2010 Crime in Detroit

**French777** · October-30-10, 09:13 AM

It may just be me, but it seems as if crime in the city is significantly lower in 2010 than years before.

Is this true, or just the news is not reporting on it as much?

**BrushStart** · December-21-10, 05:48 PM

http://www.freep.com/article/2010122...drops-FBI-says

There was another thread recently where people opined that crime had been decreasing over the years, despite the amount reported in the media. I had suspected the same. If you ever look at crime data maps, you'll see that most violent crime is highly concentrated in certain parts of the city. This recent report at least confirms that violent crime in Detroit is down from last year.

**blackmath** · December-21-10, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by BrushStart

http://www.freep.com/article/2010122...drops-FBI-says

There was another thread recently where people opined that crime had been decreasing over the years, despite the amount reported in the media. I had suspected the same. If you ever look at crime data maps, you'll see that most violent crime is highly concentrated in certain parts of the city. This recent report at least confirms that violent crime in Detroit is down from last year.

Nothing new here. If it bleeds, it leads. The media sells fear like a drug dealer sells crack, and they do it with certain key words that all people instinctively listen to. The next time you watch a newscast listen for the words "Children, Weather, Murder, Death, Hostage, Terrorist, Crime, Traffic" and so on. They play up any negative news they have because no one really wants to hear good news. Add the odd human interest story here and there to give people a bit of a break from the carnage and icy roads, then lead them right back into the pit of hell. Notice how good news [[minus stories about people winning the lottery - but that's a whole other sociological discussion entirely) never gets any of the coverage the bad news gets. It's not even close.

Also on many newscasts the stories are repeated over and over in the span of 30 minutes. If you're anything like me, you leave the news on as you get ready for your day so you end up hearing how someone was shot the other night in cold blood 25 times in an hour. We can't hear something that many times in a row and not subconsciously absorb that and then we walk away thinking the world is much worse than it has ever been when in reality its pretty much business as usual. Nothing anyone has ever done is new, and there have always been earthquakes in Japan, hurricanes in Florida and mudslides in LA.

**RYANGUARD** · December-21-10, 08:50 PM

There may be less violent crime but I'm sure that other types of crime are up.A lot of the prisoners that return to state prison are committing petty crimes.I've seen prisoners released on parole on a Tuesday or Friday out the front door and be brought back in through the back door within a matter of weeks.The State is doing everything possible to give these persons a chance to become productive members of society with the MPRI program but given the state of the economy nowadays this is hard to do for someone who has been incarcerated for any number of years.They have at least a couple of strikes against them when they are released.1st they are convicted felons.2nd they have little to no job skills.The State prison system for the most part is incarceration not rehabilitation.The jobs available inside the walls are food service[[needed to feed over 1000 persons 3 times a day) and grounds crews to mow the lawns in the summer and shovel snow in the winter.Some of the other prisons have MSI jobs available such as license plate manufacturing and uniform manufacturing for corrections officers and the state police but not all of them.So who is going to hire these former prisoners that have been performing menial tasks while incarcerated when there are people who have degrees that are now working in places like fast food operations?And also for the most part they are paroled back to the neighborhoods where they grew up and where there are no jobs available like there once was.Set up for failure from the start.

eastjohn · December-21-10, 09:22 PM

Yes, we have created a permanant class of unemployable citizens. The idea of "doing your time" and returning to society is gone. Much of the public is hell bent on keeping ex-cons out of productive life for good. Just think of all the data bases, credit checks, background checks, etc we keep on everyone today. 30 years ago it was relatively easy for an ex-con to leave prison, find work and raise a family. I'd bet today a substantial percentage of the unemployment is due to people unable to get hired because of a criminal conviction.

citylover · December-21-10, 11:03 PM

somewhat dated and I promise nothing more from me on this

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/video/

**English** · December-21-10, 11:26 PM

Originally Posted by eastjohn

Yes, we have created a permanant class of unemployable citizens. The idea of "doing your time" and returning to society is gone. Much of the public is hell bent on keeping ex-cons out of productive life for good. Just think of all the data bases, credit checks, background checks, etc we keep on everyone today. 30 years ago it was relatively easy for an ex-con to leave prison, find work and raise a family. I'd bet today a substantial percentage of the unemployment is due to people unable to get hired because of a criminal conviction.

Agreed.

