Major Cities' Plummeting Crime Rates Mystifying

Major Cities' Plummeting Crime Rates Mystifying

www.washingtonpost.com

Violent crime has plummeted in the Washington area and in major cities across the country, a trend criminologists describe as baffling and unexpected.

The District, New York and Los Angeles are on track for fewer killings this year than in any other year in at least four decades. Boston, San Francisco, Minneapolis and other cities are also seeing notable reductions in homicides.

"Experts did not see this coming at all," said Andrew Karmen, a criminologist and professor of sociology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

In the District and Prince George's County,

(visit the link for the full news article)

Yes, the answer to the mystery simply must be the police doing...what again?

It can't have anything at all to do with the fact that gun sales are at the highest they've been in quite a while (possibly ever). It's funny how the mainstream media only reports about firearms when a negative spin can be added. But when crime begins to drop in major cities, there is not one word spoken regarding firearm sales.

Neither the drop in crime rates as firearm sales go up, nor the MSM failing to mention the connection are coincidences, in my humble opinion.


TA

www.washingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Contrary to what people might expect, crime rates typically drop during economic hard times.

I suspect this may be related to the economic crisis.

could be because people are waking up to being more "human" to each other, regardless of what the MSM wants people to act like and think like.

That's my take on it, anyhow.


That, or the guns Could be a matter of both! lol

I read somewhere about lack of sun spots correlate to people being more creative and lots of sunspots to agressiveness in males. I think we have just had an era of very little sun spots activity. Correct me if i am wrong
kx

reply to post by xmotex

I concede that the current economic situation could be a factor, however a well-armed, law-abiding population never hurts. I'm more concerned with the fact that the MSM chose to completely ignore the latter and chose instead to call it a 'mystery.'


TA

I think it would be wrong to attribute the drop to any single factor.

There has always been such drops as economies falter, but this has been more pronounced and more abrupt than in the past.

I feel it is very relevant that the common citizen has become more likely to be armed at home.

Much to the chagrin of the social engineers ...

People are conserving bullets to use on the NWO.

Gun sales go up and crime goes down.

Only liberals remain confused.

I'm going to speculate it's due to the economic depression. I say this because people go out less and less, even criminals. Also, there is a pack feeling that I've noticed in my own town. People are becoming more nice, giving a helping hand to others, maybe they realize there are bigger things to worry about then social anxiety of interacting with another human being.

Maybe they just don't bother reporting crime anymore. They just let what happens happen, and realize calling "the law" probably isn't going to make things any prettier.

Just a thought.

Or maybe they really are dropping because of the economic situation.

The other thing to consider is drastic and dramatic population decline in major cities.

If a city like Detroit goes from the third largest city with a population of 4.4 Million people to eleventh largest city with a population of 912,000 people, that is a population decrease of 80%.

It wouldn't seem a stretch to expect that Crime would decrease a similar amount over the same time span.

And this is the case in every one of the top Cities in the United States (and always has been). When economic times get hard, people leave the sprawl for the small towns (or at least the suburbs) to look for work and to find a simpler (read "cheaper") life.

So, it wouldn't be any surprise considering the population in all the major cities in the United States are declining that crime in those major cities would be declining.

Who are you gonna rob when nobody has anything in the first place. Criminals are probably realizing that robbing broke people don't pay. I bet it's becoming tough in the "biz" when you rob 10 people and get 9 empty wallets and three dollars.

If someone tried to rob me, i'd laugh in their faces take my ID out of my wallet and hand 'em the empty wallet. Then i'd go spend 10 minutes making another duct tape wallet to hold my ID.

Who are ya gonna rob when everyone is poor?

Please someone explain me why crime is going down when depression hits?

Why mexico or Somalia crime is high then? They are in constant depression...

IMO libs will say that Obama being president has something to do with it and police will say it's the police state.

Or is it the calm before the storm?

[edit on 20-7-2009 by Vitchilo]

I hate to burst anyone's bubble about the nation getting safer, but...

A lot of these reports are based on the UCR ( Uniform Crime Reporting system) that the Federal government uses to compile statistics on local crime. The way the system basically works is this: local police departments provide an 'accounting' of all the crimes reported in their jurisdiction during a given calendar year and they are reported as the actual number of crimes.

