The big deal is intentional homicides, which we have at a higher rate than most industrialized nations. The US used to have a rate comparable to slavic, post-eastern block countries but they’ve gotten worse and the US is catching up to Russia.
Similarly, US suicide rates.
Gun access facilitates this, as does recreational drug access (specifically alcohol). However desperation and precarity (food, housing, family, etc.) are all factors.
The US would solve the majority of its crime problem (based on harm: death, destruction, cost) by investigating and prosecuting white collar crime (and mandating businesses / government pay amble restitution to survivors)
Regarding petty crime (including intentional homicide) most of those would be solved with welfare programs and drug rehab.
There will still be serial killers, but they’ll be rare enough that we can write true-crime books about the handful in a given era.
The big deal is intentional homicides, which we have at a higher rate than most industrialized nations. The US used to have a rate comparable to slavic, post-eastern block countries but they’ve gotten worse and the US is catching up to Russia.
Similarly, US suicide rates.
Gun access facilitates this, as does recreational drug access (specifically alcohol). However desperation and precarity (food, housing, family, etc.) are all factors.
The US would solve the majority of its crime problem (based on harm: death, destruction, cost) by investigating and prosecuting white collar crime (and mandating businesses / government pay amble restitution to survivors)
Regarding petty crime (including intentional homicide) most of those would be solved with welfare programs and drug rehab.
There will still be serial killers, but they’ll be rare enough that we can write true-crime books about the handful in a given era.