Also, I think that Detroit simply looks scarier than it did 20 years ago, when it was actually more dangerous.

**mwilbert** · December-22-10, 09:09 AM

Detroit isn't very uniform, but I can't say I find it scarier-looking in general.

Perhaps some of English's change of perception is because she is younger than I am, and was much younger [[comparatively) 20 years ago. Or maybe everybody agrees with her and I'm an outlier.

**Hypestyles** · December-22-10, 02:18 PM

the next state government needs to take a more serious look at community re-entry life skills and job training programs, prison college programs, etc.; Freep also has an article about Granholms commutations [[mostly non-violent convictions), 179 total.. http://www.freep.com/article/2010122...nor-in-decades

**English** · December-22-10, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by mwilbert

Detroit isn't very uniform, but I can't say I find it scarier-looking in general.

Perhaps some of English's change of perception is because she is younger than I am, and was much younger [[comparatively) 20 years ago. Or maybe everybody agrees with her and I'm an outlier.

Hmmm... You may have a point. As a child and teen, I really didn't have the sense of my mortality that I have now. I also didn't have much to compare Detroit to since we didn't travel much.

**GOAT** · December-22-10, 04:33 PM

Crime will continue to drop as the population drops. It will also continue to drop as the population ages. In fact crime has been dropping for the last decade everywhere in N. America for that very reason.

Trust me when I say it isn't because Detroiters are all of a sudden becoming moralists. A young kid and the grandmother were just shot in Detroit the other day.

I'll get excited when the murders drop below 200.

**GOAT** · December-22-10, 04:34 PM

Hypestyles, you are correct. The only way to truly turn around a former felon is to give him the tools to succeed in society. That by far has the biggest impact on people if they are going to re-offend or not.

lilpup · December-22-10, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by mwilbert

Detroit isn't very uniform, but I can't say I find it scarier-looking in general.

Perhaps some of English's change of perception is because she is younger than I am, and was much younger [[comparatively) 20 years ago. Or maybe everybody agrees with her and I'm an outlier.

Ruins and empty streets are the major factors that freak out drop-in visitors but it's silly. People are just afraid of the emptiness and loneliness and for some reason equate it to crime while ignoring the fact that you can get shot on the street in a place like New York and people might just step over you instead of helping.

Empty buildings don't commit crime, people do.

bartock · December-22-10, 04:48 PM

Originally Posted by mwilbert

Detroit isn't very uniform, but I can't say I find it scarier-looking in general.

Perhaps some of English's change of perception is because she is younger than I am, and was much younger [[comparatively) 20 years ago. Or maybe everybody agrees with her and I'm an outlier.

It's funny, Detroit looks creepier now than it did 20 years ago in many areas because of abandonment. But those areas are relatively safe because they are empty.

**iheartthed** · December-22-10, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by GOAT

I'll get excited when the murders drop below 200.

No you won't. You'll just keep bitching about why the murder count isn't below 100.

**Al Publican** · December-23-10, 02:31 AM

Memo to felons: Be indoors, preferably home, by 10pm. If you drink, do most of it at home with select company. Don't drink if you have to drive. If you get high [[weed only), do it at home alone only with a trusted love one. Find a job, even a lousy job. Don't hang out or entertain marginal characters.

**GOAT** · December-23-10, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

No you won't. You'll just keep bitching about why the murder count isn't below 100.

At that time, I sure will. Keep raising [[in this case lower??) the bar until the murder rate is astonishing low. Then and only then will Detroit have a true turnaround.

**English** · December-23-10, 09:11 AM

^ Wow. Hope that's snark.

**mjb3** · December-23-10, 09:22 AM

In the best selling book Freakonomics, the authors explained why violent crime went down in late 90s. It was 1973 Roe v Wade legalizing abortion. By 1995, most of those "at-risk" babies would have been in the prime age bracket for violent crime offenders.

If they outlaw abortion, you will probably see crime rates go up over the same time horizon?

Just my 2 c

**Carey** · December-23-10, 09:28 AM

Ruins and empty streets are the major factors that freak out drop-in visitors but it's silly. People are just afraid of the emptiness and loneliness and for some reason equate it to crime while ignoring the fact that you can get shot on the street in a place like New York and people might just step over you instead of helping.

