Violent Crime Increases for First Time in Almost 20 Years

Considering the state of the economy this news isn’t very surprising:

Violent crimes unexpectedly jumped 18 percent last year, the first rise in nearly 20 years, and property crimes rose for first time in a decade. But academic experts said the new government data fall short of signaling a reversal of the long decline in crime.

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported Wednesday that the increase in the number of violent crimes was the result of an upward swing in simple assaults, which rose 22 percent, from 4 million in 2010 to 5 million last year. The incidence of rape, sexual assault and robbery remained largely unchanged, as did serious violent crime involving weapons or injury.

Before the gun control advocates start claiming that this sudden upswing is due to the increase in gun sales take note of the last sentence, which stated that serious violent crime involving weapons or injury remained mostly the same. On top of that, as expected with unemployment going nowhere but up, the number of burglaries and thefts also increased:

Property crimes were up 11 percent in 2011, from 15.4 million in 2010 to 17 million, according to the bureau’s annual national crime victimization survey. Household burglaries rose 14 percent, from 3.2 million to 3.6 million. The number of thefts jumped by 10 percent, from 11.6 million to 12.8 million.

Unfortunately things are only bound to get worse. Both major presidential candidates and almost everybody running for federal offices has no plan to fix our economic issues. Unless the state is willing to step out of the way, or is forced out of the way when it collapses, unemployment will continue to rise and people will become more and more desperate as their finances dwindle.