Comment by mothballed

12 hours ago

Because it ignores the fact a white European, the vast vast majority of Belgium, won't actually experience that kind of homicide rate in the USA if you pluck them out of Belgium and dumped them there.

If you look at places in US with similar white European demographics (New Hampshire at <2 per 100k) the homicide rate isn't that much worse than Belgium (~1.2 per 100k).

The best predictor of being a victim of violence in the USA is to be black, the ~second best predictor is to be in a state with a high proportion of black people. If you are in a state that is ~as white as Belgium, the rate goes way way down.

Well said. After reading your comment and ruminating on it a bit, I think people handwaive the violent crime in Brussels since native Belgians (and possibly other well off immigrants) aren't very likely to live in Brussels city that's only 22% native Belgian and 78% foreign born.

I expect small cities and towns in the suburbs, where native Belgians are a majority, to have virtually zero violent crime, which would flatten out the crime spike of Brussels into good looking national averages.

Thanks I see your point there, though the school shooting reply above is the opposite from what I can gather.