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Law and Order in America: We're not solving half of all murders in this country today
Hotair ^ | 02/28/2023 | Jazz Shaw

Posted on 02/28/2023 8:59:08 PM PST by SeekAndFind

This is a disturbing story, but it runs far deeper than the recent spike in violent crime that has been observed since 2020. National Review reports that an ongoing study of law enforcement clearance rates in the United States paints a picture of a culture where we’ve been heading in the wrong direction for a very long time. The Murder Accountability Project (MAP) has been tracking the clearance rates for murders in America and the rate for 2020 was barely over 50%. There was indeed a steep decline between 2015 and 2020, but the clearance rate in the 1960s was more than 90 percent. It’s been almost entirely downhill ever since.

Data analyzed by the organization Murder Accountability Project (MAP) revealed that the U.S. murder “clearance rate,” which reflects the proportion of total homicides solved by police, dropped to the lowest point ever on record in 2020.

Whereas the FBI reported over 90 percent of homicides were solved in the mid 1960s, that number has continuously declined over the decades, dropping sharply between 2015 and 2020, to an all-time low of just above 50 percent.

“We’re on the verge of being the first developed nation where the majority of homicides go uncleared,” MAP founder Thomas Hargrove explained to the Guardian.

That sounds like bad news to be sure, but it may be even worse than those statistics imply. MAP is currently engaged in a lawsuit against the FBI, seeking to explain why so many murders are going unreported in recent years. As of 2021, all crimes recorded by state and local police must be recorded in the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). It’s a new system that is reportedly far more useful and collects and collates a greater breadth of data. But it’s also insanely more complicated and many law enforcement agencies are not compliant with it yet.

The gap sounds very large. Local law enforcement agencies reported 14,715 homicides since NIBRS came online. But during the same period, the CDC tallied 25,988 murders. So that means that in the past couple of years, less than half of the murders that took place were recorded in the system.

Of those that were recorded, the clearance rate is still dreadful. But why? A variety of reasons have been offered, but no one factor seems to paint the entire picture. One of the biggest shortcomings is found with the murder of younger Black males in urban areas. In cities like Oakland, Chicago and Baltimore, murders of younger Black males are 15-30 percent less likely to result in an arrest than in any other part of the country. And inner-city police blame the low clearance rate on the unwillingness of witnesses to step forward. (“Snitches get stitches.”)

This is sobering news, but you can’t confront a problem without first admitting you have one. If the killers of half of the murder victims in the United States are able to remain in the wind (probably to kill again), then things need to change. That won’t happen if it’s left up to the powers that be in Washington. We already know how that works out. At both the state and local levels, we need to be electing people who will support significant expansion of law enforcement resources and fund the modernization of the tools they use to solve crimes in the 21st century. And the current crew in Washington who are more interested in saving Ukraine and leaving the border open than keeping rank and file Americans safe need to go too. This is a national disgrace and it will require a solution that is supported at all levels from top to bottom.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: murders

1 posted on 02/28/2023 8:59:08 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
"Law and Order in America: We're not solving half of all murders in this country today"

Federal law enforcement organizations are becoming too distracted and/or obsessed with collecting political prisoners.
2 posted on 02/28/2023 9:15:20 PM PST by clearcarbon (Fraudulent elections have consequences.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Surveillance State too busy watching for white supremacists?


3 posted on 02/28/2023 9:15:33 PM PST by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: SeekAndFind

What cop in their right mind would do the necessary, dangerous investigations in modern day urban America to solve these crimes? They get no cooperation or support from the community, if an arrest is made prosecutors don’t prosecute and the judges don’t imprison or punish if there is a conviction. Also in the absence of civil justice, most of the killings are revenge killings by the aggrieved from prior killings. The cops take the attitude that these killings just sort themselves out and just want to go home at the end of their shifts to their families.


4 posted on 02/28/2023 9:18:13 PM PST by allendale
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To: SeekAndFind

One name: Georg Soros.


5 posted on 02/28/2023 9:44:54 PM PST by matthew fuller (Democrats aren't about Socialism or Communism. They are about Ghettoism, genocide and infanticide.)
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To: allendale

At least all of this is happening in “no go” zones. For now.


6 posted on 02/28/2023 10:16:19 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: matthew fuller

Yup, and very few people know it. Trump should have made Soros disappear.


7 posted on 03/01/2023 1:09:11 AM PST by Cobra64 (Common sense isn’t common anymore.)
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To: SeekAndFind

BTTT


8 posted on 03/01/2023 2:09:48 AM PST by nopardons
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To: clearcarbon

And even when solved and the murderer is dark skinned, the charges are dropped for some stupid reason or the murderer gets a light sentence.

This is leftism.


9 posted on 03/01/2023 3:31:47 AM PST by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Approximately 80% of white victim murders result in a formal prosecution.

Roughly 60% of Hispanic victim murders are prosecuted.

Roughly 40% of Black victim murders are prosecuted.

Since 52% of all USA murder victims are Black, that drives the total prosecution rate below 50% nationally.


10 posted on 03/01/2023 3:47:18 AM PST by zeestephen (43,000)
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To: SeekAndFind

In the 1960s we did not have an epidemic of gangbangers routinely murdering each other in turf battles over who controlled the drug trade in certain areas. Now we do. I would bet that describes a high percentage of the unsolved murders.


11 posted on 03/01/2023 4:41:23 AM PST by FLT-bird
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To: SeekAndFind

Solving murders would disproportionately harm people of color and is therefore racist.


12 posted on 03/01/2023 5:25:22 AM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: clearcarbon
- We're not solving half of all murders in this country today" -

I wonder how many murders are "solved" from the standpoint of it is known who did it, but evidence that will stand up in court is lacking. I keep waiting for a Star Chamber to be introduced in some cities.

13 posted on 03/01/2023 6:03:48 AM PST by ken in texas
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To: SeekAndFind

The producers of The Cold Case Files will be pleased to know that they will have an endless supply of cases to choose from.


14 posted on 03/01/2023 6:12:28 AM PST by euram (allALL)
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