• The mean streets of … Paris? The mean streets of … Paris? The New York Times recently told the sad tale of Elizabeth Calleo. Since moving to her new home three years ago, she’s had her purse or cell
• The mean streets of … Paris?
The mean streets of … Paris?
The New York Times recently told the sad tale of Elizabeth Calleo. Since moving to her new home three years ago, she’s had her purse or cell phone snatched five times. Her boyfriend tried to stop a theft and was pepper-sprayed. Her father came to visit and someone swiped his suitcase.
Ms. Calleo doesn’t live in the Bronx, or St. Louis, or some other city in supposedly-violent America. She is an American in Paris.
The Europeans have spent decades tut-tutting at Americans for our uncouth behavior and uncivilized streets. They can tut no more. American streets these days are safe as most of Western Europe. This is not so much bad news for the Europeans as it is good news for Americans. The Justice Department says that crime in America dropped last year to the lowest level since the department began surveying it 30 years ago.
The crime rate has been dropping steadily for a decade. The department said that 23 of every 1,000 Americans last year were victims of violent crime including rapes, robberies and assaults. That compares to 50 of every 1,000 Americans in 1993. The rate for property crimes, such as car theft and burglary, was 159 for every 1,000 people last year, compared to 319 in 1993. Murders are measured in a different government survey.
No one really knows why crime is falling, and it’s probable that several factors are at play. Despite the current economic slowdown, America is more prosperous than it used to be. Today’s unemployment rate of 6.2 percent is hardly encouraging, but it would have been considered low a decade ago. People with jobs are less tempted to steal. Those who do steal, or mug or kill, are more likely to be in prison today. The number of prisoners in Missouri nearly doubled over the past decade, to 30,000. Longer prison sentences became the rule across the United States as legislators demanded a crack-down and judges willingly complied.
One can debate whether the nation has gone too far in locking up many nonviolent offenders. But a violent criminal in prison can’t threaten people on the streets. The easing of the crack cocaine epidemic a decade ago has also removed a major cause of crime.
Whatever the reason, the decline in crime has Americans breathing easier, and looking over their shoulders less often.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
