damned the twenty-six-year-old to a guilty verdict; black. Although he had never been in possession of a leather strap, had a sound alibi verified by countless testimonies, and the rape victim never definitively identified Mr. Johnson during the trial, the all-white jury came to the conclusion that the African-American man was undeniably responsible for the cold-blooded atrocity. A day later, while sitting in his cell, a mob of white men dragged Ed Johnson out of the jailhouse, paraded him around the streets, and ultimately hanged the guiltless man at Walnut Street Bridge. The men then began to fire round after round at his lifeless body for the amusement of townsfolk who had gathered to watch the lynching, until, “one stray bullet severed the rope,” (Yellin 1). As the bloody corpse fell to the ground to the delight of the white children, “ one of the men put the barrel of his gun to Mr. Johnson 's head and fired five times,” (Yellin 1). The men faced no charges and nearly one hundred years later the Supreme Court found the viciously murdered man innocent. Unfortunately, when it comes to promoting justice for non-white Americans, the United States’ criminal justice system

The stereotype that exists for individuals who commit serial murder is one that mainly includes males of a specific race. However, it is now known that white males are not the only individuals who commit serial murder. Men and women from all racial and ethnic backgrounds and socio-economic statuses have been found to be serial murderers. Although this information has been presented to society, the cultural schema of the white male serial killer is still prevalent. The assumptions that involve serial murderers often include two aspects, the serial murderer is male and the serial murder is a type of “lust murder”, often involving sexual crimes by a sadist (Keeney and Heide, 1995). Keeney and Heide (1994) define serial murder to be the

The organised serial killer can be seen as an individual that is in control of his surroundings and the circumstances at hand. The crimes committed show evidence of careful planning and the murderer would have put in a lot of thought in to the attack of the individual before committing to the crime. The serial murderer would take specific criteria of the victim into account before he or she commits the crime these consist of one's age or appearance their lifestyle and occupation. A organized serial murderer will approach their victim through means of socializing with them. They will usually try and charm them gaining their trust which is where they will further trick them into a overpowering situation. Many

In recent years the killings of African American men have increased, especially those of unarmed black men. Between 2010 and 2012 it was reported that Blacks males were 21 times more likely to be