Cities breed crime; some more than others

Cities breed crime;
some more than others

It is the job of a political cartoonist to take a humorist’s approach to even the most serious of subjects, as can be seen in today’s cartoon — a reaction to Detroit being named the most dangerous city in the nation, based on statistics for violent crime.

But for cities that were near the top of the 14th annual crime rankings compiled by Congressional Quarterly Press, there is very little comedy and a whole lot of tragedy.

The statistic are based on real people — people who were murdered, raped, robbed and assaulted. For each crime victim, there are family and friends who suffer too.

And few cities know this better than Youngstown, which ranked as the 15th most dangerous city in the CQ report, fourth highest among medium-sized cities.

Youngstown’s ranking this year was an improvement over last year, when it was the ninth most dangerous overall. But it can take little consolation in that, because three deaths last weekend brought the city’s homicides to 33 this year. There were 28 homicides at this time last year and 32 for all of 2006. Based on that, Youngstown is likely to find itself higher than 15th when the new rankings come out next year.

And the rankings will come out, even over the objections of some sociologists, criminologists and politicians, who, for various reasons, find the CQ poll unfair or counterproductive.

Don’t just take offense

We can understand city officials taking offense at the bad publicity, but the answer to that, as difficult as it may be, is to do something about those numbers.

Cities will always have higher homicide rates than suburbs or villages. The higher concentration of people and the higher concentration of poor people fuels the crime rate. That sounds like an indictment of the poor, but while the majority of poor people are decent, law-abiding folks, there is a demonstrable correlation between crime and poverty. The higher the poverty rate, the more severe the violent crime rate.

That correlation may be inferred from the CQ report, but it actually comes from a stack of academic studies. And in part from common sense. As Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives, said last week, “more than half the homicides this year involved lifestyles where violence can occur.”

Youngstown has seen that before — in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, when gangsters were killing each other and Youngstown was dubbed “Murdertown, USA.” It was a different era and a different dynamic, but the victims then, as now made lifestyle choices. And the answer for reducing homicide was the same: The people, the police and the courts have to make it clear that the underlying crimes that foster a homicidal lifestyle will not be tolerated.