u/WalterCanFindToes

I know that the Trump administration will try to take credit for the falling homicide rate, but the numbers need to be put in context.

I retired after 30+ years working in one of the most violent cities in America and nearly half my career I was a detective assigned to violent crime, specifically homicide and sex crimes.

The largest impact on the falling homicide rate is not better policing, education, or economic factors, but the internet. A bulk of homicides were drug related. As the the use of the internet and social media rose starting in mid-2000s many drug dealers began using SnapChat, Telegram, and WhatsApp to conduct their illicit business. Two things happened with this. First, there was no longer a need to protect "your corner" as open air drug markets shifted to the internet. Secondly, it created a more stable supplier-user link so that users did not have to engage in the risky behavior of locating strangers to purchase narcotics and inherently to that risk being robbed for their money. It also created a vetted customer so the drug dealers did not have to be worried about being robbed of product and/or cash.

Another impact is being created by declining birthrates. There are 460,000 fewer juveniles today then there were a quarter of a century ago.