I have good news and bad news to share. Which would you prefer to receive first? Unsure? Well, then answer this: when perusing your local newspaper, which are you more likely to read first, the police log or the funnies? No help? Okay, then answer this: if you’re served a plate of lasagna with a side of steamed broccoli, which do you consume first? Still no help? Sheesh. Then I guess it’s up to me to decide. I’ll start with the good news, but feel free to skip down and check out the bad news first.
Good news, as reported by the McClatchy Newspapers:
Violence against intimate partners down sharply
Criminal violence against intimate partners fell by nearly two-thirds in recent years and has reached a record low, according to preliminary government figures.
The declines were greatest for nonfatal attacks, which fell by about 65 percent from 1993 to 2005, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. Homicides among intimate partners dropped by roughly a third.
The figures are based on the annual National Crime Victimization Survey, which counts criminal abuse against spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends and former spouses, whether it’s been reported to police or not. The information, collected in thousands of confidential interviews, is the most widely used instrument for charting U.S. crime trends.
Because nonfatal attacks are hundreds of times more common than fatal ones, the overall drop in U.S. criminal abuse of intimate partners approaches two-thirds. That’s the lowest abuse rate since the crime survey began in 1973. [full text]
And now the bad news, as reported by the New York Times:
Violent Crime in Cities Shows Sharp Surge
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.
“There are pockets of crime in this country that are astounding,� said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which is releasing the report on Friday. “It’s gone under the radar screen, but it’s not if you’re living on the north side of Minneapolis or the south side of Los Angeles or in Dorchester, Mass.�
Local police departments blame several factors: the spread of methamphetamine use in some Midwestern and Western cities, gangs, high poverty and a record number of people being released from prison. But the biggest theme, they say, is easy access to guns and a willingness, even an eagerness, to settle disputes with them, particularly among young people. [full text]
Kmareka.com 
The crime rate fell during the 90s–during the Clinton Admin. I’m not saying Clinton deserves the credit, but I seem to recall a whole lot of RW pundits bemoaning the “bad influence” Clinton was on the moral fibre of the country.
Sure.
And now the Great Moral Leader has been in the White House for 6 years and what has happened? Temporal precedence is not proof of causality, but….read the tea leaves.
Personally, I believe that what this reversal pretty much proves is the economic role in crime. When people have good jobs that pay them well, the idea of knocking over a liquor store doesn’t have quite the same appeal.
Again, I cite Northern Ireland. Once Ireland became an economic powerhouse, tossing a bomb at the local Protestant or Catholic institution didn’t quite seem to have as much appeal.
And–I say that the best way to stop Islamic terrorism is to give a whole bunch of unemployed, disaffected 18-30 yr males decent paying jobs. Then the equation becomes: “blowing myself up vs a decent future with a wife and family….” Sorry, but the vast majority would chose the latter, if the option existed.
Why is it that our RW friends who tout the market cannot see the market solution to crime, and to terrorism?
Maybe if they’d read “The Peasant War In Germany” by Herr Engels, they’d have a bit more perspective.
Maybe not.