We can all commit crime

We know by now that the majority of people in prison are African American males. People can incorrectly say this is because they are naturally more bound to be criminals, but the truth is, African Americans are really not anymore capable of crime than Caucasians. I have this book called The Killer Book of Serial Killers. This book describes the most prolific serial killers in history. Out of the 25 American serial killers listed, only one is African American. This shows that serial killers are predominately white, so obviously whites are capable of crime. So why do we hardly ever stereotype whites as murderers and violent people? I just feel like the majority of inmates are black because it’s what people look for when trying to find criminals. Accusing a black man of committing a crime is so much more common than accusing a white man. In class, we also talked about how crack was always more penalized than cocaine, probably because of the type of people we associate with these drugs. This reminded me of the book American Psycho. In this book, the main character is Patrick Bateman, a high class, wealthy, white businessman from Manhattan, who frequently does cocaine in bathroom stalls in high class nightclubs (the stereotypical cocaine user). The main point of this book however, is that Bateman is a serial killer, but nobody ever expects anything from him, because of the way he presents himself as an important upper level of society. This book proves a good point: all humans, no matter race or social standing have the ability to be criminals. We need to get rid of the stereotypes we hold about people who commit crime, because if we are only expecting to find that, then that will be all we will ever see. If the justice system was really as "just" as it claimed to be, then we would have more equal distribution of people in prison, since it is clear that there is an equal distribution of people committing crimes.