Homicides and some other violent crimes dropped slightly in the first half of this year compared—but violence in major American cities still remains dramatically higher than it was before the pandemic.
According to the Council on Criminal Justice, these new statistics were released on Thursday by its Mid-year 2022 Crime Report. This report examines crime data in 23 cities. Between January 2022 and June 2022, murders fell by 2.2% compared with the same time in 2021.
The slight decline is not as satisfying considering the fact that some cities saw historic highs for homicides between 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the first half of homicides is still 39% more than it was in 2019.
“It is heartening to see the homicide numbers fall, even slightly, but American cities continue to lose too many of their residents to bloodshed,” Richard Rosenfeld, a University of Missouri – St. Louis criminologist who co-authored the study said in a press release.
In addition to reviewing property crime, violent crimes, and drug offenses in the 29 largest cities, the authors reviewed these issues as well. cities. The number of assaults on the victim and robberies has increased by 19% and 4%, respectively. Increased property crime by 6%
Although domestic and gun violence declined by 6% and 5.5%, those figures are only for 12 cities. Also, drug offenses declined by 7% in comparison to last year.
Continue reading: Mass Shootings Are Only a Small Part of America’s Deadly Problem With Kids and Guns
The country has seen an increase in crime and gun violence since the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts suspect that the spike is due to the panic from the pandemic and civil unrest following the death of George Floyd. Some blame police for the pullback that occurred after protests.
Although the national homicide statistics may indicate a decline, many cities still struggle with rising murders. Milwaukee saw a 39% rise in homicides. Raleigh saw a 38% rise. Pittsburgh experienced an increase of 25%, and Atlanta witnessed a rise of 16% in homicides.
New York City (and Chicago) have both been the focus of media attention for their post-pandemic crime spike. In the second half, murders dropped by approximately 8%.
Since the inception of COVID-19, gun violence is the main reason for the increase in homicides. Experts agree that these numbers will return to pre-pandemic levels only if there are a variety of policies and actions by law enforcement.
“As we’ve said before, these elevated levels of violence require an urgent response from elected leaders. We must put evidence-backed strategies in place now to make communities safer,” Rosenfeld said in the press release.
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