With the wildly high murder rates in Chicago and Detroit, will Pittsburgh follow that trend? (crime, homes)

[creepsinc]

seriously, what's it like to be totally consumed by the idea of crime? is it everywhere for you, under every rock, around every corner?

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Thanks. I try not to fall for media hype and I just figured crime was down across the board, but sometimes it is good to look at the real numbers. I am not very impressed with Pittsburgh's numbers in this category and it is interesting, but disheartening. For most rural people and folks way out in the suburbs, one would have to agree that Pittsburgh is pretty dangerous. Is there a crime map per year year? I seem to remember seeing that somewhere, but I didn't know if it was reliable.

Just don't engage in any nefarious activity and/or stay out of the known high crime areas & it's just as safe as anywhere else minus the occasional mugging you hear about. It's not like random people are being killed daily.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Lobick

Homicides - Allegheny County, Pa.

Thanks.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Just don't engage in any nefarious activity and/or stay out of the known high crime areas & it's just as safe as anywhere else minus the occasional mugging you hear about. It's not like random people are being killed daily.

Agreed. I was a little disheartened initially in regards to the McKees Rocks anti-crime activist who was just beaten to death because, at lest initially, it seemed like there was no motive for his killing other than someone trying to silence him. Then the perpetrator was caught and admitted he killed him because he owed him drug money, which made me feel more at-ease. Apparently h-Curtis must do drugs if he's this worried about being murdered. In Pittsburgh with very rare exception drugs or alcohol are involved in our murders, and they tend to be black-on-black.

[gg]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Just don't engage in any nefarious activity and/or stay out of the known high crime areas & it's just as safe as anywhere else minus the occasional mugging you hear about. It's not like random people are being killed daily.

I do understand all that. Keeping in mind I ride all over the city on a bike, which is about as unprotected as you can be. What prompted me to think about crime was that 15 year old girl sitting in a park in Chicago talking to friends and being gunned down. I doubt she was the target, but she is dead. That being said, for years I just assume violent crime is on the decline in our area, but sort of wanted to have a look at the yearend numbers. Not sure why people get all crazy over such a simple question? I have never witnessed a murder, but have seen plenty of death after it happened, due to riding a bike all over the city and living on the corner of East Liberty/Highland Park/Larimer. I can't help to think about riding into a shooting scene someday. Hopefully, I would hear gunshots and be able to turn around or change route to miss it. Pittsburgh isn't that great if you look at per capita. I didn't realize we are that bad, but I guess we are. NYC sure has come a long way. Is that just luck? What are they doing differently over there?

[gg]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Apparently h-Curtis must do drugs if he's this worried about being murdered.

Typical response from you. People can't ask about how the crime stats are without getting all personal about it. Real class.

[CaptainPittsburgh]

Originally Posted by UKyank

The high murder rates of all these places are concentrated in a few hot spots & I honestly don't know how you go about changing the culture in those areas that think murdering people to solve disagreements is normal. Personally if I was law abiding & lived in daily fear in some of Chicago's southside communities I'd almost welcome a martial law style house to house sweep of my community to rid the place of the miscreants & make living viable again.

That's the question, isn't it? Especially for neighborhoods like Englewood.

Personally, I think the answer is in community investment, something that is really hard and really expensive. I mentioned the Chicago Interrupters documentary once before in one of these threads. I think putting some heavy investment into programs of this nature would be a great first step.

Of course, the second step is that age old problem of resources. Most of these communities have none. Where do we expect our young men and women to turn when they have zero access to adequate education and very little access to meaningful vocations in a deeply entrenched culture ruled by drugs and violent crime?

Like Danny Brown said (Detroit MC):

It's like they all forgot, man, nobody cares about us
That why we always end up in prison instead of college
Or living in the system working kitchens for chump change
Lost in the streets, playing that gun game
Where nobody wins, just a bunch of mommas losing
Dead bodies in the field and nobody heard the shooting
We're living in the streets where the options is limited
Cause there's burned buildings instead of jobs and businesses

And where I lived, it was house, field, field
Field, field, house
Abandoned house, field, field

Obviously, this is a really, really difficult scenario. How do we improve the resources in these areas without first getting rid of the crime? But, how do we get rid of the crime without developing communities that have the resources needed to give youth a fighting chance at integrating into a non-ghetto society? As a country, we still haven't found the answer.

[CaptainPittsburgh]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

NYC sure has come a long way. Is that just luck? What are they doing differently over there?

Bending the truth would be my guess. Of course, the NYPD was quick to debunk this study, and we should probably believe them. It's not like they are standing atop an already massive history of documented corruption or anything.

[Goinback2011]

According to this, Pittsburgh MSA's murder rate is comparatively low:

Murder Rates

The rate of 3.8 is below the national average:

The national homicide rate for 2011 was 4.8 per 100,000 citizens — less than half of what it was in the early years of the Great Depression, when it peaked before falling precipitously before World War II. The peak in modern times of 10.2 was in 1980, as recorded by national criminal statistics.

“We’re at as low a place as we’ve been in the past 100 years,” says Randolph Roth, professor of history at Ohio State University and author of this year’s “American Homicide,” a landmark study of the history of killing in the United States. “The rate oscillates between about 5 and 9 [per 100,000], sometimes a little higher or lower, and we’re right at the bottom end of that oscillation.”

Last year’s rate was the lowest of any year since 1963, when the rate was 4.6, according to the Uniform Crime Reports compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Homicide rates have dropped steadily in U.S. - Washington Post

[pfflyernc]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

NYC sure has come a long way. Is that just luck? What are they doing differently over there?

One thing that's worked very well for them, which was developed during Ed Koch's term, was to increase the number of "beat cops" in high-crime areas. They used computer mapping to identify hot spots, and focused their efforts there. It was amazing.

Here's a pretty good article from Scientific American on the NYC story.