How crime stats lie — and what you need to know to understand them
CNN — As Covid-19 rates improved and vaccinations allowed much of the country to reopen, reports of crime waves began to dominate headlines. According to the FBI’s preliminary 2020 findings, violent crime rose by 3% across the country last year. “We say all the time that violence is a public health problem, but we’ve never invested in data with crime that we do with public health.” The pandemic eroded the social safety net. Law enforcement officials across the country have pointed to the ‘defund the police’ movement, bail reform and a demoralized force as the drivers behind increased crime, but data suggests that it’s more complicated. “These traumas are going to play out over lives and years in important waves … we have a responsibility to tell the bigger story.” As the United States grapples with an epidemic of gun violence and these reverberating impacts of homicide, it will take better research, consistent data collection and community-tailored approaches to understand and address the roots of violent crime.
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