FBI data shows violent crime continues to decline

[bemildred]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON — Reports of violent and property crimes continued to decline in the first half of 2010, according to preliminary crime report released by the FBI Monday.

The FBI's semiannual uniform crime report shows that reports of violent crime dropped 6.2 percent from January to June and property crime reports were down 2.8 percent.

The dip in reported crimes follows a three-year trend of decreasing crime rates despite a sagging economy.

According to the FBI, murders dropped 7.1 percent in the first six months of 2010 while robberies decreased by 10.7 percent. Reports of vehicle thefts also dropped by 9.7 percent.

Read more: http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/fbi-data-shows-violent-782910.html

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Edit: Oh yeah "Obama Presidency brings dramatic drop in crime rate!"

[Hestia]

1. So why is it we are pouring billions into the militarization of our local constabularies?

[bemildred]

2. Our government fears it's own citizens.

As illegitimate governments always do.

[Turbineguy]

3. Violence is passé

Get a finance degree and join Wall Street.

[AngryAmish]

4. Yet the poverty rate climbs - and there are no jobs out there

[bemildred]

5. Yeah, that is interesting.

But the crime rate decomposes into what is criminalized, how much enforcement there is, and how much is actually being committed, so you can look at other factors besides economic need.

One of the little discussed things about the local government cutbacks being contemplated and enacted all over is that it means fewer cops, and that will probably reduce the "crime rate" while leading to an increase or at best no change in the amount of crime being committed.

[AngryAmish]

12. Over many societies the correllation between poverty and crime is a poor one

Are people criminals because they are poor or are they poor because they have the traits that make them both poor and criminals? A just society would cultivate responsible behavior from all people and make sure that there are fewer crimes by making fewer things illegal. Marijuana should be legalized because making it illegal is nonsensical, for example. Making people pay huge fines for traffic infractions and criminalizing negligent behavior to the point of felonies (DUI laws, aggravated speeding) just makes more criminals out of foolish but non-violent people. Giving people criminal records excludes them from many places in society and prevents them from being productive citizens. Most women would not marry a felon - the job prospects are that dim for felons. But they will sleep with them and create more babies without a father at home.

[Uncle Joe]

6. I wonder if the relaxation on state Marijuana Laws is contributing to this trend?

Thanks for the thread, bemildred.

[bemildred]

7. That's an interesting question.

This trend started back in the 90s, IIRC, but let's keep that quiet.

[Uncle Joe]

8. What is

IIRC?

[bemildred]

13. "If I remember correctly".

At my age always a good question.

[X_Digger]

16. 93-94 was the peak, iirc

It's been trending down since then..

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/cv2.cfm

[bemildred]

30. Nice graph, thanks. nt

[TheWraith]

9. I doubt that has anything to do with violent crime. nt

[Uncle Joe]

11. Why wouldn't it, if fewer people have to deal with the black market in order

to get pot, there should be a reduced risk of violence.

I'm not suggesting this to be the sole dynamic reducing violent crime, just a possible contributor, I'm confident that demographics plays a part as well as the Baby Boomer generation ages.

One thing is for sure, the corporate media doesn't seem to want the American People to know there is a reduction in violent crime at least not by the percentage of their nightly television murder programs and news telecasts.

[TheWraith]

19. Because the degree of liberalization in marijuana laws isn't nearly enough.

Despite a few small exemptions for personal use, the bulk production or distribution of marijuana is still illegal. And the violent crimes aren't being committed by the end users, they're being committed by the people operating the black market.

[Uncle Joe]

22. I agree with your last sentence, but I'm not so sure about the first.

How many states have liberalized their MJ laws, 14 plus DC or is it 20 plus DC?

How many is a "few small exemptions" hundreds of thousands or millions?

[TheWraith]

25. It doesn't really matter how many exemptions there are if it's all on the consumer side.

Then the exemptions are all AFTER the marijuana has left the part of the system that precipitates violent crime. You could completely legalize it for personal use, but as long as production and distribution are illegal, then the black market system stays completely intact, including it's gang wars.

[Uncle Joe]

26. Distribution for those exemptions has gone legal and I was under the impression production has

to some degree.

[TheWraith]

29. Only on extremely small scales and with very difficult regulations.

Often even state-legal distributors still get hassled by enforcement authorities both state and federal. Also, production is rather dubious--for instance California technically requires that anyone using medical marijuana cultivate and produce it themselves, an approach which can't compare to industrialized production methods. Most other states which allow an MM patient to grow their own have similar rules, and they limit the number of plants a patient can grow to between 3 and 7 depending on the state.

[bemildred]

14. I can assure you it does, although it is suppliers, not mere consumers that are at issue.

Turf wars, defending one's crop, etc.

[AngryAmish]

10. I heard that is the case in California

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

15. Yep.

[X_Digger]

17. There are a lot of 'common sense' correlations that don't bear out re crime and {fill in the blank}.

Crime and poverty don't correlate well.

Crime and unemployment don't correlate well.

Crime and gun ownership don't correlate well.

Crime and the severity of gun laws don't correlate well.

The BJS has a lot of interesting data on the subject. They use both reported crime as well as surveys.

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/cv2.cfm

[slackmaster]

21. The median age of the US population is higher than it has ever been before

According to the CIA World Factbook:

total: 36.8 years
male: 35.5 years
female: 38.1 years (2010 est.)

[bemildred]

23. Good point. That may well re relevant. nt

[TomClash]

31. That's the Freakonomics theory in part nt

[slackmaster]

32. Sorry, it's not even close to Freakonomics

The correlation between age and propensity for criminal behavior is quite clear. There are "older" criminals, but the population most at risk for being caught and convicted of a violent crime is well under age 30.

[TomClash]

33. That is

part of the demographic explanation given in the book Freakonomics.

[slackmaster]

34. Maybe I should read the book

:dunce:

[TomClash]

35. Maybe you don't need to

You seem to get it just fine. :)

[Atypical Liberal]

18. At a time when firearm and ammunition sales continue to soar.

It is interesting to note that violent crime continues to decline at a time when firearm and ammunition sales are at record highs.

[Posteritatis]

20. I wonder if anyone'll spin this as crime rates increasing

That's actually what happened when the equivalent report came out up here - Harper actually turned it into an attack on the educated in general, and claimed that crime was skyrocketing but it was all secret crime that even the police never hear about because it's so nefarious.

[X_Digger]

24. I'm sure there'll be no shortage of pundits & loudmouths..

.. whose tack will be along the lines of "yes, but it could have been even lower, if ______________*."



* being implementation of whatever their pet project happens to be.

[Posteritatis]

27. I generally suspect they'd just deny that crime's dropping at all

It's one of the biggest blind spots in a lot of modern societies in general - everyone's always convinced the crime rate's rising, the streets are becoming more dangerous, etc., etc., etc., despite the fact that pretty much every real piece of evidence (anecdotes, of course, don't count) says otherwise.

[X_Digger]

28. Part of that is human nature.. experience is cumulative

We don't remember the days where nothing interesting happened.

An increasing tally of crimes that we can remember seeing, however, just adds a '+1'- it doesn't take into account the frequency of such events, or the lack of events on other days.

[old mark]

36. ...because so many people legally own and carry guns....nt