causes of increasing crime rate essay

Reducing Crime

I know this is way over the word count. But I keep getting 6 on my writing. Can someone please tell me if this is okay for an essay? *** Some people think that the best way to reduce crime is to give longer prison sentences. Others, however, believe there are better alternative ways of reducing crime. Discuss both views and give your opinion. A lot of people believe we need to reduce crime. Some people believe we can do that by giving inmates longer time in prison, while others believe there are other ways we can accomplish reducing crime. This essay will explain both sides and give an opinion. The first view states that people think we should give longer prison sentences. People believe if someone has committed crime they should stay in prison longer. We need to increase penalty rates by law. They did something wrong so the prisoners should have to pay for what they have done and therefore they will be staying out of trouble in prison. In prison they have programs that help inmates to make better decisions in life. For example, they have counsellor and can help people look at getting a trade job when they are released from prison. The second view point says some people think there are other ways to reduce crime in the community other than longer prison sentences. One thing we could do is having groups put in the community. For example, making it mandatory that people who have committed a crime go to a counsellor. Another thing we could do is helping them get jobs and therefore they do not feel they need to commit a crime to get by in life. For example, people will steal because they may not be able to afford money for groceries. In my opinion I believe there are other ways for people to receive the help they need so they do not commit crimes other than jail. No matter what people do not want to go to prison but they still end up there. We need to look at other ways for keeping them out. It may be the only thing they know and some prisoners spend half there life there. Keeping them in prison does not teach them anything, it just keeps them there longer but eventually they will get out and do the same thing again cause that is all they know. In conclusion there are many different ways we can keep crime low. Some people believe longer prison sentences but I believe there is another alternative than that.

Increasing Levels of Crime Essay

by Param sandhu (India )

In many cities crime is increasing. Why do you think this is happening? What can governments do to help reduce crime levels? In numerous of cities crime is growing up. I think, due to the lack of education and poverty rates, crime is happening. However, although crime is a worse problem in the cities, governments can reduce it by providing job opportunities and by implementing some stringent laws against criminals. Number of factors contribute in the inclining rates of crime. Firstly, since the rate of poverty has increased, people are following the path of crime because they do have not any source of earning money therefore masses indulge in the crime. For example, a recent study in India showed that majority of criminals had belonged to poor families. Secondly, lack of education is also the reason of crime, being uneducated folks cannot get jobs at the respected field of works and without education they have not specific knowledge about living in the society and behave with others. Which finally leads them on the path of crime. Higher authorities can taken some steps to reduce the crime. First and foremost, free education must be available for the children who come from the poor families. So, they can make their future better by gaining vast amount of knowledge and experiences from the study institutions. However, governments should also create more jobs related to all fields such as in the factories, where even illiterate people can work and earn some amount of money. Last but not least, criminals should be penalized with stringent punishments which can set an example in front of others and force them to avoid to choosing paths of crime. In conclusion, though crime is increasing at alarming rate, owing to the lack of job opportunities and poverty. But I think governments may solve this by providing some facilities and enacting the laws.

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Curfew Essay

by Abhigyan (Canada)

In some areas of the US, a curfew is imposed, in which teenagers are not allowed to be out of doors after a particular time at night unless they are accompanied by an adult. What is your opinion about this? Most of the illegal activities happen at night and by imposing curfew, US government wanted to stop teenagers to get involved or get harmed by such lawless acts. Increased drug addiction and kidnapping cases have compelled the government to take such stern action. This essay will discuss that how this decision of imposing the curfew is favorable to youth and how will it impact the life of teenagers. First, cocaine is the common problem among the American youth and US government wants to save youth from this life-threatening addiction. It has been seen that teenagers go to pubs and other places to get the drugs at night. To stop the involvement of the youth, US government has imposed curfew and asked the adults to go out with their kids in the night so that they do not get involved in any activity related to drug addiction. Second, kidnapping activities were increasing in these neighborhoods and gangs were kidnapping the teenagers for ransom. It was impossible for the police to follow every teenager even after making special patrolling batches. Looking at the scenario, Senior government officials have decided to impose curfew in few areas to control the situation. When there are no unsolicited teenagers outside their home, there will be less chance to perform an act of kidnapping. So, this Curfew not only will help the police to control the crime in these Areas but also save the lives of teenagers. In summary, teenagers are the backbone of economy and future of a country, therefore it is important to save them from bad habits and bad people. The decision to impose a curfew was good and in the favor of youth.

IELTS Essay: Decline in Police Numbers

Why has the number of police officers declined?

In some countries the number of police officers in active service is decreasing. Why is this happening and how could it affect society? The storage of police officers has been bothering some counties, this might have negative effects on the society as a whole. In my opinion there could be several factors which discourage the youth from joining the forces. Cops are essential to maintain peace and safety of the country but in the recent time few nations have been facing a shortage of police and this may be due to the rigged system some country operates on , a system which is controlled and governed by the strong and powerful leaving the protectors of the nations without any choice but to follow order or drop out of the service, it is quite evident that more than a few have opted for the later option. Another reason behind this social issues could be the selfish mindset that the new age people may hold, not wanting to work for and towards the betterment of the society and state as the patriotism in their hearts may be decreasing. Few people may also drop out due to the long and rigour process of achieving a rank and not much salary and choose to opt for a more lucrative career choice. For example, my cousin who works as head constable in the police department for the past 7 years, does not make enough to support his family and has decided to opt out of the department and go for a different career choice as a clerk. All these issues have a negative effect on the public which includes people feeling unsafe , increase in crime rates, increase in the corruption of society and could cause an imbalance in the society , people may also hold prejudice against the whole police community due to this, ruining the relationship between the protector and protectee . to conclude, the lack of officer would become a serious problem in the coming future but at the same time the government should fund the department more than now since at the end of the day , being a police officer is too a career and should be able to support the worker for the better.

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What the data says about crime in the U.S.

A growing share of Americans say reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress to address this year. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (58%) hold that view today, up from 47% at the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidency in 2021.

We conducted this analysis to learn more about U.S. crime patterns and how those patterns have changed over time.

The analysis relies on statistics published by the FBI, which we accessed through the Crime Data Explorer , and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), which we accessed through the  National Crime Victimization Survey data analysis tool .

To measure public attitudes about crime in the U.S., we relied on survey data from Pew Research Center and Gallup.

Additional details about each data source, including survey methodologies, are available by following the links in the text of this analysis.

With the issue likely to come up in this year’s presidential election, here’s what we know about crime in the United States, based on the latest available data from the federal government and other sources.

How much crime is there in the U.S.?

It’s difficult to say for certain. The  two primary sources of government crime statistics  – the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) – paint an incomplete picture.

The FBI publishes  annual data  on crimes that have been reported to law enforcement, but not crimes that haven’t been reported. Historically, the FBI has also only published statistics about a handful of specific violent and property crimes, but not many other types of crime, such as drug crime. And while the FBI’s data is based on information from thousands of federal, state, county, city and other police departments, not all law enforcement agencies participate every year. In 2022, the most recent full year with available statistics, the FBI received data from 83% of participating agencies .

