Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 1
Some good news:
U.S. murder rate approaches a record low
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/30/nx-s1-5866810/us-mu...As the U.S. nears its 250th birthday, it's doing pretty well by at least one measure: the national murder rate.
"The United States almost certainly had the lowest murder rate ever recorded in 2025, with the FBI having data back to 1960," says crime data analyst Jeff Asher. "And the available evidence suggests that we're going to go even lower this year."...
But Jerry Ratcliffe, faculty director of the master of applied criminology program at the University of Pennsylvania, says it's important to keep in mind that other developed countries did not see the same kind of big crime spikes during the pandemic.
"That was really unique to us, which means it leads me to think it was more related to George Floyd," Ratcliffe says. The social upheaval following Floyd's murder in 2020, he argues, disrupted a generation-long decline in crime rates built in part on the data-driven, targeted policing strategies that emerged in the 1990s.
"That's something we saw withdraw for a year or two. What we're seeing now is a re-engagement of policing a few years down the line. And we continue to see again that crime reduction," Ratcliffe says.
LaMaria Pope has had a front-row seat for the recent change. She works for Choose 180, a violence-prevention nonprofit focused on young people in the Seattle area, and she remembers the anxiety of the pandemic years.
"There was a lot of guns floating around," she says. "There was almost nothing to do but engage in crime. And knowing that, 'Oh, we want to defund the police, if we call they're not going to come for two hours' — kids are smart and they picked up on that."
No. of Recommendations: 6
AdrianC: U.S. murder rate approaches a record low...
Hhmmm. You neglected to include this:
Even a record-low homicide rate — 4.1 or even 4.0 per 100,000 — would still be double Canada's rate of 1.9.
"We're still talking about 13- or 14-thousand murders," crime data analyst Asher says. "This is not a solved problem."
No. of Recommendations: 6
social upheaval following Floyd's murder in 2020, he argues, disrupted a generation-long decline in crime rates built in part on the data-driven, targeted policing strategies that emerged in the 1990s
I look into this off and on. It's likely the reduction is for a major part due to the reductions in lead in gasoline. The pandemic did interrupt the decline with some chaos and then it resumed the decline. So we do benefit from the EPA stuff.
Our attempts at crime prevention by police work have not been shown to work. For instance, right now, how many of you think illegal aliens are reporting crimes? How about those here legally but not fully citizens? How about Temporary status? Etc., Etc., Etc.
And...
"The national murder solution rate (known by the FBI as the "clearance rate") has experienced a steady, long-term decline, dropping from over 90% in the 1960s to an all-time low of roughly 52% in 2022, before rebounding to between 58% and 66.5% in recent years."
Less murders, a section of the populace not incentivized to cooperate with the police, and a lower clearance rate. In the PI the murder clearance rate was ~22% before Duterte and dropped further to ~17% under Duterte, murder rate before was 9.5 per 100k and jumped to 11.5 under Duterte, ostensibly due to police killings.
Nobody is charged for Good or Pretti, and it looks like nobody will be. Pretti was flat out murdered on camera.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Hhmmm. You neglected to include this:
Even a record-low homicide rate — 4.1 or even 4.0 per 100,000 — would still be double Canada's rate of 1.9.
"We're still talking about 13- or 14-thousand murders," crime data analyst Asher says. "This is not a solved problem."
Nope. It wouldn't be a solved problem if it matched Canada's.
The reduction is good news, though, right? Right?
No. of Recommendations: 3
of course it's good news. it's at least a 4 decade low, if not much lonnger.
but because i dont want to seem like an idiot tool (expecting zero or some uncited amount), i will declare it solved if we match canada's 1.9/100k
