Murder rates on the rise

Murders (per capita) by country

January 02, 2007

Rocky Mount Telegram

After many years of decline, the number of murders climbed in 2006 in New York and many other U.S. cities, including Rocky Mount, reaching their highest levels in a decade in some places.

Among the reasons given: gangs, drugs, the easy availability of illegal guns, a disturbing tendency among young people to pull guns when they do not get the respect they demand and, in Houston at least, an influx of Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

Rocky Mount police investigated 12 murders in 2006, the most since the record-setting year of 1995, when 16 homicides occurred in the city.

"There are a lot of guns on the streets, and people don't mind shooting," Rocky Mount Police Chief John Manley said.

Manley said drugs and the easy access to guns on the street factor greatly in the reason for the big jump this year.

In 2004 and 2005, there were 21 murders in the city, the biggest two-year total since 1999 and 2000.

Murder rates in three of North Carolina's largest cities changed little from 2005. Charlotte-Mecklenburg has had 83 murders in 2006, compared to 85 in 2005, said police spokesman Robert Fey.

There were 19 homicides investigated in Raleigh during 2006, where 21 is about average, said police department spokesman Jim Sughrue.

Winston-Salem Assistant Police Chief Louis Saunders said his department handled 20 murders, up from 16 in 2005, but down from 24 in 2004.

In New York, where the city reported 579 homicides through Dec. 24 – a nearly 10 percent increase from the year before – the spike is mostly the result of an unusually large number of ??reclassified homicides,?? or those involving victims who were shot or stabbed years ago but did not die until this year. Thirty-five such deaths have been added to this year?s toll, compared with an annual average of about a dozen.

At the same time, police department spokesman Paul Browne noted that last year?s total is only slightly higher than the 539 homicides in 2005 – the city?s lowest death toll in more than 40 years.

Browne blamed the rise in part on the availability of guns, particularly weapons from out of state. The city this year sued dozens of out-of-state gun shops that it says are responsible for many of the illegal weapons on the streets of New York.

In Chicago, homicides through the first 11 months of 2006 were up 3.3 percent compared with the same period in 2005, reversing a four-year decline. A police spokeswoman said gang violence has been a contributing factor.

In New Haven, Conn., there were 23 homicides, compared with 15 in 2004 and in 2005. Police Chief Francisco Ortiz said about half of this year?s killings involve young people settling disputes with guns instead of fists.

??They?re all struggling with this thing about respect and pride,?? Ortiz said. ??It?s about respect. It?s about revenge. It?s about having a reputation. It?s about turf, and it?s about girls.??

Houston police attribute the 15 percent increase in the homicide count to the influx of Katrina evacuees from the Gulf Coast.

??So we expect that to settle,?? Lt. Murray Smith said.

New Orleans, with its post-Katrina exodus, is the only major U.S. city that saw a sharp decline in the number of homicides. There were 154 in New Orleans as of last week, down from 210 in 2005.


Note:

The country with highest rape cases per capita, is the United States; as well as the total crimes's per country.

It has been mentioned that in the future as the murder rate goes up, that the street’s will run in blood like a river.

In the war torn countries, a little example of this is already evident.