[Hoot Gibson]

Violent Crime Up, Other Offenses Down in 2021
Homicide rates in major U.S. cities in the first half of 2021 remained above the levels of recent years, the think tank Council on Criminal Justice said in an update of earlier reports. Homicides jumped 16 percent compared with the first half of 2020, an increase of 259, and by 42 percent from the first half of 2019, up by 548. The rate of increase slowed from the first to the second quarter of 2021. The homicide rate still was much below that of the early 1990s, 15 deaths per 100,000 residents compared 28 murders per 100,000 in 1993.

The report was based on a survey of 29 major cities, ranging from Norfolk, Va.,population 245,000, to Los Angeles, popuation 3.97 million.
Our conclusions have not changed, said authors criminologist Richard Rosenfeld of the University of Missouri St. Louis an Ernesto Lopez: "As the pandemic subsides, long-lasting reductions in violence and crime will require pursuing evidence-based crime-control strategies and enacting long-needed reforms to policing."

Aggravated and gun assault rates were higher in the first half of 2021 than in 2020. Aggravated assault rates increased nine percent while gun assault rates went up five percent. Motor vehicle theft rates were 21 percent higher.