On the Presentation and Interpretation of International Homicide Data

Abstract

Whitney in 1995 argued that White groups around the world have relatively low homicide rates compared to Black groups. He used the presumed similarity of homicide rates of White groups to argue for the importance of genetic factors and the unimportance of sociocultural factors in explaining group differences. We show that for Europeans, Whitney added two categories from United Nations data: homicide and death from a variety of other causes. For the U.S. White group, Whitney presented only homicide rates, thus making it appear as if Europeans have homicide rates comparable to those in the USA, when European rates are in fact considerably lower. The importance of careful scholarship in this area is emphasized.