In 2007, about 72,000 persons were convicted of federal crimes. Here’s the breakdown of the defendants by race in the 95% or so of those cases in which the defendant’s race was recorded:
White — 28.8%
Black — 24.4%
Hispanic — 43%
Other — 4.1%
(Source: 2007 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics, page 14.)
The same source includes a breakdown of defendants by race for different types of crimes that sheds light on these numbers. About a third of the defendants were convicted of drug cases, almost all for trafficking, and the racial breakdown of the defendants in drug trafficking cases roughly resembled that of the overall group:
White — 24.2%
Black — 28.5%
Hispanic — 43.8%
Other — 3.5%
In contrast, other types of crimes had a racial breakdown quite different than the whole. For example, the racial breakdown of defendants in fraud cases, about 10% of the group, was much whiter and much less hispanic than the rest:
White — 47%
Black — 31.5%
Hispanic — 16.5%
Other — 5.0%
Firearms cases, about 12% of the whole, were much more heavily black:
White — 32.5%
Black — 48.3%
Hispanic — 16.3%
Other — 2.9%
The fact that the largest group on the whole was hispanic largely resulted from immigration offenses, which constituted about 20% of the overall set. Defendants in immigration cases in 2007 were overwhelmingly hispanic:
White — 7.1%
Black — 2.7%
Hispanic — 89.1%
Other — 1.2%
What was the ‘whitest’ offense category with at least 1,000 prosecutions in 2007? That would be pornography/prostitution, the primary offense of about 1,400 defendants. Altogether, about 84% of the defendants convicted of those offenses are white.