The Simple Solution to Violent Crime: More Cops

The connection between poverty and lawlessness is complicated, but Trump gets a basic point right.

By Jason L. Riley. Excerpts:

"“If I had to summarize one of the most consistent and robust findings in the criminological literature in a single sentence,” Mr. Mangual writes, “it would go something like this: More policing means less crime.”" [Manhattan Institute scholar Rafael Mangual]\

"A 2005 academic paper on policing in Washington found that “an increase in police presence of about 50 percent leads to a statistically and economically significant decrease in crime on the order of 15 percent.” A 2016 study concluded that an increase in private police patrols around the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia “decreased crime in adjacent city blocks by 43%-73%.”"

"“there is now a strong consensus in the academic literature” that increasing the presence and visibility of police officers “reduces crime.”"

"although “the total reduction in homicide is roughly equal across Black and white victims, the decline in homicide is twice as large for Black victims in per capita terms.”"

"Not only are most poor people not criminals, but the most impoverished communities in the U.S. aren’t the most violent. Further, violent crime was significantly lower in earlier eras, when poor Americans were materially much worse off than they are today."

"Merchants are more likely to abandon lawless neighborhoods, where operating costs are higher, taking employment opportunities and economic activity with them. As businesses leave, the tax base shrinks, property values decline and public services suffer. In the 1940s and ’50s, the homicide rate for black males fell by double digits, and black incomes rose faster than white incomes."