Why does the public think it's going up? “There is definitely more disorder in cities than there was five years ago," said one expert. “People confuse disorder and crime."
“It suggests that when we get the final data in October, we will have seen likely the largest one-year decline in murder that has ever been recorded,” said Jeff Asher, a former CIA analyst who now studies crime trends.
Asher and other experts say the biggest factor behind the drop in crime may simply be the resumption of anti-crime initiatives by local governments and courts that had stopped during the pandemic.
“After a terrible period of underfunding and understaffing caused by the pandemic, local governments have, by most measures, returned to pre-pandemic levels,” wrote John Roman, a criminologist at the University of Chicago.
“Since then, our prosecutors, agents, and grant-making experts have worked in close partnership with police departments and communities across the country to go after the recidivists and gangs that are responsible for the greatest violence; to seize illegal guns and deadly drugs; to make critical investments in hiring more law enforcement officers; and to fund evidence-based, community violence intervention initiatives,” he said.
As NBC News previously reported, the drop in crime does not appear to be well understood by large majorities of Americans, according to polls.
“The perception doesn’t match the actuality in a lot of places because people are bad at perceiving risk,” Asher said, adding that both traditional and social media tend to spotlight violence and disorder.
The original article contains 583 words, the summary contains 220 words. Saved 62%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“It suggests that when we get the final data in October, we will have seen likely the largest one-year decline in murder that has ever been recorded,” said Jeff Asher, a former CIA analyst who now studies crime trends.
Asher and other experts say the biggest factor behind the drop in crime may simply be the resumption of anti-crime initiatives by local governments and courts that had stopped during the pandemic.
“After a terrible period of underfunding and understaffing caused by the pandemic, local governments have, by most measures, returned to pre-pandemic levels,” wrote John Roman, a criminologist at the University of Chicago.
“Since then, our prosecutors, agents, and grant-making experts have worked in close partnership with police departments and communities across the country to go after the recidivists and gangs that are responsible for the greatest violence; to seize illegal guns and deadly drugs; to make critical investments in hiring more law enforcement officers; and to fund evidence-based, community violence intervention initiatives,” he said.
As NBC News previously reported, the drop in crime does not appear to be well understood by large majorities of Americans, according to polls.
“The perception doesn’t match the actuality in a lot of places because people are bad at perceiving risk,” Asher said, adding that both traditional and social media tend to spotlight violence and disorder.
The original article contains 583 words, the summary contains 220 words. Saved 62%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!