"The headlines of 2025 painted a portrait of America in chaos, driven by the financial logic of America's media ecosystem. It's number one product isn't news, but fear. "NYC youth crime doubled since controversial state Raise the Age Law kicked in," exclaims one hysterical New York Post headline from September. "Business owners express frustration over crime surge in Federal Hill," reads a banner from FOX45 News, a local outlet in Baltimore."
"According to fresh Council on Criminal Justice crime statistics, Axios reports, murder rates fell 21 percent last year across the 35 largest cities in the US. It's the single largest one-year-drop ever, the publication reports, and possibly the lowest homicide rates we've seen as a nation since the year 1900 - when the last generation of frontier outlaws were still robbing train cars."
"Homicide wasn't the only crime that fell in 2025. Out of 13 crimes tracked by the Council on Criminal Justice, 11 of them were lower last year than in 2024. Aggravated assaults, for example, fell by 9 percent across the 35 cities, while gun assaults and robberies dropped off by 22 and 23 percent, respectively. (The only category that increased was drug crimes, up 7 percent - and which are nonviolent.)"
Headlines in 2025 emphasized crime and fear, with sensational local and national headlines portraying cities as dangerous. Political rhetoric amplified these perceptions by insisting that American cities were crime-ridden. Council on Criminal Justice statistics show murder rates fell 21 percent across the 35 largest U.S. cities, the single largest one-year drop on record. Homicide rates may be the lowest since 1900. Eleven of 13 tracked crime categories declined compared with 2024, including aggravated assaults (down 9 percent), gun assaults (down 22 percent), and robberies (down 23 percent). Drug crimes increased 7 percent and were nonviolent.
Read at Futurism
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]