DH and I used to feel the same watching The First 48. I'm struggling to remember a case where the victim and the suspect were not black or Hispanic. And the reason for the crime was so depressingly familiar - robbery or a row over a small debt/drugs/gangs/a girlfriend.
Yes, there were some very bad men involved, and there was terrible fear on the part of witnesses who were afraid of being labelled a snitch. But most were also men that you could see had found themselves trapped in a cycle of poverty/neglect/drugs/violence - some who never knew their parents. The saddest were the young men who confessed and then sat there and cried for their mums, their girlfriends, or their children they would never see grow up.
It was hard to see the parents and families of the victims too - very often they didn't seem surprised - just resigned to the fact that their child had been gunned down young. That's not to say there wasn't grief, but it was almost expected.