US murder rate may fall in 2017, contradicting Jeff Sessions' warnings

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

US murder rate may fall in 2017, contradicting Jeff Sessions' warnings

New projection from the Brennan Center for Justice suggests numbers may trend downwards again, despite Sessions’ concerns about a ‘dangerous trend’

Lois Beckett
Friday 8 September 2017 18.28 BST

America’s murder rate may fall slightly in 2017 with the violent crime rate and the overall crime rate, according to a new projection from the Brennan Center for Justice that contradicts assertions by Jeff Sessions that a sharp increase in murders seen in 2015 represents a “dangerous permanent trend”.

Donald Trump’s attorney general has used such claims to justify his rollback of Obama-era criminal justice reforms.

The new projections, based on mid-year data from the 30 largest US cities, suggest that after two years of increases, America’s murder numbers may go down again. The Brennan Center projects that the 2017 murder rate will be 2.5% lower than 2016, making the total number of murders nationwide roughly equivalent to those in 2009.

Some crime experts questioned the reliability of such precise estimates. Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist and one of the country’s leading experts on murder trends, said it appeared likely that the murder rate will increase more modestly this year than it did last, even if it does not decline.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/08/us-rate-may-fall-in-2017-contradicting-jeff-sessions-warnings

[defacto7]

1. Well Jeffy better get to work on that. Gotta get that

murder quota.

[msongs]

2. hawaii crime rate hits record low in 2016

http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/local-news/hawaii-crime-rate-hits-record-low

"That’s according to the state’s annual report, “Crime in Hawaii, 2016.”

A total of 45,805 so-called “index crimes” were reported statewide, a rate of 3,206 offenses per 100,000 resident population, the report said. That’s the lowest rate on record since statewide data collection from the counties’ police departments began by the Department of the Attorney General in 1975."

[Aristus]

3. There is compelling evidence that high crime rates were tied to the use of leaded gasoline.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/leaded-gasoline-linked-rise-and-fall-violent-crime-244173

And that the banning of leaded gas contributed to the precipitate drop in violent crime rates.

[Midnight Writer]

4. Trump and Sessions will take credit for this.