A new report released Monday by the Brennan Center for Justice shows that crime rates remain near “historic lows” despite a slight 1.3-percent rise driven by surging violence in Chicago. The NYU Law School’s nonpartisan law and policy institute also projects a 13.1-percent rise in the national murder rate, but nearly half of this increase is also attributable solely to Chicago. “These findings undercut media reports referring to crime as ‘out of control,’ or heralding a new nationwide crime wave,” the report says.
The picture is much more positive outside of Chicago. Although Baltimore and Washington, D.C., caused the national homicide rate to rise in 2015, researchers expect a 9.9-percent and 10.9-percent decrease in murders. “The average person in a large urban area is safer walking on the street today than he or she would have been at almost any time in the past 30 years,” the report says. “Warnings of a coming crime wave may be provocative, but they are not supported by the evidence.”
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