Meg Anderson

John Roman with NORC, a research group at the University of Chicago, says it's helpful to think of violence as an epidemic.

More crime leads to more crime, and less leads to less.

Meg Anderson, NPR News.

Crime declined nearly everywhere.

In big cities and small towns, in red and blue states, murders in particular fell dramatically.

And that large decrease was preceded by a large increase.

In 2020 and 2021, homicide rates surged across the country.

Crime analysts point to the instability of the pandemic for that increase.

There were fewer police patrolling.

Many people lost their jobs.

Some government services like mental health care and community centers went away for a while.

John Roman with NORC, a research group at the University of Chicago, says it's helpful to think of violence as an epidemic.

More crime leads to more crime and less leads to less.

Meg Anderson, NPR News.

Part of the reason why murders are way down is sort of a like what goes up must come down situation.

The huge decreases we're seeing now were preceded by huge increases.

So in 2020, 2021, homicide rates surged across the country at historic rates.

And it's rarely just one thing that causes crime to rise or fall.

But the pandemic was a huge destabilizing event in the world and obviously also in the country.

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