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Good (and surprising) news about crime rates

By Douglas A. Berman

This new piece from the Washington Post, which is headlined "Major Cities' Plummeting Crime Rates Mystifying," provides both good news on crime rates and a new reason to wonder if anyone can assess with any confidence what makes crime rates rise and fall.  Here are excerpts: Violent crime has plummeted in the Washington area and in major cities across the country, a trend criminologists describe as baffling and unexpected.  The District, New York and Los Angeles are on track for fewer killings this year than in any other year in at least four decades.  Boston, San Francisco, Minneapolis and other cities are also seeing notable reductions in homicides. "Experts did not see this coming at all," said Andrew Karmen, a criminologist and professor of sociology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 20, 2009 (boomark / email).