Crime: Last year the murder rate rose almost 30% in the US

Crime: Last year the murder rate rose almost 30% in the US

9/23/21 8:00PM

Last year the murder rate in the US jumped almost 30%, according to the latest data from the FBI, which was briefly published online earlier this week ahead of a full report coming out next week. That meant a total of 21,500 murders, the steepest single-year rise since records began, and equated to an additional 5,000 lost lives on 2019.

The question we would all like to know is why? Disentangling the many variables at play would probably take a full PhD or two, but even with only anecdotal evidence it feels hard not to blame the pandemic. Millions suddenly unemployed, uncertain about the future and collectively going through one of the hardest years in recent memory is a cocktail for bad social outcomes.

One interesting aspect of this data, as pointed out by The Atlantic, is that overall crime rates actually fell last year. Day time burglaries are presumably a lot harder when everyone is at home and shoplifting impossible if stores are closed.

The data for 2021 is a little less clear, but some estimate the murder rate is still rising, around another 10% so far, based on data from 87 of the biggest US cities.

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The most watched soccer match in US history got less than a third of the views the Super Bowl did

Between a top-spot finish in the group stage, a sweeping performance against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32, and the president’s controversial intervention, Monday evening’s USMNT game against Belgium had, to put it lightly, shaped up into a box-office clash.

And though the US players’ performance on the pitch might not have lived up to the high drama off it, American soccer fans certainly showed up. According to early estimates, the 4-1 defeat against Belgium was the most watched soccer telecast in US history, hauling some 40 million viewers on average across the coverage on Fox and Telemundo.

That may be a record tally in the US for the sport that much of the world calls some variant of “football” — besting the 36.2 million who tuned in to watch the team’s previous knock-out match — but it’s still peanuts in comparison to the sport that shares the same name in the States.

World cup viewers chart — Sherwood News

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45% of Americans say they’re not taking a summer vacation this year, mostly due to costs

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