Greg Gordon and Marisa Taylor recently released an article about the rising violent crime rates in the Untied States. Here’s an excerpt:
Chuck Wexler, who heads a think tank for police departments across the country that has monitored crime trends in cities, said the data over the last 18 months suggest that the crime surge “isn’t a statistical aberration.”
After 14 years of declines in crime, police in some communities began to report double-digit increases. That left the administration vulnerable to criticism because the crime jumps came after the White House instigated $1 billion in cuts in anti-crime funding since 2001 as it shifted its focus to the war on terrorism.
Among the casualties was a Clinton administration program to hire 100,000 police officers.
Other researchers agree that the reasons for the rise in crime are more complicated than money, and they vary from city to city. They point to factors such as increasing gun-, gang- and drug-related violence; growing juvenile crime; a deep hopelessness among poor, young black men; and an upsurge in prison releases after years of record numbers of incarcerations.
Although using federal funds to reduce violent crime makes more sense than using it for oil wars or NASA, I doubt that decreased federal funding causes the rising violent crime rates. Instead, I agree with the “other researchers” that other factors cause the increase in violent crime rates, namely an upsurge in prison releases.
The United States government lets violent criminals out of prison to make room for non-violent druggies. Additionally, criminals and criminal organizations, such as mafias and gangs, make money due to the illegalization of victimless crimes such as drug use and prostitution. Instead of the local pharmacy making money from drugs, gang-members and armed thugs make the money from the multi-billion dollar industry.
We need to reduce violent crime by repealing drug prohibition.
What do you think?
