Going a bit closer to home today (well, my home, anyway). New data released this week show that New York City's murder rate fell again this year. True, gangs still engage in significant levels of violent crime (indeed, the vast majority of murderers in the city are known by their victim) - but it's a far cry from the violence witnessed by the city at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic back in the 1990s. This is certainly good news for those of us living in NYC. But it also demonstrates more broadly that urban violence can be stemmed and reversed - if properly analysed, New York's story could hold lessons for other cities, in the US and beyond. Let's hope this happens.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
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This is good news for anyone living in NY – fear of crime blights life as well as actual crime. It certainly seems as though the zero tolerance initiative has stood the test of time and proved effective. I hope the citizens of NY feel safer on their streets; but often “facts” and perceptions vary.
In the 1997 election New Labour used “Things are Getting Better” as their theme song. Ever since (as ever before) they have issued data-drenched reports to prove just that. The headline statistic is that murder rates in the UK are falling – but the small print reveals that people in the poorest areas are six times more likely to be murdered than those in the richest and that 65% of people do not feel any safer than they did in the past.
Some statistics can be verified – we live longer than we did and earn more money than we used to – but others can be spun at will. As long as the indicators of “progress” are ticks in boxes the ways to count them will vary. In the long run, we will need to address social problems with radically different methods. The prisons are overflowing. The criminal justice system can only provide a partial solution to deep-seated social problems – we need to take a hard look at the causes of crime and do something about them. In the UK crime figures correlate with times of economic recession – young people leaving school, without work or opportunity, are without hope and this breeds fear, violence and murder.
So. I hope things are getting better in NY; the jury’s still out in the UK.
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