Culture
The Geography of Urban Violence
A new online mapping tool allows you to track long-term trends in violence across dozens of U.S. cities.
On the campaign trail, candidate Donald Trump falsely proclaimed that America’s cities have become increasingly dangerous. “We have an increase in murder within our cities, the biggest in 45 years,” he said. But the reality is that urban violence has declined substantially since its peak during the early 1990s. Then, not more than a year later, Attorney General Jeff Sessions claimed that Trump’s policies were in fact responsible for a decline in urban crime and the end of “American carnage.”
All of which raises the question: Is violence rising or falling? How do we know?