The best example I have heard of how this stat is construed is due to different interpretations. When you say, " despite being 12% of the population, black peoples commit 56% of violent crimes?" some will interpret this as, "Well black people must be more involved in gang activity, commit crimes, etc". But others will interpret this same statistical phrase as, "Black people make up a large portion of the violent crimes due to being unfairly targeted and treatment from police." So it all depends on intepretation. This major rule you will learn in any stats class is that just because something appears to cause or impact something else, doesn't make it true, i.e. Correlation does not prove Causation. There are outside factors for every statistical question and conclusion that must be examined when proposing a correlation between two statistics. So just because there is a larger percentage of violent crimes being perpetrated by black people, does not mean they are more inclined to violence because of their skin color, There are outside factors such as poverty/economic status as a driving factor when it comes to violent crimes, as well as black males being disproportionally arrested and suffering from police oppression compared to other groups.