Category Archives: Crime

D.C. Homicides: It’s the Guns

Posted on March 19, 2024 by mikethemadbiologist

I realize that’s not a novel observation, but I was comparing the D.C. crime data for the year to date (Jan. 1, 2024 to Mar. 17, 2024) to the previous identical time period*, and I saw just how overwhelming the … Continue reading →

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Liberate the Toothpaste Aisle

Posted on December 12, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

Last week, the National Retail Federation, which has been pushing the ‘organized retail crime’ nonsense admitted they were full of shit (boldface mine): The main lobbying group for U.S. retailers retracted its claim that “organized retail crime” accounted for nearly … Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness, Crime, DC | 1 Comment

Is Our Police Learning: The Jump Out Squad Edition

Posted on February 2, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

I’ve been trying to write something about policing, but it hasn’t been coming together. While doing so, however, I came across this article about D.C.’s jump out squads. What’s a jump out squad? The squads operate in a lot of … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, The Rule of Law | 2 Comments

The Question About Crime and Policing That Is Rarely Asked

Posted on August 6, 2021 by mikethemadbiologist

I didn’t write never asked, because Mitch Ryals asked it! But I’m getting ahead of myself. D.C. (not Wor-Shing-Tun, but D.C.) is in the midst of passing a budget, and one of the controversial items was a request by Mayor … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, DC | 1 Comment

D.C., Murder, and Lead

Posted on September 5, 2019 by mikethemadbiologist

While I’m wary of monocausal explanations, one case where I’ll make an exception has to do with lead poisoning and crime. As Kevin Drum has pointed out (for a very long time), there is compelling evidence that the surge in … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, DC, Public Health | 1 Comment

The Ferguson Effect Something Something

Posted on January 8, 2018 by mikethemadbiologist

Remember the conservative caterwauling about the supposed Ferguson Effect, in which police officers would be too afraid to arrest people, leading rampaging hordes? Or something. Well, in New York City, not so much (boldface mine): It would have seemed unbelievable … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Crime | 3 Comments

Trust And Crime

Posted on October 12, 2017 by mikethemadbiologist

Given that Fox News blares out constant fear-based programming, this seems troubling (boldface mine): My research has found that declining trust in our institutions, our social structures and one another leads to more lethal violence, including mass murder. As abstract … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime | 2 Comments

Crime, Policing, And Density

Posted on October 6, 2017 by mikethemadbiologist

Noah Smith has four suggestions for reducing crime: Lead abatement. Drug decriminalization. Prison education. Community policing. I agree with all four suggestions, but I want to focus on community policing, especially this part: One very simple thing cops can do … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Urban Planning | 2 Comments

Doesn’t Seem Like There Was A Ferguson Effect

Posted on June 14, 2017 by mikethemadbiologist

Probably should have lead with “Still doesn’t…” While we’ve dealt with the supposed Ferguson Effect (which appears to be a Chicago and three months in D.C. effect as much as anything else) before, there’s now a study which looked at … Continue reading →

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Ferguson Effect Fables

Posted on December 28, 2015 by mikethemadbiologist

I’ll try to deal with this in more depth later this week, but we observe, by way of Kevin Drum, that Heather MacDonald is, once again, attempting to claim there’s a ‘Ferguson Effect’: crime rates are increasing because police are … Continue reading →

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