Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Opinion Today: What’s the rise in crime really about?

The issue is more complicated than we might think.
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By Elisa Gutierrez

Producer, Opinion Audio

We've all seen the headlines. Crime in the United States is way up. Murders rose nearly 40 percent since 2019 and other violent crime has also increased.

Progressives who've touted reforming the tough-on-crime policies of the '90s are getting the blame — most notably, San Francisco's district attorney, Chesa Boudin, who was recently recalled.

But crime rates are up in cities whether they have a progressive prosecutor or not. So who or what is responsible for the increase? And what's the best way to have this conversation?

Those questions are at the center of today's episode of The Argument. Host Jane Coaston talks with Alex Kingsbury, a Times Opinion editor at large and editorial board member, and Rafael Mangual, senior fellow and head of research for the Manhattan Institute's Policing and Public Safety Initiative.

Alex believes the way the two parties talk about crime is one reason the issue has become so politicized. He says liberals and conservatives are looking at two very different impacts of crime, adding that "conservatives tend to measure things like the personal impact of crime, the impact on the victims, the impact on business." Liberals, meanwhile, "when they're talking about criminal justice reform, tend to also talk about some more intangible things, the generational impact that compounds over time of people being incarcerated, or people being locked up or families being broken up."

While Rafael agrees the conversation is complicated, he thinks solutions are straightforward. "If I had to summarize one of the most consistent and robust findings in the criminal justice literature in a single sentence," he says, "it would go something like this, which is: more policing, means less crime. It really is that simple."

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