BJS, for its part, tracks crime by fielding a  large annual survey of Americans ages 12 and older and asking them whether they were the victim of certain types of crime in the past six months. One advantage of this approach is that it captures both reported and unreported crimes. But the BJS survey has limitations of its own. Like the FBI, it focuses mainly on a handful of violent and property crimes. And since the BJS data is based on after-the-fact interviews with crime victims, it cannot provide information about one especially high-profile type of offense: murder.

All those caveats aside, looking at the FBI and BJS statistics side-by-side  does  give researchers a good picture of U.S. violent and property crime rates and how they have changed over time. In addition, the FBI is transitioning to a new data collection system – known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System – that eventually will provide national information on a much larger set of crimes , as well as details such as the time and place they occur and the types of weapons involved, if applicable.

Which kinds of crime are most and least common?

Property crime in the U.S. is much more common than violent crime. In 2022, the FBI reported a total of 1,954.4 property crimes per 100,000 people, compared with 380.7 violent crimes per 100,000 people.  

By far the most common form of property crime in 2022 was larceny/theft, followed by motor vehicle theft and burglary. Among violent crimes, aggravated assault was the most common offense, followed by robbery, rape, and murder/nonnegligent manslaughter.

BJS tracks a slightly different set of offenses from the FBI, but it finds the same overall patterns, with theft the most common form of property crime in 2022 and assault the most common form of violent crime.

How have crime rates in the U.S. changed over time?

Both the FBI and BJS data show dramatic declines in U.S. violent and property crime rates since the early 1990s, when crime spiked across much of the nation.

Using the FBI data, the violent crime rate fell 49% between 1993 and 2022, with large decreases in the rates of robbery (-74%), aggravated assault (-39%) and murder/nonnegligent manslaughter (-34%). It’s not possible to calculate the change in the rape rate during this period because the FBI  revised its definition of the offense in 2013 .

The FBI data also shows a 59% reduction in the U.S. property crime rate between 1993 and 2022, with big declines in the rates of burglary (-75%), larceny/theft (-54%) and motor vehicle theft (-53%).

Using the BJS statistics, the declines in the violent and property crime rates are even steeper than those captured in the FBI data. Per BJS, the U.S. violent and property crime rates each fell 71% between 1993 and 2022.

While crime rates have fallen sharply over the long term, the decline hasn’t always been steady. There have been notable increases in certain kinds of crime in some years, including recently.

In 2020, for example, the U.S. murder rate saw its largest single-year increase on record – and by 2022, it remained considerably higher than before the coronavirus pandemic. Preliminary data for 2023, however, suggests that the murder rate fell substantially last year .

How do Americans perceive crime in their country?

Americans tend to believe crime is up, even when official data shows it is down.

In 23 of 27 Gallup surveys conducted since 1993 , at least 60% of U.S. adults have said there is more crime nationally than there was the year before, despite the downward trend in crime rates during most of that period.

While perceptions of rising crime at the national level are common, fewer Americans believe crime is up in their own communities. In every Gallup crime survey since the 1990s, Americans have been much less likely to say crime is up in their area than to say the same about crime nationally.

Public attitudes about crime differ widely by Americans’ party affiliation, race and ethnicity, and other factors . For example, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are much more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to say reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress this year (68% vs. 47%), according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

How does crime in the U.S. differ by demographic characteristics?

Some groups of Americans are more likely than others to be victims of crime. In the  2022 BJS survey , for example, younger people and those with lower incomes were far more likely to report being the victim of a violent crime than older and higher-income people.

There were no major differences in violent crime victimization rates between male and female respondents or between those who identified as White, Black or Hispanic. But the victimization rate among Asian Americans (a category that includes Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders) was substantially lower than among other racial and ethnic groups.

The same BJS survey asks victims about the demographic characteristics of the offenders in the incidents they experienced.

In 2022, those who are male, younger people and those who are Black accounted for considerably larger shares of perceived offenders in violent incidents than their respective shares of the U.S. population. Men, for instance, accounted for 79% of perceived offenders in violent incidents, compared with 49% of the nation’s 12-and-older population that year. Black Americans accounted for 25% of perceived offenders in violent incidents, about twice their share of the 12-and-older population (12%).

As with all surveys, however, there are several potential sources of error, including the possibility that crime victims’ perceptions about offenders are incorrect.

How does crime in the U.S. differ geographically?

There are big geographic differences in violent and property crime rates.

For example, in 2022, there were more than 700 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in New Mexico and Alaska. That compares with fewer than 200 per 100,000 people in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine, according to the FBI.

The FBI notes that various factors might influence an area’s crime rate, including its population density and economic conditions.

What percentage of crimes are reported to police? What percentage are solved?

Most violent and property crimes in the U.S. are not reported to police, and most of the crimes that  are  reported are not solved.

In its annual survey, BJS asks crime victims whether they reported their crime to police. It found that in 2022, only 41.5% of violent crimes and 31.8% of household property crimes were reported to authorities. BJS notes that there are many reasons why crime might not be reported, including fear of reprisal or of “getting the offender in trouble,” a feeling that police “would not or could not do anything to help,” or a belief that the crime is “a personal issue or too trivial to report.”

Most of the crimes that are reported to police, meanwhile,  are not solved , at least based on an FBI measure known as the clearance rate . That’s the share of cases each year that are closed, or “cleared,” through the arrest, charging and referral of a suspect for prosecution, or due to “exceptional” circumstances such as the death of a suspect or a victim’s refusal to cooperate with a prosecution. In 2022, police nationwide cleared 36.7% of violent crimes that were reported to them and 12.1% of the property crimes that came to their attention.

Which crimes are most likely to be reported to police? Which are most likely to be solved?

Around eight-in-ten motor vehicle thefts (80.9%) were reported to police in 2022, making them by far the most commonly reported property crime tracked by BJS. Household burglaries and trespassing offenses were reported to police at much lower rates (44.9% and 41.2%, respectively), while personal theft/larceny and other types of theft were only reported around a quarter of the time.

Among violent crimes – excluding homicide, which BJS doesn’t track – robbery was the most likely to be reported to law enforcement in 2022 (64.0%). It was followed by aggravated assault (49.9%), simple assault (36.8%) and rape/sexual assault (21.4%).

The list of crimes  cleared  by police in 2022 looks different from the list of crimes reported. Law enforcement officers were generally much more likely to solve violent crimes than property crimes, according to the FBI.

The most frequently solved violent crime tends to be homicide. Police cleared around half of murders and nonnegligent manslaughters (52.3%) in 2022. The clearance rates were lower for aggravated assault (41.4%), rape (26.1%) and robbery (23.2%).

When it comes to property crime, law enforcement agencies cleared 13.0% of burglaries, 12.4% of larcenies/thefts and 9.3% of motor vehicle thefts in 2022.

Are police solving more or fewer crimes than they used to?

Nationwide clearance rates for both violent and property crime are at their lowest levels since at least 1993, the FBI data shows.

