In 2020, the United States experienced one of its most dangerous years in decades. But in 2023, crime in America looked very different. That change may have gone unnoticed.

In 2020, the United States experienced one of its most dangerous years in decades.

The number of murders across the country surged by nearly 30 percent between 2019 and 2020, according to FBI statistics. The overall violent crime rate, which includes murder, assault, robbery and rape, inched up around 5 percent in the same period.

But in 2023, crime in America looked very different.

“At some point in 2022 — at the end of 2022 or through 2023 — there was just a tipping point where violence started to fall and it just continued to fall,” said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and co-founder of AH Datalytics.

…

There are some outliers to this trend — murder rates are up in Washington, D.C., Memphis and Seattle, for example — and some nonviolent crimes like car theft are up in certain cities. But the national trend on violence is clear.

    • Flying Squid
      25•9 months ago

      You’re right, but that’s not why people think violent crime is high. They think that because the media knows that when they report on crime, they get eyes on them and eyes on them mean they can sell more advertising. So every violent crime they can report on gets reported on and in ever-increasing numbers to make it look like the amount of violent crime is at least steady, if not rising.

      And, of course, that helps “tough on crime” politicians (mostly Republicans) as well.

      • @[email protected]
        5•9 months ago

        I wonder how tough it would be to set up an “open source” style news media / investigative journal. Ideally using crowdfunding

        Something without an incentive for metrics chasing

        • @Maggoty
          2•9 months ago

          The problem in a nutshell is us. They wouldn’t chase crime if it didn’t get more people tuning in.

          ETA - there’s no reason you couldn’t, just like there’s 2 or 3 projects trying to debias news.

        • @[email protected]English
          2•9 months ago

          I honestly think if America isn’t consumed by its ever increasing pessimism, it will eventually come to the realization that accurate information is one of the most valuable things. I’m hoping rampant AI generated misinformation will be the catalyst for this. And people will actually start putting money towards real journalism again.

        • @[email protected]
          1•9 months ago

          Besides public radio, Wikinews is established (albeit quite dead)! No funding for contributors to the latter, so you might be left trying BuyMeACoffee/Patreon (or a grant?).

          I think you can go to NPR, or blog solo with a Patreon, or get with a few other journalists like 404 Media did - founded 5 months ago, already breaking some stories, sometimes collabing with other journalists. Wikinews is better for casual internet-journalists but it’s hard even just reading a bunch of sources and compiling a story effectively. It’s rarely updated; very few want to/can do that work for free.