U.S. Murder Rate Declined in 2004, Even As Death Penalty Use Dropped

[madmusic]

Even as the use of the death penalty continued to decline in the United States, the number of murders and the national murder rate dropped in 2004. According to the recently released FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2004, the nation's murder rate fell by 3.3%, declining to 5.5 murders per 100,000 people in 2004. By region, the Northeast, which accounts for less than 1% of all U.S. executions, continued to have the nation's lowest murder rate, 4.2. The Midwest had a murder rate of 4.7, and the murder rate in the West was 5.7. The South, which has carried out more than 80% of all U.S. executions, again had the nation's highest murder rate, 6.6. (FBI Uniform Crime Report 2004, released October 2005). In 2004, the number of executions, the number of death sentences, and the size of death row all declined compared to 2003.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=1705

[GreenZoneLT]

1. In other Non Sequitur News...

Obesity rose in America and Western Europe despite a drop in the sales of Hostess Twinkies.

The higher murder rate, and the popularity of the death penalty, are both symptoms of Southern culture, which is and always has been more violent than the culture of the rest of the U.S. Northern urban murder rates rose dramatically in the 20th century when Southern blacks migrated there. Murder rates among Southern whites are FAR higher than they are among whites in the rest of the U.S.

See "Albion's Seed," "Guns, Germs and Steel," "U.S. Justice Department Report on Crime and Victimization," et. al.

[madmusic]

2. And maybe their love of the death penatly promotes that...

Culture of murder. It's not non sequitur to make the connection. If the state can murder because the culture of violence is the norm, then maybe it is a self-fulling prophecy. The riots of the 20th century were in large part economic, too, because jobs and economic security were threatened by the rising population in the North. That increased competition for work. It wasn't all racial. Evidently everyone found a relatively calm and non-violent balance in the North since then. Why not the South?

[benEzra]

3. Good link with historical data here:

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm

Trivia--the current U.S. homicide rate is at a 40-year low, even with the slight uptick in '05 vs. '04 (the murder rate in 2005 was the same as in 1966, looks like). The rate peaked around 1980.