Police cleared a little over a third (36.7%) of the violent crimes that came to their attention in 2022, down from nearly half (48.1%) as recently as 2013. During the same period, there were decreases for each of the four types of violent crime the FBI tracks:

• Police cleared 52.3% of reported murders and nonnegligent homicides in 2022, down from 64.1% in 2013.
• They cleared 41.4% of aggravated assaults, down from 57.7%.
• They cleared 26.1% of rapes, down from 40.6%.
• They cleared 23.2% of robberies, down from 29.4%.

The pattern is less pronounced for property crime. Overall, law enforcement agencies cleared 12.1% of reported property crimes in 2022, down from 19.7% in 2013. The clearance rate for burglary didn’t change much, but it fell for larceny/theft (to 12.4% in 2022 from 22.4% in 2013) and motor vehicle theft (to 9.3% from 14.2%).

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on Nov. 20, 2020.

• Criminal Justice

John Gramlich is an associate director at Pew Research Center .

Fewer than 1% of federal criminal defendants were acquitted in 2022

Before release of video showing tyre nichols’ beating, public views of police conduct had improved modestly, violent crime is a key midterm voting issue, but what does the data say, u.s. public divided over whether people convicted of crimes spend too much or too little time in prison, what we know about the increase in u.s. murders in 2020, most popular.

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Violent Crime Rates Are Surging. What Can Be Done To Reverse The Trend?

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Ronald Wright, a criminal justice expert and law professor at Wake Forest University, about why so many cities across the U.S. are experiencing a surge in violent crime.

Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Beyond Policing: The Problem of Crime in America

José luis morín.

1 John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, New York City, NY, USA

Photo by Francois Polito. Sculpture by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd.

In 2020, the United States experienced the sharpest one-year rise in homicides on record. 1 In 2021, hate crimes also surged to their highest level in twelve years, with the largest increases being anti-Black crimes followed by anti-Asian crimes. 2 Pundits and politicians on the right have been quick to cite bail reform and “defunding” of police as reasons for the national rise in crime. Yet, the best available evidence points to other causes—among them, the massive social and economic dislocation resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and the nationwide proliferation of guns along with the spread of racial and ethnic hatred and the violence it has roused.

While violent crime today [is] much lower . . . than in 1991, when [it] reached its highest point in recent history, public anxiety about crime is high.

While violent crime today registers at much lower levels than in 1991, when violent crime reached its highest point in recent history, 3 public anxiety about crime is high. Yet, more police and a redoubling of get-tough measures, however alluring, have not proven to be as effective as they appear. An examination of what is not driving the recent spike in crime as well as what probably is driving it—and revisiting the role that policing and the criminal justice system has played in U.S. society in reproducing racial, social, and economic inequalities—may move us closer to arriving at effective public safety solutions.

Starting with What Is Not: Bail Reform and Defunding the Police

The purpose of bail is to “provide reasonable assurance of court appearance or public safety,” 4 but, a 2022 briefing report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights suggests that the current cash bail system is also associated with producing deleterious racial disparities and economic inequities that undermine the presumption of innocence and worsen public safety. 5 The Commission report points out that low-income persons and people of color are disproportionately detained as a result of their inability to make bail, and persons of color are more often assigned higher bail amounts and considered more “dangerous” than whites. 6 To persons jailed simply because they could not afford bail, jail can result in severe trauma: loss of employment, housing, custody of a child; and economic hardship. 7 The think tank, Prison Policy Initiative, issued a report in 2016 documenting that cash bail “perpetuates an endless cycle of poverty and jail time.” 8 Nevertheless, with crime rates on the rise in 2020, bail reform became a political cudgel, and New York State’s law became a focal point of harsh condemnation from the GOP and conservative media outlets nationwide. But analyses of bail reform show no clear link between bail reform and spikes in crime. 9

To reduce unnecessary pretrial detention and ameliorate the harms associated with cash bail, New York State passed a bail reform law in 2019, ending cash bail for certain misdemeanors and most non-violent felony cases. Changes to the original law in 2020 and 2022 gave judges the ability to impose cash bail in more situations. 10 To date, research on the law shows no significant impact on crime rates. One study by the Times Union of Albany found that, of almost 100,000 cases, only a minimal number (2 percent) of individuals faced rearrest for a violent felony. As a result, as many as 80,000 people may have avoided incarceration while posing no documented threat to public safety. 11 And, looking at the national picture, the Brennan Center for Justice, a progressive law and public policy institute, points out that crime surged nationally, even in states that did not enact bail reform. 12

Another report—this one from the Office of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander—covered three calendar years and revealed that “pretrial rearrest rates remained nearly identical pre- and post-bail reform.” 13 The Comptroller’s report also warned that rollbacks to New York State’s bail reforms would “syphon money” from low-income communities. Indeed, families unable to make cash bail often turn to for-profit bail bond companies that require a non-refundable premium of 10 to 15 percent, even if no wrongdoing is found. Some form of collateral—such as a car or house—is also required. As the bail bond industry has become increasingly lucrative, growing numbers of indigent persons and their families face steep financial risks. 14 Critics of bail reform, by contrast, have produced little to no empirical evidence to support their position. Outspoken in its condemnation of bail reform, the New York Police Department has fallen short in backing up its assertions that bail reform was causing increases in gun violence. In 2021, when challenged by Albany legislators, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, failed to provide any hard data to support his contention that bail reform is driving up crime. In the end, he was forced to retract his statements. 15

The term “defunding the police” has been variously understood. For the purpose of this discussion, I define the term not as a movement to eliminate police budgets, but as a call to lessen encounters with police by shifting funds away from aggressive and militarized forms of policing toward social services—such as mental health, addiction, education, and housing. In its most literal meaning, “defunding the police” is frequently cited as a reason for the surge in crime. As with bail, hard evidence to support this allegation has not materialized. Of twelve Democratic-led cities (including Austin, Louisville, Rochester, and St. Paul) cited by Republicans as examples of where crime purportedly rose due to police defunding, criminal justice scholars find no discernible link between defunding and crime. In fact, not all twelve cities defunded police; most did not substantially reduce police funding, and some actually increased their police budgets. 16

Funding quality educational programs, by comparison, has proven to be successful in diminishing crime. 17 For example, two studies—one in North Carolina and one in Michigan—showed that increased expenditures on primary schools helped to reduce adult crime by improving student academic success, which in turn provides a greater opportunity for socio-economic mobility. 18

Examining What Is: Covid-19, Guns, and the Rise in Hate

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, crime rates were relatively low. As the graph in Figure 1 demonstrates, the rate of violent crime offenses declined from a peak in 1991 of 758.2 per year to 398.5 per year in 2020. 19 The rate of homicide over the same period also dropped significantly, from its highest level in 1991 compared with 2020. 20 But the crime rate shows an uptick with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Rate of violent crime offenses by population in the United States: 1985-2020.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Trend of Violent Crime from 1985 to 2020,” Crime Data Explorer, accessed September 19, 2022, https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend .

