The U.S. recorded 6% more murders in 2021 than in 2020, according to CNBC.
But the figure is a modest increase when compared to the prior year when the murder rate soared 30%. And preliminary data from big cities for the first half of 2022 suggest the murder rate may actually be declining year to date.
Jeff Asher, co-founder of data consulting firm AH Analytics, said the 30% increase in 2020 "was a complex combination of factors related to or potentially exacerbated by the pandemic but not inherently the pandemic itself."
And Thomas Abt, senior fellow on the Council on Criminal Justice, said the COVID-19 outbreak "placed the individuals who are at the highest risk of violence under enormous pressure, and they were already under pressure to begin with. At the same time, it put the institutions that are responsible for engaging those individuals — law enforcement, courts and community-based workers — all under tremendous strain as well.
"There was a massive surge in legal purchases of guns during the pandemic. A larger share of those legally purchased guns were diverted into the hands of criminals more quickly than normal."
CNBC noted that about 21 million guns were sold in the U.S. in 2020. But in 2021, that number dropped to less than 19 million.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported back in January that Philadelphia; Portland, Oregon; Louisville, Kentucky; and Albuquerque, New Mexico, each posted its deadliest year on record last year.
While up overall, the 2021 murder rate slowed in some cities. New York City, which recorded a nearly 45% increase in 2020, had a 4% murder rise through Dec. 26, 2021, when compared with the same period the prior year, the Journal reported.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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