![Homicides in 22 US cities proceed to rise in 2021 however at a slower tempo, report says Homicides in 22 US cities proceed to rise in 2021 however at a slower tempo, report says](https://clpnewsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/211108192512-us-homicides-rise-2021-file-los-angeles-super-tease.jpg)
A study of homicides in 22 cities during the first nine months of this year showed the number of murders was 4% greater than the same period in 2020, with 126 more homicides between January and September, the report says. In the first three quarters of 2020, the number of homicides in the same 22 cities rose by 36% over the same time frame in 2019, according to the report.
The homicide rate remained elevated through the summer before decreasing in the fall and winter and then increasing again in the spring and summer of this year, the report says. But even with the 2021 increase, the homicide rate for the 22 cities studied was just over half of what it was in the early 1990s, according to the report.
Aggravated assaults — assaults committed with a deadly weapon or threatened serious injury — in 17 cities with available data peaked during the summer of 2020 “at levels that surpassed those of the previous peak” before decreasing for the remainder of the year and rising again in the first half of 2021, the report says. The number of aggravated assaults in the first three quarters of 2021 was 3% higher than the same period last year, with 1,515 more aggravated assaults, the report says.
Gun assaults in 13 cities with available data peaked during the summer of 2020 and peaked again in the spring and summer of this year. There were 109 more gun assaults in the first three quarters of 2021 than during the same time frame last year, the report says.
“Even at a slower rate of increase, the elevated rates of homicide and serious assaults require an urgent response from government and community leaders,” the report concluded. “Evidence-based strategies are available to address the increase in the short and medium term. As the pandemic subsides, cities should redouble efforts to deploy hot-spot strategies that focus on those areas where the violence is concentrated.”
The 22 cities that were studied in the report are St. Petersburg, Florida; Austin, Texas; Norfolk, Virginia; Louisville, Kentucky; Pittsburgh; Los Angeles; Raleigh, North Carolina; Nashville; Buffalo, New York; Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Detroit; Chicago; Denver; Baltimore; Memphis, Tennessee; Milwaukee; Phoenix; Seattle; Omaha, Nebraska; and Chandler, Arizona.
“Abandoning long-needed police reform is not a viable policy option,” the report states. “Rather, change is essential to improve the relationship between police and communities and achieve durable reductions in urban violence.”