The United States is the most dangerous nation among industrialized states, and increasingly more dangerous than much of the developing world. As violent crime soars, our criminal justice system has revealed itself unable and unwilling to respond.
This year it was announced that the national murder clearance rate, which tracks arrests of suspects but not necessarily convictions, has dropped below 50%, the lowest in history. This figure represents a remarkable and system-wide failure, especially when leaps in forensic science and investigative techniques are taken into account. When we contrast the US with nations suffering from a comparable race and crime problem, such as the United Kingdom, we find that only 20% of murderers escape accountability. In the rest of Western Europe, the clearance rate seldom dips below 80%, while relatively homogenous nations like Finland arrest a homicide suspect in close to 100% of cases.
It’s common knowledge that a disproportionate number of homicides in America amount to blacks killing blacks, but recent years have seen a dramatic rise in interracial homicides as well.
According to data tracked by the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), black on white homicides rose from a total of 2299 in 2019 to 2914 in 2021, a jump of more than 20%. The timing is not a coincidence, the interracial murder rate instantly spiked in 2020 following the implementation of policing and prison reforms after the George Floyd riots, as well as the media’s dedication to overtly demonizing white people.