The Crime Report, a web site from John Jay College, has a post here about the crime stats released yesterday by the FBI. It's been received knowledge that, whenever the economy sours, crime rates usually increase. Only the feds say that violent crimes and property crimes both declined during the first six months of this year.
Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at UMSL, has a few theories why things didn't happen as expected. My favorite, which explains why there was an 18 percent drop in car thefts:
An unheralded feature of the recent crime decline is the double-digit drop in motor vehicle thefts over the past few years. As newer model automobiles with electronic locking and ignition systems continue to displace older vehicles, substantial decreases in motor vehicle thefts should continue.
