Crime & Incarceration
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson claims that “we cannot incarcerate our way out of violence,” and trying to do so “is “racist” and “immoral.”
IN FACT, a host of facts show that minorities — the vast majority of whom are law-abiding — suffer greatly from under-incarceration of violent criminals in their neighborhoods:
- Blacks comprise 14% of the U.S. population but roughly 57% of murder victims.
- The portion of murders in which a suspect is identified and acted upon by the criminal justice system has fallen from 92% in 1960 to 58% in 2023. In Chicago, this figure has been as low as 25%.
- The police chief of Washington DC reported in 2023 that “the average homicide suspect has been arrested 11 times prior to them committing a homicide.”
- People arrested for homicide during 2019 in Baltimore, Maryland were previously arrested an average of eight times.
- From 1965 to 2022, roughly 337,601 murders were committed in the U.S. that were still unsolved as of 2022.
When murders and other violent crimes remain unsolved:
- the perpetrators remain free to commit more carnage.
- potential criminals are emboldened because they become less concerned about being caught.
- citizens’ fears of crime and retribution for reporting crime are increased.
Contrary to media storylines that exploit half-truths, incomplete data, and outright falsehoods, black and white people are typically arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced at rates that accord with the frequency and severity of their criminality.
A notable exception to that rule is murder because blacks are much more likely than whites to get away with this crime. This harms black communities because the killers remain free to commit more carnage.
