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Each year national data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics
(BJS) report that most crimes are intraracial. For example, in
2011 nationwide Black offenders killed 93 percent of Black
victims. Hence, Black-on-Black murders are not a new phenomenon but the frequency in which they occur identifies a
disturbing trend in the Black community. A trend that has
reached epic proportions in the Black male subculture.
In the city of Chicago, at least one Black person is killed
every day. The Chicago Police Department (CPD) has
recorded an estimated total of 6,094 murders in the past
decade (see table 3.1). From 2001 to 2003, the total number
of murders each year was above 600. Despite decreasing patterns after 2003, it again climbed to over 500 murders in
2008 and 2012. In 2012 the city had 506 murders, increasing
the murder rate by more than 19 percent (433) than what
was reported in 2011. The city reclaimed the title “Murder
Capital of the World.” While other major metropolitan cities have had higher murder rates based on total population,
Chicago has consistently had the highest number of murders
per year in the last decade. Cities like Washington, DC and
New Orleans have seen a significant decrease in murders since
the mid-part of the decade while Chicago’s murder count
has almost doubled and nearly tripled their total numbers
of murders (see table 3.2). Compared to New York, which is
three times the size of Chicago, the city of Chicago still had
92 more murders in 2012.
The vast majority of murders in the city are a result of
Black-on-Black gun violence. A large proportion of these
murders occur in Black communities on the South and West
sides of the city where gang violence is a key contributing factor to the total deaths of Black males. According to the 2010
US Census, Blacks made up 32.9 percent of the city’s population. In 2012, 69 percent of the victims of murder were Black
males. At the halfway point from January to July, 201 of the
259 murder victims were Black, accounting for nearly 78 percent of murder victims. From 2003 to 2011, 75 percent of
the victims of an estimated 4,265 murders were Black.