The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/crime-statistics/)
An ACLU study of 29 U.S. cities has found no correlation between the early release of detainees from the cities’ jails due to COVID-19 fears and any increase in crime in those cities between March and May.
Abolishing the police was not a majority opinion held by any group in a Gallup poll released Wednesday, regardless of race, age, or political affiliation. Forty-seven percent of overall respondents said funds should be shifted from police departments to social services.
Homicide rates fell in April and May in most large cities as part of a general decline in street crime caused by restrictions imposed to contain COVID-19, but a report from Arnold Ventures adds “there’s reason to think 2020 will be more violent than 2019.”
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is vowing to change police use-of-force policies and require that officers receive continuous training in how to deescalate situations before the consequences become fatal.
“The consequences of the larger-scale release of prisoners are now showing up in the arrest data,” said Michael LiPetri, chief of Crime Control Strategies for the New York Police Department.
COVID-19 forced the American Society of Criminology to end plans for its annual meeting, scheduled for Washington, D.C., in November. The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences already abandoned its convention in San Antonio.
Some 11 million people are in prison worldwide, with over 124 prisons exceeding their maximum occupancy rates–the highest number of imprisoned people ever recorded, and a 20 percent increase from when the world total was recorded in 2002. The overcrowding couldn’t have come at a worse time, says Penal Reform International.
Almost one-third of the total federal offender population in 2018 had convictions in more than one state, according to a report released last week by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The finding had “important policy implications” for state judges in assessing the risk of recidivism, the USSC said.
Two Italian researchers found a 40 percent reduction in most types of crime since a shelter-at-home advisory was announced in San Francisco and Oakland. Similar declines have been reported in other cities, but the researchers acknowledge more research is needed to understand the long-term impact of the coronavirus pandemic on criminal behavior.
Prison Policy Initiative has released a report saying those convicted of violent offenses are being categorically excluded from criminal justice reforms, limiting what can be done.