Killings in the U.S. are dropping at a historic rate. Will anyone notice?

https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2023-10-20/killings-in-the-u-s-are-dropping-at-an-historic-rate-will-anyone-notice-essential-politics

by femiagbabiaka • 3 years ago

10 4 3 years ago

latimes.com

mdouglas_1• 3 years ago

umm...

I beg to differ on this. The state I grew up in "KY" (don't laugh!) just released some information regarding Louisville. The city is the largest in the state. Someone/somewhere -- no one knows who or how, reported vastly under reported homicide data to the state which made it appear that the city/state murder rates has declined.

THE RATES HAVE INCREASED!!

The proliferation of gun violence is a bit maddening. Couple that with lack of cops. You have a pretty good chance of getting away with the murder. I think the city is on track for 200+ murders. It would be significantly more if not due to the docs getting good at saving gunshot victims.

Perhaps there should be a subsequent article on getting the input data right!

garbage in... garbage out

mojomark• 3 years ago

Recommend you cite your data source for your statements that the government is falsely reporting data. Otherwise, it's just brushed off as conspiracy (I'm not saying it's impossible that a conspiracy exists, I'm just saying that for your comment to hold any weight on HN, supporting citation is needed).

As a two-decade resident of Baltimore City (and roughly semiannual tracker of Baltimore's crime stats), this prompted me to look, and to my surprise the homicide rate is indeed low (1). We used to get at least a murder a day. You can literally feel the tension walking down the street. I know that's a qualitative remark, but recently I've felt those subconscious tensions ease up (I remarked to my wife) - and damned if the homicide rate isn't lower.

My uncle is a cop and we have another friend who is a police officer. At least in Baltimore, myself being curious, they've assured me that all homicides are reported. The driving force is quite the opposite from the politically-motivated homicide deflation conspiracy picture you paint. Instead, fewer murders (asside from showing poorly on governance) means less demand for police which means less funding allocatio. And you can't easily artificially inflate murder stats. They regrettably admit due to the volume of crime, a random subset don't get the investigative attention needed to bring murderers to justice.

1. https://homicides.news.baltimoresun.com/

xedrac• 3 years ago

Some places outright refuse to prosecute or report crimes (looking at you San Francisco), but I assume homicide is still taken seriously, even in the most liberal of places.

musicale• 3 years ago

In a country of nearly 340 million people, some crime takes place every hour, every day.

Conveniently providing this publication (and other news sources) with a steady stream of alarming, attention-grabbing stories and headlines.

Killings in the U.S. are dropping at a historic rate. Will anyone notice?

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