History of Violent Crime in America Part 5

Depression and World War II Near the beginning of the Great Depression, violent crimes reached a peak. In 1933, the murder rate was 9.7 murders for every 100,000 Americans. The murder rate would not be this high again until the late 1970s.

Crime during the Great Depression A curious thing happened as the Great Depression worsened and unemployment skyrocketed: The crime rate went down.

Despite the widespread news coverage of Depression-era bank robbers like John Dillinger, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and Bonnie and Clyde, violent crime actually declined. The murder rate, for example, dropped 50 percent between 1933 and the early 1940s. Other serious crimes fell by a third.

Why did crime decrease during a time of great hardship for almost all Americans? According to some historians, the Depression brought Americans closer together, because almost everyone was in the same boat. In addition, the birthrate had dropped in the 1920s, which meant that the youth population – 18to 29 year olds – declined in size. Younger adults commit the most crimes, especially violent crimes. World War II unified Americans even more.

The Postwar Years Following WWII, many people started families. The “baby boom,” which lasted from , produced a huge increase in the birth rate.

The 1950s stayed relatively calm, but the turbulent 1960s saw an increase in many kinds of violence. A dozen civil-rights activists were murdered in the South, and the Vietnam War caused thousands of anti-war activists to take to the streets in demonstrations that sometimes turned violent.

In the mid-1960s, major urban riots exploded in African-American communities in Los Angeles, Newark, Detroit, and other cities where urban problems had been festering.

Street crime also began to increase. The children of the baby boom were growing up. The age group grew rapidly. Many crime experts believe that this surge of young people in the population contributed significantly to the increase of crime in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the early 1980s, the sudden appearance of crack cocaine cause a tremendous rise in drug addiction and associated crimes.

Drug dealing gangs plagued many Latino and African-American communities. With unemployment and homelessness rising, reports of street crime skyrocketed.

Crime so concerned ordinary citizens that it spawned whole communities barricaded with walls, barred windows, and burglar alarms.

Crime Today Then in the early 1990s, crime started plummeting. By the end of 2010, the crime rate had dropped to its lowest point in 40 years. Part of the explanation is that the population is growing older. More police on the streets More criminals behind bars Better policing These factors may account for some reduction in crime, but crime fell in parts of the country that didn’t have more police, more prisoners, or better policing.

Crime Today Some experts believe the improved economy caused the drop. (But others point out that the economy and the crime rate BOTH soared in the 1960s – and the crime rate did not go up when the economy plunged in 2008) Some believed that the dwindling use of crack cocaine produced the drop. Two researchers have even put for a controversial theory that the legalization of abortion in 1973 caused crime to drop two decades later. They argue abortions stopped many unwanted children, who are more likely to turn to crime, from being born. But others respond that abortion was illegal when crime was low in previous decades.