re: #526 lawhawk

The drop in the NYC murder rate is tied to several factors - starting with a broken windows theory of going after quality of life crimes, and catching thugs who also happened to be carrying out more violent offenses. There was a serious backlog in unsolved murders because of a lack of DNA testing at the time and forensics wasn’t what it has now become.

As thugs got taken off the street and put in prison, the rates started dropping more precipitously because many of those incarcerated happened to be one-person crime sprees.

Have you seen any good data comparing the NYC crime rate to those of other major cities over time? I know NYC’s dropped, and so did most large cities, but I haven’t seen anything where one could compare the relative timing of those declines.