The numbers keep going in our favor. For the first time since 1961 the murder rate in New York City is on track to be below 500. If that happens then this year could be the first time in fifty years that more people kill themselves in New York than are killed by other people. Compare that to 1991 when 2,245 people were killed in Gotham and smile.
To celebrate this possible coming milestone (and obviously, things could change quickly) the Times has a good piece breaking down the city's murder rate. Some facts:
-The most likely victim of a murder in NYC is a "black man with a criminal record, from the age of 25 to 40, outdoors on a weekend in Brooklyn and confronted by an angry 18- to 24-year-old friend, acquaintance or relative who is a former convict and is wielding a gun."
- A criminologist at Northeastern University claims that New York's murder rate should fluctuate between 2,407 and 385 per year. Is it actually possible to reach that low? Probably not, as 385 is something of a "criminal justice limbo stick" (if we reached that low our murder rate would be above only Honolulu in the US).
- In response to gun control measures, a growing number of murders are committed with knives.
- With a high or low murder rate, 40% of murders go unsolved each year.
Graphic from the New York Times, Source the NYPD
