Neal Peirce recently wrote about the gathering storm of violent crime in the USA. I include an excerpt:
The Police Executive Research Forum sees a “gathering storm” of violent crime, a “tipping point” in many cities.
There’s something to this: The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report shows violent offenses up 1.3 percent last year, following a 2.3 percent rise in 2005. That’s the first significant jump in years, following the astonishing crime reductions of the 1990s that leveled off in the early 2000s.
Skeptics say that this may just be a blip, that it would take a decade of such reversals to get us back to the roaring crime rates of the 1980s and early ’90s.
But let’s assume the recent rise is serious. What’s happening? Lots of competing explanations get offered: Gang problems are growing in smaller cities. Gun laws are loose, and the politicos fear to stiffen them. Because we have the world’s highest incarceration rate, rising numbers of inmates are being released from prisons — far too of them few rehabilitated or able to land a job. The focus of America has shifted to homeland security — like a Cyclops who’s shifted his eye to watching airports and public buildings while giving short shrift to demonstrably effective community-oriented policing.
On top of all that, the federal government has cut back more than $2 billion in Justice Department law enforcement programs such as the Clinton-era COPS program, which helped local governments deploy an added 100,000 police officers.
Neal Peirce suggests focusing on prevention rather than incarceration. Incarceration is both expensive and ineffective. Violent criminals come out of jail just as likely to hurt people, if not more likely. Additionally, the overcrowded jail system releases violent criminals due to a lack of room.
Let’s not overlook the waste of drug illegalization. If people did not get jailed for victimless crimes, then the jails would have enough room for the violent criminals. Additionally, we could focus our resources on violent criminals instead of wasting them on non-violent drug users. Did you know: 25% of U.S. inmates are non-violent drug offenders.
