IQ Explains Only Part of Homicide Gap

Updated: 2025.09.17 1M ago 2 sources
Across U.S. racial groups, an almost perfect inverse relation between average IQ and homicide holds—until you include Black Americans, whose homicide rate far exceeds the IQ‑based prediction. Using CDC victimization rates and Lynn’s group IQs, the article estimates IQ accounts for only about 30% of the Black–White homicide gap. That leaves most of the disparity unexplained by poverty, family structure, or IQ alone. — It forces crime and inequality debates beyond familiar explanations, pressing researchers and policymakers to identify the remaining drivers of the gap.

Sources

Aporia: "What explains the black–white homicide gap?"
Steve Sailer 2025.09.17 95% relevant
The post relays Noah Carl’s Aporia analysis showing that, across U.S. groups, an IQ–homicide relationship would predict ~8/100k for Blacks while the observed rate is >20/100k, implying IQ explains only about 30% of the gap; it references CDC victimization data as proxy for offending.
What explains the black–white homicide gap?
Aporia 2025.09.13 100% relevant
The article’s plot comparing CDC 2007 age‑adjusted homicide rates to group IQs (predicting ~8/100k for Blacks versus an actual >20/100k).
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