Note. Rate per 100,000 people, by year.

The pandemic is widely understood as the cause of immense social and economic dislocation, disproportionately disadvantaging children, communities of color, immigrants, LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, and more) youth, and persons with disabilities. 21 The pandemic also exposed and aggravated deeply entrenched inequities in health care, poverty, education, housing, and racial segregation. Its impact on mental health and psychosocial well-being, substance abuse, and domestic violence has become a focus of attention in relation to the rise in crime. All these factors are related to the rise in crime.

As gun violence became a major driver of crime nationwide, hate crimes also spiked. During the pandemic, reports of hate crimes reached a twelve-year high.

The proliferation of guns and gun violence nationwide appears to have contributed greatly to the spike in homicides. Sharp increases in gun purchases coincided with the start of the pandemic in 2020 and continued well into 2021. 22 The increased supply of guns as well as the types of guns—high-powered semi-automatic weapons, for instance—has been linked to the surge in gun violence. 23 Criminologists Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig deem gun violence and the fear of gun violence as devastating to the lives of children and families around the country, most especially in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. In their estimation, public safety begins with addressing the needs of communities most vulnerable to gun violence, and that includes investments in social policies, such as summer jobs for teens, cleaning vacant lots, and spending more on social programs—all of which have been shown to reduce homicide rates. 24

As gun violence became a major driver of crime nationwide, hate crimes also spiked. During the pandemic, reports of hate crimes reached a twelve-year high (see Figure 2 ). 25 While anti-Black incidents topped the list of hate crimes based on race, people of Asian descent experienced a steep rise in anti-Asian violence and crime, with a 169 percent increase in reports of anti-Asian hate crimes in fifteen of America’s largest cities and counties in the first quarter of 2021 when compared with the first quarter of 2020. 26

Hate crimes in the United States: 1995-2020.

Source: Hate Crime in the United States Incident Analysis, 1995 to 2020,” Crime Data Explorer, accessed October 6, 2022, https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/hate-crime .

. . . [I]t is no surprise that the earliest form of policing in the United States was the slave patrol, established in 1704.

Even before the pandemic, former President Donald Trump’s xenophobic, racially inflammatory rhetoric and policies were understood as green-lighting racial and ethnic violence. But unfortunately, this is not unique in our history. Hate groups of different types—white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and anti-government paramilitary organizations—historically have played a major role in the spread of hatred and violence.

Policing: The Historical Context

The history of policing in the United States may help us determine the best policies and practices to advance public safety without subjecting communities to abusive police practices.

The institution of slavery—and its continuance—was integral to the founding of the nation. So, it is no surprise that the earliest form of policing in the United States was the slave patrol, established in 1704. 27 The patrols were designed to maintain the system of slave labor and to capture runaway slaves. Patrollers, often armed, used violence to terrorize slaves and deter rebellions. In 1787, the apprehension of slaves was codified in the U.S. Constitution in Article IV, Section 2, commonly referred to as the “Fugitive Slave Clause.” The intent of the clause, which passed unanimously, was “to require fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up like criminals.” 28 The clause was nullified by passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Slave patrols were also disbanded after the Civil War, only to be replaced by other forms of policing Black lives. These included the Ku Klux Klan and the institution of Jim Crow, which was maintained in Southern states by police who often used intimidation and terror to maintain a brutally oppressive system. 29

By the 1990s, the acquisition of military equipment by police forces across the country became ubiquitous . . .

Over time, police and other law enforcement agencies helped preserve and reproduce race and class inequality, as in the 1918 massacre of fifteen Mexican men in Porvenir, Texas and the 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma massacre that resulted in destruction of a prosperous Black neighborhood. 30 Business and economic elites—such as Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick—also relied on police or private law enforcement agencies to employ deadly force against workers and union organizers. The massacre of strikers at the Homestead Steelworks in 1882 is one example; the 1897 massacre of coal miners in Lattimer, Pennsylvania is another. 31

The militarization of policing arose in the 1960s, amid cries for a “war on crime” and a “war on drugs.” In Los Angeles, Daryl F. Gates, then head of the Los Angeles Police Department, spearheaded an effort to outfit local police departments with military-grade armaments and equipment to handle emergencies, such as hostage situations and sniper shootings. By the 1990s, the acquisition of military equipment by police forces across the country became ubiquitous through a federal program that encouraged the militarization of law enforcement. 32 But, as a report from the American Civil Liberties Union documents, militarization, too, frequently came at the expense of individual civil liberties, particularly in Black and Latinx communities. 33

Police practices—including chokeholds, stop and frisks, and “broken windows” tactics—have come into question as the victims of police brutality have come into sharp focus. From George Floyd and Breonna Taylor to Eric Garner and Freddy Gray, their names are now familiar and—for some—synonymous with policing in the United States. Yet, despite the bright light shone on these cases, fatal police shootings continue to rise. According to the Washington Post , “2021 was the deadliest year for police shootings” since the newspaper began tracking such incidents in 2015. 34

Centering Communities to Advance Public Safety

Following incidents of excessive police force, municipalities commonly opt for police retraining. However, as some analysts observe, retraining is too often inadequate or ineffective in resolving or mitigating a recurrence of police misconduct. 35 Similarly, while there is merit to hiring police officers who resemble members of the communities they serve, a diverse police force does not necessarily decrease incidents of brutality against persons of color. Regrettably, research shows that a Black officer may be more inclined to use force in encounters with Black community members than white officers. 36 These officers often face the dilemma of how to fit into a police culture that commonly takes an “us against them” approach when patrolling communities. Aggressive behavior can be one way to prove that they belong. 37

Ensuring public safety requires attention to non-violent as well as violent situations. In the context of rising crime, expectations that police officers can resolve a wide array of concerns are high. Police are often called to aid unhoused people, assist individuals experiencing emotional difficulties, or settle domestic disputes. The police are not trained to handle such matters. Social workers or other trained professionals are much better equipped to deal with problems of this nature.

National data on homicide “clearance rates”—the rate at which homicide cases are resolved—also raise questions about the effectiveness of policing. In 2020, the clearance rate was just under 50 percent, representing a historic low and “a long, steady drop since the early 1980s, when police cleared about 70 percent of all homicides.” 38 The pandemic and the spike in violent crimes may help to explain the fall in clearance rates, but the data still beg the question of whether policing itself is sufficiently effective in meeting the public safety needs of contemporary society.

In determining the best approaches moving forward, the intractability of problems related to policing cannot be ignored. Policing remains a leading cause of death for young men in the United States. 39 People of color are most vulnerable, with Black men facing a one in one thousand risk of being killed by police. As we have seen, violent encounters with the police have profound effects on whole communities and neighborhoods, affecting the health and the life chances of individuals in those communities.

Community concerns about crime are real, especially in the most vulnerable communities of color. But the alternative of aggressive policing and mass incarceration has resulted in tremendous harm and cannot be the ultimate solution.

