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Violent crime may be “a major concern” in America, but that concern is often unwarranted and always stoked by concerted disinformation campaigns on the right. As the BBC reports, reading the most recent FBI crime reports, major crime is way down in America when comparing this year to last. And crime statistics have been trending down consistently. It’s irresponsible not to report this in a story about crime “rising.” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4glxxreed7o

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Hi Kirk, you may be interested in this RealClear investigation that contradicts the BBC article in many ways, and calls into question the legitimacy of the FBI's data in light of its covert and unsubstantiated edits and the disparity when compared to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.. It also makes the point that though murder rates have gone down roughly 16% percent since 2020, the rate is still about 10% higher than pre-COVID levels.

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/10/16/stealth_edit_fbi_quietly_revises_violent_crime_stats_1065396.html

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Thanks. The FBI is far from my favorite organization so this sounds interesting. My reaction, honestly, is based partly on being tired of Donald Trump’s apocalyptic fantasies about how endangered New Yorkers are. Yes, it’s a big city and there is crime. No, we do not cower in our apartments and we do not fear walking endlessly around this beautiful and various town of ours.

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Just to add some additional information to this thread, I’d strongly recommend this article from the Marshall Project, a highly regarded source of data and analysis on the U.S. justice system. Real Clear Investigations, it turns out, notes the “revision” in the FBI’s reported crime stats for 2022 but never uncovers the reason for it. The result is an article that resembles a conspiracy theory and sheds no light on the tangled problem of quantifying crime. RCI also does not mention the government’s other major approach to assessing crime — the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which surveys American households about their personal experiences with crime as opposed to the FBI’s approach of gathering reports from law enforcement. NCVS captures unreported crime. Comparing both methods is critical to get a full picture. Finally, RCI is run by a pretty far-right lawyer who pushes his sometimes extreme agenda at the expense of the truth. At any rate, try this: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/11/03/violent-crime-property-data-nibrs-ucr-fbi-2022

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Shoplifting in America is a problem with non-enforcement of crimes in several major US metros. In particular, Proposition 47 effectively legalized theft as long as it was less than $950. Thieves were walking into stores with calculators to make sure they were below the threshold.

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These are brilliant studies and in a different world might actually have some impact. Tragically however, the powers that be will not be moved. They don't care about the effects of their austerity measures. In fact, this is the outcome they desire in that it makes them richer and widens the gap between them and the unworthy. These outcomes are by design. So astute, data based research which documents these outcomes will not move them - they may actually welcome confirmation of their success.

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Only flicked through the essay.

While living in a dense urban area (non OECD country) as a male 12 to 13 yo, I would go to the local community centre to hang-out, play table tennis etc a few times a week, but I also got up to 'naughty stuff' like randomly ringing doorbells, firing sky rockets at cars etc (no petty theft or fighting). Then I got money earning part-time jobs that mostly kept me busy. And then got sent to boarding school because my parents were worried about my schooling.

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