The Crimes They Are A-Changin'

Toying with the idea of writing a mystery set during our present plague year? Perhaps you should consult this story from The New York Times, which explains how unusual a period 2020 has been in terms of national crime statistics. “Overall crime is down 5.3 percent in 25 large American cities relative to the same period in 2019, with violent crime down 2 percent,” explain reporters Jeff Asher and Ben Horwitz. “But murder in these 25 cities is up 16.1 percent in relation to last year. It’s not just a handful of cities driving this change, either. Property crime is down in 18 of the 25 sampled cities, and violent crime is down in 11 of them, but murder is up in 20 of the cities.