Homicides in Chicago spiked by 60 percent during the first three months of the
year despite an increase in police resources in some of the city's most
dangerous neighborhoods, according to new police crime statistics.
The Chicago Police Department data showed that nonfatal shootings also rose
sharply in the first quarter compared with the same three months in 2011.
Chicago police and Mayor Rahm Emanuel say the city has increased efforts to
combat gang crime, including adding officers and other resources in trouble
spots such as the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side. Police blame much of
the violence on the city's more than 70 active gangs and their tens of thousands
of members. The mayor has urged residents to take a stand against gangs in their
communities.
The police statistics show 120 homicides from Jan. 1 through April 1,
compared with 75 over the same period in 2011.
One criminologist said unseasonably warm weather might have contributed to
the spike.
"In better weather, people are outside more, interacting more with neighbors,
acquaintances, even strangers, and there's greater opportunity for conflict than
when it's cold and windy," James Alan Fox told the Chicago Tribune.
Fox, a professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern
University in Boston, cautioned that it's too early to draw hard conclusions
from three months of data, noting that the number of homicides in Chicago has
been at historic lows in recent years.
All six other crime categories tracked in the police statistics were down,
including a 15 percent decline in sexual assaults and a 9 percent drop in
robberies. Car thefts declined 16 percent to 4,081.
Source
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/12/chicago-murder-rate-up_n_1420382.html?1334239048&ref=chicago
