Violent Crime Is Up For 2nd Straight Year

[maddezmom]

Big Cities Showed Largest Increase

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 19, 2006; Page A01

A surge in violent crime that began last year accelerated in the first half of 2006, the FBI reported yesterday, providing the clearest signal yet that the historic drop in the U.S. crime rate has ended and is being reversed.

Reports of homicides, assaults and other violent offenses surged by nearly 4 percent in the first six months of the year compared with the same time period in 2005, according to the FBI's latest Uniform Crime Report. The numbers included an increase of nearly 10 percent for robberies, which many criminologists consider a leading indicator of coming trends.

The results follow a 2.5 percent jump in violent crime for 2005, which at the time represented the largest increase in 15 years.

The latest numbers suggest that those results were not an anomaly but rather part of the first significant uptick in violent crime since the early 1990s, according to criminal justice experts.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/18/AR2006121800377.html?nav=hcmodule

[BlueJazz]

1. I put this Directly in the lap of Republicans.

When you fail to enact policies that ensure the welfare and happiness of the poor.....
such as increasing the Minimum Wage, cutting funds for day care, food stamps, Housing
and making policies that ship jobs elsewhere, you set up a scenario that causes an increase in crime not only because of lack of Money but a lack of self-esteem.

So much for their "Family Values"

[AngryAmish]

5. And you would be wrong

Crime is almost always a result of demographics. There are more men (and men commit the vast majority of crimes) in the crime committing cohort (ages 16-35) then in previous years because of the children of Baby Boomers. Big crime drops in NY under Guliani? Big drop in numbers of young men in those years.

Look at this .

What has cut crime rates? The only thing proven is simply locking up lots of offenders until they are older. However this is inhumane. Outside of that there is nothing proven that we can do.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Bush is too busy keeping us safe by fighting terrorists "over there"

to realize that he has made us less safe here at home. This may explain why violent crime rates are up:

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200602/020906.html

[Zynx]

3. This is a very big issue where I live. Crime in Milwaukee is skyrocketing

and it is probably drug related.

[Roland99]

4. Following the increase in poverty. Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

[Matariki]

6. I suspect there is a link between a country at war and violent crime at home

it sets the tone.