The high rate of recidivism—the rate at which persons released from prison are rearrested—does not point to a system that works well. The most recent Bureau of Justice Statistics covering a ten-year period (2008-2018) shows that “about 66 percent of prisoners released across 24 states in 2008 were rearrested within three years, and 82 percent were arrested within ten years.” 40 Recidivism rates this high should call into question the adequacy of the criminal justice system. It should also raise the issue of whether a system, focused on retribution rather than rehabilitation and public health, is actually serving the cause of public safety. These questions have found resonance with advocates of prison abolition. These abolitionists include scholars Angela Davis, Gina Dent, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and Alex Vitale. In their view, the current structure of policing and incarceration is profoundly connected to systems of oppression. What is required, they believe, is a system that operates within a social-justice framework—one that substantively engages communities in maintaining their own safety. Such a system, they believe, would reaffirm the values of self-determination and community empowerment. 41 Rather than simply replicating punitive approaches that disproportionally and discriminatorily harm communities of color, abolitionists look to broader social solutions to the problem of crime—remedial measures such as restitution, reconciliation, rehabilitation, and restorative justice.

While a complete transformation of policing and the criminal justice system may not be on the immediate horizon, a variety of initiatives in recent years have sought to address the basic human needs of communities while minimizing negative interactions with police. In a 2021 experiment in Brooklyn, for example, the Brownsville Safety Alliance—a community-based organization—arranged for precinct police to disengage from their usual assignments in a two-block area for five days. In their place, trained violence interrupters and crisis management groups were charged with securing public safety. Although limited in duration, this pilot program has been praised by New York City officials as well as members of the community as “a model for the future.” 42 A range of other crime-reduction strategies that do not involve the deployment of police have also produced promising results. These include improvements in street lighting, clean-up of empty lots, provision of quality mental health and drug treatment services, and expansion of Medicaid services. 43

Community concerns about crime are real, especially in the most vulnerable communities of color. But the alternative of aggressive policing and mass incarceration has resulted in tremendous harm and cannot be the ultimate solution. The best, most promising option is to center communities and underlying social and economic inequality as the means to advance public safety.

Author Biography

José Luis Morín is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

1 Jeff Asher, “Murder Rose by almost 30% in 2020: It’s Rising at a Slower Rate in 2021,” New York Times , September 22, 2021, updated November 15, 2021, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/22/upshot/murder-rise-2020.html .

2 Federal Bureau of Investigation, “FBI Releases 2020 Hate Crime Statistics,” August 30, 2021, available at https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/press-releases/fbi-releases-2020-hate-crime-statistics ; See also, Christina Carrega and Priya Krishnakumar, “Hate Crime Reports in US Surge to the Highest Level in 12 Years, FBI Says,” CNN , October 26, 2021, available at https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/us/fbi-report-hate-crimes-rose-2020/index.html .

3 Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Trend of Violent Crime from 1985 to 2020,” Crime Data Explorer, available at https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend .

4 Timothy Schnacke, “Fundamentals of Bail: A Resource Guide for Pretrial Practitioners and a Framework for American Pretrial Reform,” National Institute of Corrections, September 2, 2014, available at https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.nicic.gov/Library/028360.pdf .

5 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, “Civil Rights Implications of Cash Bail,” Briefing Report, Washington, DC, available at https://www.usccr.gov/reports/2021/civil-rights-implications-cash-bail .

6 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 10.

7 Adureh Onyekwere, “How Cash Bail Works,” Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, December 10, 2019, updated February 24, 2021, available at https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/how-cash-bail-works#:~:text=Cash%20bail%20is%20used%20as,is%20forfeited%20to%20the%20government ; See also, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 6-8.

8 Bernadette Rabuy and Daniel Kopf, “Detaining the Poor: How Money Bail Perpetuates an Endless Cycle of Poverty and Jail Time,” Prison Policy Initiative , May 10, 2016, available at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/DetainingThePoor.pdf .

9 Ames Grawert and Noah Kim, “The Facts on Bail Reform and Crime Rates in New York State,” Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, March 22, 2022, available at https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/facts-bail-reform-and-crime-rates-new-york-state .

10 Taryn A. Merkl, “New York’s Latest Bail Law Changes Explained,” Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, April 16, 2020, available at https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-yorks-latest-bail-law-changes-explained ; See also, Jon Campbell, “NY Lawmakers Pass $220B Budget that Changes Bail Reform, Approves Buffalo Bills Stadium Funding,” Gothamist, April 9, 2022, available at https://gothamist.com/news/ny-lawmakers-pass-220b-budget-that-changes-bail-reform-approves-buffalo-bills-stadium-funding?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=nypr-email&utm_campaign=Gothamist%20Daily%20Newsletter&utm_term=https%3A%2F%2Fgothamist.com%2Fnews%2Fny-lawmakers-pass-220b-budget-that-changes-bail-reform-approves-buffalo-bills-stadium-funding&utm_id=88591&sfmc_id=2849872&utm_content=202249 .

11 Grawert and Kim, “Bail Reform and Crime.”

12 Grawert and Kim, “Bail Reform and Crime.”

13 Office of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, “NYC Bail Trends Since 2019,” available at https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/nyc-bail-trends-since-2019/ .

14 Gillian B. White, “Who Really Makes Money Off of Bail Bonds?” The Atlantic , May 12, 2017, available at https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/05/bail-bonds/526542/ ; See also, Onyekwere, “How Cash Bail Works”; Rabuy and Kopf, “Detaining the Poor.”

15 “During Questioning in Albany, NYPD Commissioner Shea Backtracks on Bail Reform Law as Big Reason for Gun Violence,” CBS New York , October 14, 2021, available at https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/bail-reform-nypd-commissioner-dermot-shea-assembly-hearing/ .

16 Daniel Funke, “Fact Check: No Evidence Defunding Police to Blame for Homicide Increases, Experts Say,” USA TODAY , January 28, 2022, available at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/01/28/fact-check-police-funding-not-linked-homicide-spikes-experts-say/9054639002/ .

17 See, for example, Brian Bell, Rui Costa, and Stephen Machin, “Why Does Education Reduce Crime?” Journal of Political Economy 130, no. 3 (2022): 732-65.

18 David J. Deming, “Better Schools, Less Crime?” Quarterly Journal of Economics 126 (2011): 2063-115; See also, E. Jason Baron, Joshua M. Hyman, and Brittany N. Vasquez, “Public School Funding, School Quality, and Adult Crime,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 29855, available at http://www.nber.org/papers/w29855 .

19 FBI, “Trend of Violent Crime from 1985 to 2020.”

20 FBI, “Trend of Homicide from 1985-2020,” Crime Data Explorer, available at https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend .

21 Charles Oberg, H.R. Hodges, Sarah Gander, Rita Nathawad, and Diana Cutts. “The Impact of COVID-19 on Children’s Lives in the United States: Amplified Inequities and a Just Path to Recovery,” Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care 52, no. 7 (2022): 1-17.

22 Sabrina Tavernise, “An Arms Race in America: Gun Buying Spiked during the Pandemic. It’s Still Up,” New York Times , May 29, 2021, updated May 30, 2021, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/29/us/gun-purchases-ownership-pandemic.html .

