What can be done to fix the crime problem in Chicago (Stockton: 2014, crime rate)

[stanmitchell]

Firstly, being called " Chiraq" is nothing to be proud of( not saying anyone is proud, but still.) Seriously a few years back there were more dead Chicagoans than soldiers. What needs to be done?

[Aleking]

lol, get a load of this troll

[stanmitchell]

umm ok? not sure where that came from. This was actually brought up as a class discussion.

[marothisu]

Well, you're from SoCal and obviously not too familiar with Chicago if you're saying this. The crime has been going steadily down in Chicago since the late 90s. The homicide rate is half of what it was in the early 90s and last year had the fewest amount of homicides since the mid 60s. The crime rate was the lowest since the early 1970s too, and so far this year it's on track to be another low year in homicides just like last year. Obviously, still a ways to go, but anybody who thinks everywhere in Chicago is dangerous, or thinks that most of the city is dangerous, doesn't know much about the city and probably isn't paying attention to the crime trends. Yes, again, still not SAFE everywhere but it's improving and has big time even since 15 years ago

You can knock yourself out with this study published late 2013 from an associate professor of Sociology at Yale on 48 years of Chicago crime and how it's decreasing:
http://www.papachristos.org/Welcome_...ngPaper023.pdf

[stanmitchell]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Well, you're from SoCal and obviously not too familiar with Chicago if you're saying this. The crime has been going steadily down in Chicago since the late 90s. The homicide rate is half of what it was in the early 90s and last year had the fewest amount of homicides since the mid 60s. The crime rate was the lowest since the early 1970s too, and so far this year it's on track to be another low year in homicides just like last year.

Oh, last I read it had gone down 17% but even then it was still pretty high. Thanks for the response.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by stanmitchell

Oh, last I read it had gone down 17% but even then it was still pretty high. Thanks for the response.

The homicide rate? There were 101 fewer homicides in 2013 than 2012, but 2012 was a high year because of a change of administration for the police department/mayor. 2011 had slightly more homicides than record low year 2013. So far through 2/21, there's 15 less homicides in 2014 than 2013 and again, 2013 was a record low year.

Even on the high year of 2012, Chicago wasn't in the top 10 highest homicide rates of cities in the US.
1. Detroit | 54.6 per 100k
2. New Orleans | 53.2 per 100k
3. St. Louis | 35.5 per 100k
4. Baltimore | 34.9 per 100k
5. Newark, NJ | 34.4 per 100k
6. Oakland | 31.8 per 100k
7. Stockton, CA | 23.7 per 100k
8. Kansas City | 22.6 per 100k
9. Philadelphia | 21.5 per 100k
10. Cleveland | 21.3 per 100k
11. Memphis | 20.2 per 100k
12. Atlanta | 19 per 100k
13. Chicago | 18.5 per 100k

However, I mentioned 2012 was a high year and there were 101 fewer homicides in 2013 than 2012. Calculating that, the per 100k rate in 2013 would actually be 15.3 per 100k

In that case, the ratings would be like this, starting from #13
13. Buffalo | 18.3 per 100k
14. Miami | 16.7 per 100k
15. Cincinnati | 15.5 per 100k
16. Chicago | 15.3 per 100k
17. Milwaukee | 15.2 per 100k

Again, not great, but the homicide rate was literally double that in the early 1990s so it's come way down since then. I also have it calculated out in another thread where if you take all the community areas (neighborhoods) in Chicago, sort them descending by homicide rate, and then take the areas that add up in population closest to the size of Detroit starting from the top (i.e. the areas with the highest homicide rates), those absolute most deadly areas of Chicago is still a little less deadly than Detroit even when you include Detroit's good areas.

People who don't know math and statistics pay too much attention the the raw count. While it's important, each city is a different size which is why you have to take a rate to be able to compare them. You can't say that Oakland is less dangerous because it had 250 fewer homicides than Chicago. Oakland is like 8-9 times smaller than Chicago, which is why you have to use per 100k rates.

[oakparkdude]

[quote=stanmitchell;33721105Seriously a few years back there were more dead Chicagoans than soldiers. [/QUOTE]

What does this mean? More than Chicagoans than US army soldiers (540k)?

[stanmitchell]

I read at one point there were 500 homicides in Chicago and 300 soldiers dead in Iraq. Not sure what year.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by stanmitchell

I read at one point there were 500 homicides in Chicago and 300 soldiers dead in Iraq. Not sure what year.

Sounds like your teacher or professor is stupid. How many soldiers were in Iraq that year?

[Aleking]

marothisu always bites on these trolls