Fewer New York Murders, and Even Fewer by Strangers

New York Times ^ | 11/22/07 | Al Baker

[saquin]

New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 murders in 2007, by far the lowest amount in a 12-month period since reliable Police Department statistics became available in 1963.

But within the city’s official crime statistics is a perhaps even more striking figure: so far, with roughly half the killings analyzed, only 35 were found to be committed by strangers, a microscopic statistic in a city of 8.5 million.

If that trend holds up, fewer than 100 murder victims in New York City this year would not have known the assailants who took their lives. The vast majority died in disputes with friends or acquaintances, with rival drug crew members or — to a far lesser degree — with boyfriends, girlfriends, parents and others.The low number of stranger killings belies imagery of New Yorkers being vulnerable to arbitrary attacks on the streets, or dying in robberies or muggings that turned violent.

In the eyes of some criminologists, the New York murder rate at such base levels means the police will be hard pressed to drive it down further because most killings are now occurring within the four walls of an apartment or in the confines of close-in relationships.

“What are you going to do send cops to every house?” said Dr. Peter K. Manning, who is the Brooks professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University in Boston.

[...]

The numbers on file from before 1963 are not considered reliable because in those years, many homicides were not recorded until an arrest was made and the case was closed, making any comparisons faulty. For example, there were 390 murders recorded in 1960, but the different methodology means that number cannot be compared to today’s.

[saquin]

Whatever New York is doing should be studied by the rest of the big cities in the country (I know it already is but they need to REALLY study it because it doesn't seem to be working this well anywhere else).

[facedown]

Color me dubious.

[Brilliant]

“What are you going to do send cops to every house?”

These guys are clueless. They have no imagination. You could do the obvious thing. You could increase the penalty. Put the killers in jail, and keep them there.

[Calvin Locke]

Free one-way bus or train tickets to Philadelphia...

[Brilliant]

Just to underscore my previous comment:

“77 percent of alleged killers had a previous arrest history...”

[bert]

Rudy's Fault

[Cacique]

bfl

[uncbob]

Most I would bet are over drugs

[Steely Tom]

I believe there was a time (back in the ‘70’s) when NYC’s murder rate was around 1800/yr.

[abercrombie_guy_38]

Isn’t it amazing. We in Philly have 1/8th of the population of NYC but almost the same number of murders.

[Age of Reason]

Whatever New York is doing should be studied by the rest of the big cities in the country

Simple:

NYC real estate is now so expensive, the criminal element can't afford to live there.

So they've been moving away.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 murders in 2007

Now, how many were killed in Iraq this year?

[skr]

If restraining orders were replaced by something that actually worked (like a police guard until the creep’s target learns how to shoot), those inside-the-wall murder statistics might decrease...or at least change to self-defence statistics.

[saquin]

I believe there was a time (back in the ‘70’s) when NYC’s murder rate was around 1800/yr.

In 1990, it was 2,245.

[Nachoman]

Great new slogan for NYC: “New York, where its usually your friends that kill you.”

[ThomasThomas]

Maybe they are getting better at hidding the bodies?

[b4its2late]

They're pushing them all upstate.....

[Calvin Locke]

I had an aunt that worked for the Salvation Army in PA. She told us that the SA would take dangerous felons released from prison in Philly, and set them up around the rest of PA, supposedly to get them out of their criminal environment, but all that the practice accomplished was spreading misery, in the form of drugs and aggravated crimes to communities that, while not crime free, you generally could walk around at night without fear of being assaulted.

In the early 1990s, I was working in Boston, and they were having murders on the order of two days out of three.

[COgamer]

Uh oh! Murder went down AFTER Rudy left office? I hope he’s not using one of Romney’s 3-legged stools, cuz it seems like one of those legs just got kicked out from underneath.

[Professional]

Could it be, that organized crime, found a way to sell drugs, without the murders?