US crime plummets!!!

Forums: News
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Lowest crime statistics since they started keeping records!!!

Good news seems so rare, I had to bring this back. What do you make of the drop?

An excerpt.

THE ANNUAL SURVEY by the Bureau of Justice Statistics identified about 23 million crime victims last year, down slightly from the year before and far below the 44 million recorded when studies began in 1973.
The rate of violent crimes ?- rapes, robberies and assaults ?- was about 23 victims for every 1,000 U.S. residents 12 or older last year. That compares with 25 victims per 1,000 in 2001 and 50 in 1993.
For property crimes such as burglary and car theft, the rate was 159 crimes per 1,000 last year, down from 167 the previous year and 319 in 1993.
The study, released Sunday, examined property and violent crimes except murder, which is measured separately by the FBI. Preliminary FBI statistics for 2002 released in June ?- based on reports from police across the country ?- reported a 0.8 percentage point rise in the murder rate compared with 2001.
The Justice Department survey, however, found continuing decreases in every major property and violent crime, crossing all household income, racial and ethnic lines. Crime is down in cities, suburbs and rural areas.

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 0 • Views: 1,117 • Replies: 10

No top replies

Good news. I make little of it as crime rates go in cycles and usually defy what people expect of them (e.g. people think teh 90's were bad but back in their grandpappy's age it was worse, then there were a few "down" decades etc).

0 Replies

Fantastic! I recall reading recently that one of the reasons for the drop in the murder rate is better medical care. That is, some victims, if they get to the hospital, have a better chance of surviving their injuries. Hence, there are fewer organs available for transplant. It's interesting here, how violent crimes decreased, but it doesn't look like it's a huge decrease. Hmmm.

E. g. let's say there were 10 murders and 10 assaults in 1993. And then in 2003 the same 20 attacks occur (not on the same people of course but otherwise assume the circumstances are identical). But due to better treatment, only 8 of them die, so there are 12 assaults recorded instead of 10.

But here we have both fewer assaults and fewer murders, so it's not just a function of improved care (although hey, that never hurts). It's something else - fewer attacks.

Is the reason, perhaps, the fact that (if I recall correctly) there are more people in prison than ever before? Prior restraint is illegal, but this would beg the question - is locking up people for the sake not of rehab or even punishment, but rather to keep them away from the rest of society, the engine that's driving this good news?

0 Replies

The article does heavily attribute the drastic improvement in crime stats to more prisons. I'd like to think it was a better behaved populace--but I'll take it however I can get it.

0 Replies

It also contradicts the "more prisons" argument and says that the politicizing of the statistics should be avoided.

0 Replies

More prisons lead to lower crime rates? The logic seems a bit Swiftian--he once, as satire, wrote that the Irish could solve their hunger problem by eating their babies...

0 Replies

The Justice Policy Institute is quick to point out that the areas with the greatest prinson expantion were areas in which murders were higher in 2002.

0 Replies

Ah but that is EXCLUDING murder. Murders are up, and other violent crimes are down. This means that there is a higher capacity for criminals to go that final step during the commission of a crime and actually kill someone.

And I wonder if those statistics are "reported" crimes or "convicted" numbers.

0 Replies

According to the 2001 Justice Department statistics, one out of every 37 U.S. adults had been in state or federal prison at some point in her or his lifetime.

Well, this really should stop sometime.

0 Replies

U.S. incarceration rates are way beyond other Western countries. If this isn't cause for concern in this country, it certainly should be.

0 Replies

Especially when it comes to getting a job! Each applicant for a job must reveal their criminal record and/or is subject to a background check. If employers are to be held legally liable for their employees honesty won't they run out of people soon who haven't spent some time in jail/prison?

0 Replies

US crime plummets!!!

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know