23 Tavernise, “An Arms Race in America.”

24 Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig, “Gun Violence Is THE Crime Problem,” Vital City . March 2, 2022, available at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/gun-violence-is-the-crime-problem .

25 Carrega and Krishnakumar, “Hate Crime Reports in US Surge”; FBI, “Hate Crime in the United States Incident Analysis, 1995-2020,” Crime Data Explorer,” accessed October 6, 2022, https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/hate-crime .

26 Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, “Report to the Nation: Anti-Asian Prejudice & Hate Crime 2021,” (2021), available at https://www.csusb.edu/sites/default/files/Report%20to%20the%20Nation%20-%20Anti-Asian%20Hate%202020%20Final%20Draft%20-%20As%20of%20Apr%2028%202021%2010%20AM%20corrected.pdf .

27 Chelsea Hansen, “Slave Patrols: An Early Form of American Policing,” National Law Enforcement Museum , July 10, 2019, available at https://lawenforcementmuseum.org/2019/07/10/slave-patrols-an-early-form-of-american-policing/ ; See also, Jill Lepore, “The Invention of the Police: Why Did American Policing Get so Big, so Fast? The Answer, Mainly, Is Slavery,” The New Yorker , July 13, 2020, available at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-of-the-police .

28 Library of Congress, “The Fugitive Slave Clause,” Constitution Annotated, available at https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artIV-S2-C3-1/ALDE_00013571/ [“clause”].

29 Hansen, “Slave Patrols.”

30 Zinn Education Project, “Massacres in U.S. History,” available at https://www.zinnedproject.org/collection/massacres-us/ .

31 Gary Potter, “The History of Policing in the United States, Part 3,” EKU Online . Eastern Kentucky University. July 9, 2013, available at https://ekuonline.eku.edu/blog/police-studies/the-history-of-policing-in-the-united-states-part-3/ ; See also, Paul A. Shackel, “How a 1897 Massacre of Pennsylvania Coal Miners Morphed from a Galvanizing Crisis to Forgotten History,” Smithsonian Magazine , March 13, 2019, available at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-1897-massacre-pennsylvania-coal-miners-morphed-galvanizing-crisis-forgotten-history-180971695/ .

32 Radley Balko, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces , (New York: Public Affairs, 2021).

33 American Civil Liberties Union, “War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing” (2014), available at https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/jus14-warcomeshome-report-web-rel1.pdf .

34 The Marshall Project, “How Policing Has—and Hasn’t—Changed since George Floyd,” August 6, 2022, available at https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/08/06/how-policing-has-and-hasn-t-changed-since-george-floyd .

35 See, for example, Alex S. Vitale, The End of Policing (London: Verso Books, 2017), 4-11.

36 Vitale, The End of Policing , 11-13; See also, “Does Diversifying Police Forces Reduce Brutality against Minorities?” NPR , June 22, 2020, available at https://www.npr.org/2020/06/22/881559659/does-diversifying-police-forces-reduce-brutality-against-minorities .

37 Vitale, The End of Policing ; See also, José Luis Morín, Latino/a Rights and Justice in the United States: Perspectives and Approaches , 2nd edition (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2009), 106-15; Balko, Rise of the Warrior Cop .

38 Weihua Li and Jamiles Lartey, “As Murders Spiked, Police Solved about Half in 2020,” The Marshall Project , January 12, 2022, available at https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/01/12/as-murders-spiked-police-solved-about-half-in-2020 .

39 Frank Edwards, Hedwig Lee, and Michael Esposito, “Risk of being Killed by Police Use of Force in the United States by Age, Race–Ethnicity, and Sex,” PNAS 116, no. 34 (2019): 16793-8.

40 Leonardo Antenangeli and Matthew R. Durose, Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 24 States in 2008: A 10-Year Follow-up Period (2008–2018), Bureau of Justice Statistics NCJ Number 256094 September 2021, available at https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/recidivism-prisoners-released-24-states-2008-10-year-follow-period-2008-2018 .

41 See, for example, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Golden Gulag: Prisons Surplus, Crisis, and Oppression in Globalizing California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007); Vitale, The End of Policing ; Derecka Purnell, Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom (New York: Astra House, 2021); Mariame Kaba, We Do This ’Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2021); Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth Richie. Abolition. Feminism. Now (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2022).

42 Yoav Gonen and Eileen Grench, “Five Days without Cops: Could Brooklyn Policing Experiment Be a ‘Model for the Future’?” The City , January 3, 2021, available at https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/1/3/22211709/nypd-cops-brooklyn-brownsville-experiment-defund-police .

43 Shaila Dewan. “‘Re-fund the Police’? Why It might Not Reduce Crime,” New York Times , November 8, 2021, updated November 11, 2021, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/us/police-crime.html .

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Band 6+: Each year, the crime rate increases. What are the causes of crime and what could be done to prevent this rise in criminal activity?

The level of crime rises annually. There are a number of reasons that can explain why this is the case, but also some measures that we can take to prevent the rise.

To start, the rate of crime rises for a number of reasons. The most common one, however, is social factors. Social factors such as weak influence of the family and negative social circles contribute to the increase of crime. They usually directly impact on a person. Another reason is apparently unemployment. People who didn’t find a job most often look for illegal ways to earn money. As a result, high unemployment leads to an increase in crime.

Turning to solutions, the biggest step would be taken by the government. Setting up social programmes that would help and support families, teenagers and kids might reduce the motivation of people to commit a crime. Secondly, to decrease the rate of unemployment government plays the vital role. Investing in infrastructure more, there will be job creation. Building schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructure objects creates many new jobs, for example.

In conclusion, social factors and high unemployment seem to be the principal reasons why the crime rate increases yearly. However, solutions should range from setting up social programmes to investing in infrastructure.

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What’s behind rising violent crimes in the U.S., and how they can be reduced

Amna Nawaz Amna Nawaz

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Recent shootings in New York City have spotlighted a troubling rise in gun violence and homicide across the country. Amna Nawaz reports on why violent crime has increased and how cities can prevent it.

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Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Judy Woodruff:

Recent shootings in New York City have spotlighted a troubling rise in gun violence and homicide across the country.

Amna Nawaz has our report on why violent crime has increased and how cities can prevent it.

Amna Nawaz:

A grim start to the year in New York City, with residents across the boroughs reeling from a series of attacks, in Times Square, a woman pushed to death on the subway tracks, in the Bronx, an 11-month-old baby shot in the face, and, in Harlem, two police officers shot to death while on duty.

It's sent newly inaugurated Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain, to prayer vigils, roundtables and to the center of a national debate on gun violence and public safety.

Eric Adams (D), Mayor of New York: We need Washington to join us and act now to stop the flow of guns in New York City and cities like New York.

The issue is resonating nationwide. Over the weekend, an officer was wounded in Washington, D.C., and a deputy killed in Houston, Texas.

Ted Heap, Harris County, Texas, Precinct 5 Constable: We cannot have people like this on our streets.

