The uptick in violent crime the past couple of years in the United States risks overshadowing something important – overall crime, including violent crime, is at or near historic lows. The problem? Americans don’t seem to think so, notes Justin Fox for Bloomberg View.
“Part of it is probably hometown bias. Americans think their local public school is great but public schools in general are terrible, and they appear to think similarly about crime. Then there's the way the media conveys information about crime. More Americans get their news from local television broadcasts than any other source, and the unofficial motto of local TV news is ‘If it bleeds, it leads.’ Finally, politicians have on occasion been known play up fears of crime because they think it can get them votes or help them pass legislation,” Fox writes.
“There may well be reason to devote more law enforcement resources to combating MS-13, and there is at least some debate over whether undocumented immigrants are more likely to commit crimes (beyond the crime of being or remaining in the country illegally) than native-born Americans. But it is undisputed that immigrants in general are much less crime-prone than the native-born -- and that the sharp decline in violent crime in the 1990s coincided with a big wave of both legal and illegal immigration.”
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“Part of it is probably hometown bias. Americans think their local public school is great but public schools in general are terrible, and they appear to think similarly about crime. Then there's the way the media conveys information about crime. More Americans get their news from local television broadcasts than any other source, and the unofficial motto of local TV news is ‘If it bleeds, it leads.’ Finally, politicians have on occasion been known play up fears of crime because they think it can get them votes or help them pass legislation,” Fox writes.
“There may well be reason to devote more law enforcement resources to combating MS-13, and there is at least some debate over whether undocumented immigrants are more likely to commit crimes (beyond the crime of being or remaining in the country illegally) than native-born Americans. But it is undisputed that immigrants in general are much less crime-prone than the native-born -- and that the sharp decline in violent crime in the 1990s coincided with a big wave of both legal and illegal immigration.”
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