Is it really silly for visitors to be to be put off by the abandonment and dishevelment of Detroit? I think the city's facade can be jarring -- even to longtime area residents who love the city -- for more reasons than just the suggestion of crime. Seeing Detroit for the first time has to raise all kinds of questions in any thinking person, starting with, How did this happen?

And Detroit should wish it had New York's crime rate these days.

**Diana O'.** · December-26-10, 03:13 PM

I'm not from Detroit. I see the facade of Detroit, a stone's throw away, from the Canadian side of the river, with its gleaming downtown high rises and a few old shells of its ruins, as well as the sprawling, but not so gleaming industrial landmarks. I have always wondered if it's really as bad behind the veil I see from here, as TV and radio makes it seem, or if I'm missing the good stuff because I'm tuned into the wrong stations?

[[Time spent in the Detroit art community all through the 90s gave me a whole other perspective. That story is for another post. All I will say here, is that those were the best days of my life as an artist looking for the real deal.)

I get the Detroit news on 3 main TV stations. On the radio, a wide assortment of stations offering a diverse selection of music, news, commentary and commercials gives me a good slice of Detroit, its art, culture, politics and crime. That being said, I believe that what you're looking for is what you're going to find, no matter where you live.

Depending on the station you watch or listen to, you're going to get what you're looking for. In terms of Detroit news, If you're looking for the shock, hype and sensationalistic approach to reporting, watch Fox 2. If you want something a bit more compassionate, empathetic and relaxed, watch WDIV. Crime exists everywhere, no matter where you live. Whether it is reported or not and how, is a different story. Being that Detroit has such a variety of news media outlets to choose from, your odds are pretty good that one or more of them is going to report the crime of the day one way or another...or not.

Coming from the naiive standpoint of a Canadian living in LaSalle who has been sheltered in a safe community all my life, the only real evidence of crime being committed here is late at night after the bars close, when I wake up to the flash of the blue and red lights at least 3 times per week, just outside my window, telling me that the cops have just nailed someone for speeding, texting while driving, or driving drunk. And that, too, is another story.

**Johnnny5** · December-26-10, 03:35 PM

Originally Posted by mjb3

In the best selling book Freakonomics, the authors explained why violent crime went down in late 90s. It was 1973 Roe v Wade legalizing abortion. By 1995, most of those "at-risk" babies would have been in the prime age bracket for violent crime offenders.

If they outlaw abortion, you will probably see crime rates go up over the same time horizon?

Just my 2 c

Probably would, but is killing millions of poor [[mostly black) babies really an acceptable solution for a reduction in violent crime?

**JimminyCricket** · December-27-10, 05:46 PM

Violent crime in general has been down across the country. This is largely due to a smaller percentage of the total population being within their prime crime-committing years. It will likely go up again in the future when this changes.

**texorama** · December-27-10, 06:19 PM

The abortion explanation, like so much in that book, doesn't hold up. Roe v. Wade took hold everywhere at the same time, but clearly it didn't have similar effects everywhere. People give all kinds of explanations for the decline in crime in the 1990s. Many African Americans credit the Million Man March. Conservatives chalk it up to Rudy Giuliani's zero-tolerance policy for small crimes in NYC, with crime plunging there and then radiating outward. Liberals would point to the spread of community policing and generall improving relations between police and the communities they serve. No doubt there are grains of truth in all these positions. But whatever it is, I think what's happening here is that Detroit is finally catching up a little bit with the dramatic reductions in crime that occurred almost everywhere else, Sun Belt or Rust Belt; black, white, or Hispanic; prosperous or declining.

**laphoque** · December-27-10, 07:45 PM

Yeah, NYC has had a massive crime drop below 1950s levels to levels lower than even Ann Arbor, East Lansing, and Wayne State's campus. Thanks Giuliani! Thing is they've been downgrading the crimes to make it look like their major crime rates have gone down and since 2003 or so they haven't been reporting minor crimes which would cast suspicion on NYPD if minor crime rates were up while major crime rates continue their tidy decline. Here's a link to a couple different stories about the 81st precinct and Officer Adrian Schoolcraft who exposed them.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runnin...lage_voi_5.php

I'm not saying violent crime hasn't been trending generally downward, but some of the change is due to stats-based policing and the intentional human error when the police's jobs are dependent on the stats they get.

The Wire covered this as well. http://video.pbs.org/video/1134533920/