Actually, I think the reason so much attention is paid to which races earn PhDs or end up in jail is to find out how to increase the number of PhDs of other races or reduce the prison population of certain races. If those differences are caused by genetic differences, then there's nothing we can do to change that. There are other factors at work in both situations, like socioeconomic status and culture, which we can use to make everyone better off.

I think socioeconomic status is a better predictor of criminality than race. With that said, if I'm walking through an unfamiliar neighborhood, race is one of the few variables I have to work with. Unfortunately, in America, race is a moderately effective indicator of socioeconomic status, so I would use it as one factor in judging my safety. Even then, I usually use clothes and appearance rather than race to judge one's propensity for crime.

This is actually a more interesting problem in terms of what to tell children than racial differences in intelligence. I think by the time they're old enough to be somewhere without adult supervision, they are able to determine what looks like a poor area or poor person and act accordingly. I can see the logic that would lead someone to tell their kids to use race as such a proxy instead, but the consequences of doing so make it not worth the negligible increase in safety in my opinion.