Jeffrey Anderson on rising crime rates in the U.S.

The NCVS [National Crime Victimization Survey] report for 2023 finds no statistically significant evidence that violent crime or property crime is dropping in America.  Excluding simple assault—the type of violent crime least likely to be charged as a felony—the violent crime rate in 2023 was 19% higher than in 2019, the last year before the defund-the-police movement swept the country. 

But crime hasn’t risen equally across the nation.  America’s recent crime spike has been concentrated in urban areas.  These are the areas in which leftist prosecutors have gained the strongest footholds, where police have been the most heavily scrutinized, and where lax enforcement and prosecution have become common. 

The results aren’t pretty.  According to the NCVS, the urban violent-crime rate increased 40% from 2019 to 2023.  Excluding simple assault, the urban violent-crime rate rose 54% over that span.  From 2022 to 2023, the urban violent-crime rate didn’t change to a statistically significant degree, so these higher crime rates appear to be the new norm in America’s cities. 

The urban property-crime rate is also getting worse.  It rose from 176.1 victimizations per 1,000 households in 2022 to 192.3 in 2023.  That’s part of a 26% increase in the urban property-crime rate since 2019.  These numbers exclude rampant shoplifting, since the NCVS is a survey of households and not of businesses. 

In contrast, violent-crime rates in suburban and rural areas have been essentially unchanged since 2019.  In suburban areas in 2019, there were 22.3 violent victimizations per 1,000 persons 12 or older, compared with 23.3 in 2023—a statistically insignificant change.  In rural areas, the rate was 16.3 in 2019 and 15.3 in 2023—again, not a statistically significant change.  Our recent crime spike is essentially limited to cities.

~ Jeffrey H. Anderson, "Contrary to Media Myth, U.S. Urban Crime Rates Are Up," The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2024

Governor Gavin Newsom on California's train theft crisis

The images looked like a Third World country.  What you saw here in the last week is just not acceptable.  So, I took off the suit and tie and said I'm coming because I couldn't take it.  I can't turn on the news anymore.  What the hell is going on?

~ Governor Gavin Newsom, "LA councilman blasts train theft 'chaos,' calls them 'a threat to our economy'," Yahoo!Finance, February 1, 2022

Hans-Hermann Hoppe on government

The State is nothing but a criminal organization.

~ Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Vasko Kohlmayer on racially motivated police brutality

Notice this: Fewer blacks die in the hands of police than would be expected given the crime ratios. Even though more than half of violent criminals are black, they constitute about one quarter of suspects shot by law enforcement. In other words, black criminals are disproportionally less likely to be killed than white criminals.

~ Vasko Kohlmayer, "The Myth of Systemic Racism: In America, Reverse Discrimination is the Norm," LewRockwell.com, August 21, 2020

Ryan McMaken on police and a second lockdown

Will police ignore murders while they rush to close businesses and arrest fathers who take their children to a park?

Experience suggests this would just be par for the course. After all, the evidence has long shown that police focus on petty crimes while devoting few resources to serious violent crimes. There would be nothing shocking about a police force that refuses to pursue dangerous criminals while bringing the full wrath of a SWAT team against patrons at a tavern. It is easier—both practically and politically—to arrest a middle-aged mom who refused to close her business while letting violent rioters go free.

~ Ryan McMaken, "Will the Police Crack Down on Lockdown Violators the Second Time Around?," Mises.org, June 26, 2020

Walter Williams on the breakdown of law enforcement during 2020 riots

That brings me to one of the most disturbing aspects of the rioting and looting. That is the seeming impotence of people whom we elect and pay to enforce the law. That includes governors, mayors and police chiefs who refuse to use their law enforcement powers to protect citizens and their property from criminals. Unfortunately, politicians who call for law and order are often viewed negatively. But that makes little sense. Poor people are more dependent on law and order than anyone else. In the face of high crime or social disorder, wealthier people can afford to purchase alarm systems, buy guard dogs, hire guards and, if things get too bad, move to a gated community. These options are not available to poor people. Their only protection is an orderly society.

~ Walter Williams, "Now What?," LewRockwell.com, June 17, 2020

Max Stirner on the difference between crime and the law

The State calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime.

~ Max Stirner, The Ego and His Own [1845]

Michael Corleone on politics and crime

Politics and crime, they're the same thing.

~ Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III

Criminologist on fear, lack of trust, and the social fabric

We live in a society with a quarter of a billion people.  Once in a while these terrible things are going to happen to people.  Should we all worry all the time?  What kind of society are we going to have if no one trusts each other? It tears the social fabric apart if we assume that everyone we run into is a criminal.

~ Mark Warr, criminologist, University of Texas, "Are we scaring ourselves to death?," video by John Stossel, 12:42 mark