Fwd: Crime is down but arrests are up - why?

[Guest guest]

" The arrest clearance rate for reported homicides recently dropped to

about 60 percent compared with about 90 percent 50 years ago. This

means that a murderer today has about a 40 percent chance of avoiding

arrest compared with less than 10 percent in 1950. The record for

other FBI Index Crimes is even more dismal: The clearance rates have

sunk to 42 percent for forcible rape, 26 percent for robbery, and 13

percent for burglary and motor vehicle theft, all way down from

earlier eras.

 

" It's not that America's cops haven't been making arrests - in fact,

their total annual arrests

jumped from 3.3 million in the nation in 1960 to 14 million in 2004, a

staggering number that helps to explain why the United States

imprisons more of its citizens than any other country in the world.

 

" So, if reported crime has been going down and arrests have gone up,

what accounts for the

plummeting arrest clearance rates for murder, robbery, rape, burglary,

larceny, and motor vehicle theft?

 

" Part of the answer must involve drug law enforcement - victimless

offenses that aren't reported to the police or included as FBI Index

Crimes. Instead of arresting suspects for burglaries and other serious

reported crimes, cops today spend much of their energy going after

illegal drugs. Their arrest rate for drug possession (especially

marijuana) has shot up more than 500 times from what it was in 1965. "

 

Full story at:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0118/p09s01-coop.html