The problem is that local politics plays a big part in the actual reporting of what happened. There is a BIG incentive to underreport actual crimes. The reasons are myriad: to improve community 'image', to reassure citizens that their tax dollars are being well spent, to 'prove' that the new police chief is doing his job and also to be able to apply for more federal funding...

I personally have seen incidents where an attacker was going to/ actually committing rape, robbery and assault and the incident was later reported as an "attempted robbery" or such nonsense. (I once participated in a department 'meeting' in which we argued about what should be reported and as what). Much of the reporting hinges on whether the victim was willing to cooperate in the investigation, whether the assailant was caught, etc. Basically, the point is that these numbers are ( more often than naught) BS and politically influenced.

The numbers are conjured statistics. We used to read our UCRs and laugh about some of the numbers we reported because we knew they were rubbish. It was all done in the name of saving face and saving the jobs of the administration.

Um, they're not really... they're just going under-reported. Try telling Chicago or Cleveland that crimes are on the decrease - they're not! It has to do with the way crimes are reported under the UCR. There's been plenty of news regading how crimes are going under-reported - just Google it.

One thing I could say IF crimes were decreasing - the general population has never been this well armed. That, in and of iteself, should give any criminal good cause to pause.

The real issue here is the media spin. They report that crime rates are going down and then choose to label it a mystery, rather than considering all possible factors.

If the crime rate isn't in fact going down, then I would venture to guess that they have an ulterior motive for reporting that it is. If it is dropping in the places cited in the article, they failed to weigh all possibilities and consider all the angles. Either way, the point is that something is fishy with this article, and I believe that one of the best ways to demonstrate how the MSM is misleading the public is to cite examples.


TA

[edit on 20-7-2009 by TheAssociate]

reply to post by kozmo

One thing I could say IF crimes were decreasing - the general population has never been this well armed. That, in and of iteself, should give any criminal good cause to pause.

Exactly.

[edit on 20-7-2009 by TheAssociate]

Originally posted by Retseh
Gun sales go up and crime goes down.

Only liberals remain confused.

It's almost like conservatives are asses and liberals are dumbasses.......lol jk....


Do we never learn though?

The answer is never ONE thing but always a collection of smaller things that create it...

When will we ever learn..

O and that applies to pretty much everything on this site...

peace

reply to post by TheAssociate


Read the above posts by kozmo and myself. The MSM is only reporting what they are told. They don't have access to the real information. They only take what they are told by the local reporting agency and reiterate that disinformation.

I'm no big fan of the MSM but they only know what they are told and can only interpret and report that information as fact. It's sort of like a computer - garbage in, garbage out. Just keep in mind that what is being reported has been edited, redacted, revised and restated - probably several times.

You can use the information reported as a general guideline. For example, if Chicago is reporting 500 murders and Detroit 1,000; then you can generally assume that Chicago is a bit safer than Detroit. Unless of course, Chicago is lying that much more than Detroit.

As an aside, ironically, communities that are generally safe and well run tend to over report their crime, making them appear relatively close to surrounding 'bad' communities. They just haven't caught on yet to the way things really work...

Also in the memo: The Florida Department of Law Enforcement referred for possible criminal prosecution a case involving Miami police Cmdr. Lorenzo Whitehead, supervisor of the Coconut Grove substation. The FDLE found that Whitehead had ordered a sergeant investigating an armed robbery to downgrade the crime to an ``information report,'' making explicit reference to ``impact of the incident on crime statistics in his area.''

Miami Herald

One of the reasons for the decreasing crime rate is that police can take several types of violent crimes including rape and downgrade the occurence to an 'information' report if their is no 'victim' pressing charges and no 'state's attorney' filing charges.

Now I can tell you I keep friends in high and low places and wouldn't you know that the higher the place the better criminal that they are...you go Bernie Madoff, you go!

The 'criminal' ellement is 'spooked' right now, in fact if I didn't know better I would say they are down right 'scared'!

'Everyone' knows something is not quite right in 'Kansas' at the moment and just about everyone is studying 'Toto' for a clue...

Toto's first hit song?...Toe the Line!

Everyone pretty much is, the quiet before the gathering storm!