Has there been an explosion of crime in 2015? It will take some time before official figures are available, so the Brennan Center decided to compile some unofficial figures through October. They surveyed the 30 largest cities and asked for both the murder rate and the overall “index” crime rate (murder and non-negligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft). Their conclusion: the murder rate is up 11 percent while the overall crime rate is down 1.5 percent.
It’s true that some cities have seen very large increases in their murder rates. But that’s not uncommon. The base of murders is pretty small, so it doesn’t take much to create a big spike in a single year. The overall crime rate, which has a much larger base, is usually more stable.
Any time the murder rate goes up, it’s a good idea to be concerned. But murder rates have ticked up by 10 percent or so on several occasions in the past. There’s just a lot of noise in the data. Overall, though, there’s little evidence of any kind of explosion in either the murder rate or the crime rate. A few cities (Baltimore, DC, Denver, most of Texas) seem to have a serious problem, but that’s about it.
