Less marriage, more murder

Murder rates almost always rise during the summer, but this year’s spike has many officials scratching their heads.

The New York Times, among others, report that murder rates in many of the nation’s largest cities have seen a startling increase. Milwaukee, with 104 homicides so far this year compared to 86 during all of last year, has been the hardest hit. But places such as New Orleans, Baltimore, Washington, and St. Louis have all seen dramatic increases.

Why the sudden upsurge, after decades of declining murder rates? Reports the Times, “Law enforcement experts say disparate factors are at play in different cities. . . . [and] many top police officials say they are seeing a growing willingness among disenchanted young men in poor neighborhoods to use violence to settle ordinary disputes.”

What is not discussed, but should be, is the role that family breakdown plays in fostering such crime, and especially in producing exactly the type of “disenchanted young men in poor neighborhoods” most likely to commit such acts.  (more...)

Less marriage, more murder

Background:

Toronto's Summer of the Knife