Crime Rate Rises Again

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:52 pm

DOUG
During the Clinton years, crime dropped every year. Now Bush's "leadership" has the crime rate skyrocketing.

Thanks, Bush!

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Violent crime rose by double-digit percentages in cities across the country over the last two years, reversing the declines of the mid-to-late 1990s, according to a new report by a prominent national law enforcement association.

While overall crime has been declining nationwide, police officials have been warning of a rise in murder, robbery and gun assaults since late 2005, particularly in midsize cities and the Midwest. Now, they say, two years of data indicates that the spike is more than an aberration.

...Many [police] chiefs blame the federal government for reducing police programs that they say helped cut crime in the 1990s. But they also say the problem is economic and social. “We seem to be dealing with an awful lot of people who have zero conflict-resolution skills,” Chief Magnus said.

In Rochester, Mr. Duffy said his city had the state’s highest dropout rate — half of all students drop out— and the highest child poverty rate, with 40 percent of children under 18 living below poverty level.

See here.

Barbara Fitzpatrick · Post by **Barbara Fitzpatrick** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:27 pm

Increased poverty + decreased programs allieviating poverty conditions = increased crime. It doesn't take rocket science.

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 3:39 pm

Barbara Fitzpatrick wrote:Increased poverty + decreased programs allieviating poverty conditions = increased crime. It doesn't take rocket science.

Right. And building more prisons doesn't help. Republicans seem to prefer sadism over comfort. That is, given the choice between having a lower crime rate or, instead, making people suffer by being imprisoned (or put to death), the Republican will go for the latter.

The steps needed to actually bring down the crime rate are just "coddling," no doubt. Such things as education...

Barbara Fitzpatrick · Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:08 am

That's always been the problem with wingnuts - who largely make up the Republican Party at the moment (or at least are the most vocal - and politically active- part) - they have a good christian "punishment" mentality. The idea of prevention and rehabilitation are more foreign to them than Innuit sacred ice dances. What's even worse, they confuse discipline with punishment, as well. (That's why they hate Hillary - she said they couldn't legally abuse their children, just because they called it discipline. By the way, that's ALL she said, she did not say they couldn't discipline their children for all the wingnuts kept saying she did.)

Hogeye · Post by **Hogeye** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 6:38 pm

Crime is like any other economic "good," the more money spent on it, the more you tend to get. I've seen studies showing that crime is correlated with spending on law enforcement. You want drug "crimes" to increase? Send a slew of money to local "drug task forces" and you'll buy all the crime you want!

Crime stats can be very misleading. Looking at arrest rates may give you totally erronous and misleading information. If you want mugging or rape stats, it's better to do a survey asking people whether they got mugged or raped. (And such surveys are notoriously unreliable.) Police crime complaint reports only show what got reported, not how much crime there was.