The overall picture of violent crime in America right now is complicated.

A new report by the Council on Criminal Justice tracks that. In 2021, the homicide rate rose by 5 percent, an increase, but by a much smaller margin than in 2020, when homicides rose by 29 percent. And these numbers are still only about half the rate during the nation's peak in the early 1990s.

Still it was top of mind for city leaders, who gathered for the national mayors conference in Washington, D.C., last week. There, Republicans and Democrats alike endorsed investing in police departments, like Miami Mayor Francis Suarez:

Francis Suarez (R), Mayor of Miami, Florida: As we have invested in our police departments, we saw a shocking correlation. Crime went down.

And President Joe Biden:

President Joe Biden:

We shouldn't be cutting funding for police departments. I have proposed increasing funding.

Back in New York on Monday, Mayor Adams echoed that message.

Eric Adams:

We will not surrender our city to the violent few.

Laying out a blueprint to end gun violence, to empower community anti-violence groups, expand programs for youth jobs and mental health, harsher sentences on gun trafficking, and an increased police presence on the streets.

The NYPD is our first line of defense against gun violence. We will make new efforts to strengthen and reinforce it, while continuing our mission to involve the community.

That includes bring back a remodeled version of plainclothes units, the teams behind a number of the city's most notorious police shootings, disbanded amid calls for reform in 2020. Adams said he'd ensure they didn't repeat past mistakes.

We're not looking to be heavy-handed. But we're not looking to be dangerous to our city. And I'm going to look for and strike that right balance.

New Yorkers can expect to see change on the streets in the coming weeks, a sign of one city's approach to violent crime.

To understand why violence is up nationwide and what policies can address this, I'm joined by Thomas Abt. He is the chair of the Council on Criminal Justice's Violent Crime Working Group, which studies evidence-based strategies for public safety.

Thomas Abt, welcome to the "NewsHour." Thanks for being here.

So, as we mentioned there, the violent crime rates are not what we saw in the 1990s, but those increases, they show up. People see that and they feel that in their community.

So, what do we know is behind those increases? What is driving them?

Thomas Abt, Council on Criminal Justice: Sure. It is a pleasure to be with you, Amna, today.

Basically, it is hard to tell what drives crime trends, but the experts broadly agree on three main reasons. First, it is the pandemic. As people know, the pandemic has placed everyone under incredible pressure, but, in particular, it has placed disproportionate pressure on poor communities of color, precisely where community gun violence concentrates.

The second major cause is, in fact, these guns. We saw record sales of guns in 2020, continuing to 2021. And, unfortunately, some recent ATF data shows that the — quote, unquote — "time to crime," meaning the time illegally purchased gun needs to funnel through the gray and black markets into the hands of the criminal, has shortened considerably.

And, in fact, what we're seeing on the streets of our cities is that more illegal guns are being recovered, despite the fact that there have been fewer arrests.

The final thing that's driving these crime trends is the social unrest that followed the brutal murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And what that incident and other incidents like it did is, it drove a wedge between cops and the communities they serve.

And what we're seeing is, we're seeing police alienated from communities and communities alienated from police. So, we're seeing less proactive investigation from police. And we're seeing less cooperation in some of the impact — in most impacted communities.

So, let me ask you what you have seen so far, as mayors are responding. We just saw the New York City mayor, Adams, there talking about how he'd like to respond to the increase in crime there, more police on the streets, but also empowering some of those community programs you were mentioning.

We actually spoke with a gentleman in New York who works with a crime — or, rather, a violence reduction program in the neighborhood of Brownsville. His name is Anthony Newerls.

And here's what he told us about something they tried recently.

Anthony Newerls, Brownsville In, Violence Out:

We asked the police department to let us police our own community. So it was a community-based-led resources.

Knowing the needs of the community, knowing that they have housing issues, mental health issues, summonses and warrants and food, we bought resources out for a week straight from 12:00 p.m. to 800 p.m. And not one, not one violent incident took place that week.

So, Thomas, Anthony saying they actually pulled back on policing, and they saw crime go down.

Is that an approach more cities should be trying?

Thomas Abt:

I think what cities need to do, and, frankly, what I think Mayor Adams is doing, is try to strike the right balance.

It's important to understand that police are essential to crime fighting, particularly fighting against the most serious forms of crime, such as violence.

At the same time, police are necessary, but not sufficient. So we also need partners for those police, including community groups like the one we just heard about. And so that's really the important thing.

Unfortunately, across the country, far too often, we're having sort of an either/or conversation. Either it's the police or it's these community groups. You're either for the police or you're against the police. And the science says, we actually need both.

So, what about this kind of knee-jerk reaction we see in a lot of places, right? People see crime numbers go up, and the immediate response from leaders who want to appear responsive and assertive is to say we're going to answer with more police.

We know, even with all the conversation around police reform, that more cities are spending a bigger part of their budget on police departments in the last year. So, how do you encourage those leaders to make sure there's a mixed response; it's not just responding with police; these community programs are also getting funding?

Police funding as a share of overall state, local and even federal budgets is remarkably consistent. And I wouldn't expect to see a major increase this year. But what I would say is that it's very important to understand that it's not necessarily more police that we need or less please. It's the right kind of policing.

Serious gun violence is remarkably concentrated. It's concentrated in every city among a surprisingly small number of people and a small number of places often known as micro-locations or hot spots. And so, yes, we need police in those places. But, no, we don't need to return to some of the practices that — of mass arrest, mass incarceration that left us with really some of the highest levels of imprisonment in the world.

That is Thomas Abt, chair of the Violent Crime Working Group, joining us tonight.

Thank you so much for your time.

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IELTS General Training

A hub for IELTS GT test takers to help them reach their goal.

Essay 254 – The crime rate has increased significantly

Gt writing task 2 / essay sample # 254.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

The crime rate, in many countries, has increased significantly over the last few years despite tough laws and regulations. Some people think that more should be done to prevent crime, whereas others feel that nothing can be done.

What viewpoint do you agree with?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer:

In many parts of the world, the crime rate has reached epic proportions over the last few years in spite of strict laws and regulations. Many believe that more steps ought to be taken to curb crimes, yet others deem that nothing can be done to deter crimes. In this case, the writer agrees with the first viewpoint.

On the one hand, the states should take progressive steps to cut the crime rate. To start with, education and awareness programmes often bring better results in fighting social crimes than the fear of punishments. Moreover, capital punishment ought to be diminished, and hard labour and community services should be more widely used for felons. Apart from that, governments can allow incarcerated individuals’ access to proper education programmes so that they can sharpen their marketable skills while in prison. This, in turn, helps incarcerated persons lead a decent life after leaving prisons, thereby reducing recidivism. Thus, the governments can decrease crime rates by focusing on education, relaxing harsh punishment and introducing prison education.

