Murder Rate Spike Could Be 'Ferguson Effect,' DOJ Study Says

[AURaptor 1,137]

"We are in the midst of a very abrupt, precipitous and large crime increase," says Richard Rosenfeld, a respected criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the author of a study released Wednesday by the Justice Department examining reasons for the increase.

Specifically, murder is spiking — in urban areas. Rosenfeld says last year in the country's 56 biggest cities, homicides jumped 17 percent.

"That's a far larger percentage increase than in nearly any other year we've seen over the last couple of decades," Rosenfeld says.

When there's a spike in the numbers like that, criminologists look to see if it correlates with other trends — such as a surge in the illegal drug trade, or a wave of ex-convicts getting released from prison.

http://www.npr.org/2016/06/15/482123552/murder-rate-spike-attributed-to-ferguson-effect-doj-study-says?sc=nd

[cooltigger21 0]

Who would've thunk it? I mean you turn all these criminals loose and then harass the police into not going into the high crime areas and crime goes up. Wow amazing.