Civil society groups on the other hand can be of real help to hold down the crime rate. They can analyze underlying causes of the situation, formulate recommendations, devise policy options and take part in policy dialogue to address crimes. Civil society actors can also run advocacy campaigns to invoke political will among decision-makers and employ effective strategies to obtain desired results. Aside from this, individuals also can play an important role in lowering crime rates. For instance, citizens can prevent many crimes by sharing crucial information on crime hotspots. It goes without saying that when individuals themselves care about preventing crimes in their neighbourhoods, it can be an effective measure in reducing crime rates.

To conclude, to make society sustainable, peaceful, and keep its crime rate in control, governments, citizens, and civil society groups should work together. Thus, there are a lot more measures to be introduced to combat crime and the scope is still there.

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Each year, the crime rate increases. What are the causes of crime and what could be done to prevent this rise in criminal activity?

In this era, the number of crimes is increasing every year. There are several factors causing this issue, but the primary causes could be the emotional lifestyles. To solve this issue, the government can provide various programs where it helps people to handle the stresses and control their emotions. There are various reasons for the incremental crime rates; however, the emotional distresses are the primary causes. As society develops into competitive markets, every day’s life becomes stressful. As a result of this, people have a lesser private time such as spending the time with friends and families, which causes emotional depression or distresses, it can express in a criminal way. In fact, according to the US statistics have found that in 2015's majority crime rates (over 80%) have involved with random and involuntary crimes, which have resulted of lose control of emotions. Therefore, this competitive and stressful world has created a criminal every year. To solve this issue, there are several reasons at different levels - individual, family and societal levels. However, the most effective solutions would be the compulsory governmental programs which main purpose is helping people to manage their stress levels. Since majority of crimes are committed due to the burst and uncontrollable emotions, the programs to control of one's emotion becomes vital. If the government imposes these programs as a mandatory, there will be fewer crimes involve with emotional uncontrollable acts. Thus, the governmental helps on this matter is required at an immediate effect. In conclusion, as society develops into a competitive world, the number of crimes is increasing every year. Even though there are various causes result this phenomenon, the primary reason would be the emotional managements. Since more people are responding extremely with their emotions, the crime acts would be inevitable. Therefore, the governmental programs involving emotional management seems the most effective and urgent approach to be placed.

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Essay evaluation report by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors: Line 2, column 377, Rule ID: IN_A_X_MANNER[1] Message: Consider replacing "in a criminal way" with adverb for "criminal"; eg, "in a hasty manner" with "hastily". ...epression or distresses, it can express in a criminal way. In fact, according to the US statistic... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Line 3, column 373, Rule ID: ONES[1] Message: Did you mean 'one's'? Suggestion: one's ...le emotions, the programs to control of ones emotion becomes vital. If the governmen... ^^^^

Discourse Markers used: ['but', 'however', 'if', 'so', 'therefore', 'thus', 'in conclusion', 'in fact', 'such as', 'as a result']

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance in Part of Speech: Nouns: 0.254189944134 0.247107183377 103% => OK Verbs: 0.156424581006 0.155533422707 101% => OK Adjectives: 0.122905027933 0.0946595960268 130% => OK Adverbs: 0.0251396648045 0.0501214627716 50% => OK Pronouns: 0.0139664804469 0.0437548338989 32% => OK Prepositions: 0.0921787709497 0.122226691241 75% => OK Participles: 0.0418994413408 0.0403226058552 104% => OK Conjunctions: 2.804747915 2.80594681477 100% => OK Infinitives: 0.0223463687151 0.0326793684256 68% => OK Particles: 0.0 0.00163938923432 0% => OK Determiners: 0.117318435754 0.0861772015684 136% => OK Modal_auxiliary: 0.0195530726257 0.021408717616 91% => OK WH_determiners: 0.0111731843575 0.011925033212 94% => OK

Vocabulary words and sentences: No of characters: 2040.0 1933.35771543 106% => OK No of words: 313.0 316.048096192 99% => OK Chars per words: 6.51757188498 6.12580529183 106% => OK Fourth root words length: 4.20616286096 4.20517956788 100% => OK words length more than 5 chars: 0.450479233227 0.374742101984 120% => OK words length more than 6 chars: 0.348242811502 0.28420135186 123% => OK words length more than 7 chars: 0.23642172524 0.203846283523 116% => OK words length more than 8 chars: 0.169329073482 0.137316102897 123% => OK Word Length SD: 2.804747915 2.80594681477 100% => OK Unique words: 161.0 176.037074148 91% => OK Unique words percentage: 0.514376996805 0.56093040696 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted. Word variations: 52.488122299 60.7387585426 86% => OK How many sentences: 17.0 16.0891783567 106% => OK Sentence length: 18.4117647059 20.7743622355 89% => OK Sentence length SD: 35.1576774508 49.517814964 71% => OK Chars per sentence: 120.0 127.492653851 94% => OK Words per sentence: 18.4117647059 20.7743622355 89% => OK Discourse Markers: 0.588235294118 0.814263465372 72% => OK Paragraphs: 4.0 4.38877755511 91% => OK Language errors: 2.0 3.99599198397 50% => OK Readability: 53.236045856 49.1944974215 108% => OK Elegance: 1.98571428571 1.69124875643 117% => OK

Coherence and Cohesion: Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.389250024641 0.332605444948 117% => OK Sentence sentence coherence: 0.0862676311217 0.102741220458 84% => OK Sentence sentence coherence SD: 0.0567336888676 0.0668466124924 85% => OK Sentence paragraph coherence: 0.489472569251 0.534860350844 92% => OK Sentence paragraph coherence SD: 0.116462669302 0.148594505496 78% => OK Sentence topic coherence: 0.153023887234 0.134430193775 114% => OK Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0649987041878 0.0742795772207 88% => OK Paragraph paragraph coherence: 0.36108930825 0.324371583561 111% => OK Paragraph paragraph coherence SD: 0.0719612498796 0.0638462369009 113% => OK Paragraph topic coherence: 0.291293973766 0.228012699653 128% => OK Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0374630200226 0.058150111329 64% => The ideas may be duplicated in paragraphs.

Task Achievement: Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.68436873747 115% => OK Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 3.9879759519 176% => OK Sentences with neutral sentiment: 0.0 3.41683366733 0% => More neutral sentences wanted. Positive topic words: 7.0 5.90881763527 118% => OK Negative topic words: 6.0 2.5751503006 233% => OK Neutral topic words: 0.0 1.9629258517 0% => More neutral topic words wanted. Total topic words: 13.0 10.4468937876 124% => OK What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

--------------------- Rates: 67.4157303371 out of 100 Scores by essay e-grader: 6.0 Out of 9 --------------------- Note: This is not the final score. The e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.

IELTS Writing Samples by topic

Q. each year, the crime rate increases. what are the causes of crime and what could be done to prevent this rise in criminal activity., each year, the crime rate increases. what are the causes of crime and what could be done to prevent this rise in criminal activity, each year, the crime rate increases. what are the causes of crime and what coule be done to prevent this rise in criminal activity, each year, the crime rate increase. what are the causes of crime and what could be done to prevent this rise in criminal activity., each year, the crime rate increases. what are the causes of crime and what could be done to prevent this rise in criminal activity give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge o.

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