Violent crimes are surging in many cities across the United States, a worrisome trend that began since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the country early last year.
Homicides rose sharply in 2020, and rates of aggravated assaults and gun assaults increased as well, according to a study by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice (NCCCJ) in January this year.
Homicide rates were 30 percent higher than in 2019, a historic increase representing 1,268 more deaths in the sample of 34 cities than the year before, the study showed. Aggravated assault and gun assault rates in 2020 were 6 percent and 8 percent higher, respectively, than in 2019.
In the latest report by the NCCCJ, released in May before the arrival of summer when cities typically experience a spike in violence, the number of homicides rose by 24 percent compared to the first quarter of 2020 and by 49 percent compared to the first quarter of 2019.
Meanwhile, aggravated assault rates increased 7 percent while gun assault rates went up by 22 percent, during the same period of time, the May report revealed.
"We're seeing an unprecedented level of violent crime," Stan Smith, deputy chief of the Richland County Sheriff's Department in the state of South Carolina, told reporters earlier this week. "Our murder numbers, if we keep on track, will be substantially greater than they've ever been, which is alarming to us."
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order last week declaring a "disaster emergency" on gun violence, which has been plaguing many cities in the "Empire State."
"We went from one epidemic to another," Cuomo said. "We went from COVID to the epidemic of gun violence and the fear, and the death, that goes along with it. It's so bad when you look at the recent numbers, more people are dying of gun violence than of COVID."
There have been over 23,700 gun violence deaths so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a U.S. website that tracks gun incident trends. Those totals include fatalities from more than 350 mass shootings, defined as four or more people shot or killed, not including the perpetrator.
In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recession, and nationwide demonstrations against racism and police brutality, gun violence has killed more than 43,000 people, the highest in the United States in decades.
More Americans said violent crime is a "very big problem" in the country than those who said the same about the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll in May.
Trying to explain the situation, U.S. experts have pointed to a "perfect storm" of factors, including a surge in gun sales, widespread unemployment, anti-policing movement, and dysfunction of the criminal justice system, whose jails, prisons, and correctional facilities have been hotspots for COVID-19 outbreaks, prompting some officials to aggressively reduce the number of inmates and staff and suspend the intake of new detainees.
Besides, some anti-pandemic measures, including stay-at-home orders, may have led to more anxiety, distress, and even severe mental issues, which could cause more violent behavior.
The cause of this surge in violence is still being determined, said Robert Brame, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina.
"We're not sure what effects the pandemic might have had," Brame told local media. "There are a lot of economic effects of the pandemic, lots of social effects of the pandemic."
U.S. President Joe Biden invited a group of mayors and police chiefs from across the country for a meeting at the White House earlier this week, where they discussed actions that could be taken to tackle surging gun violence and other crimes.
"While there's no one-size-fit-all approach, we know there are some things that work, and the first of those that work is stemming the flow of firearms used to commit violent crimes," said Biden, who also emphasized more efforts to hold gun dealers accountable for violating current laws and to make new investments in community intervention, among other things.
He also stressed the importance of supporting local law enforcement, promising more funding through the 1.9-trillion-dollar American Rescue Plan, a stimulus package passed by Congress and signed into law by the Democrats in March.
Republicans have thrown cold water on the White House's plan. U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee tried to blame the rise in violent crimes on Biden's agenda.
"If Biden wants to show the American people he's ready to get serious on rising crime, he will start by securing the border," Blackburn tweeted earlier this week.
Christopher Galdieri, a political scientist at Saint Anselm College in the northeastern state of New Hampshire, acknowledged the difficulty in addressing the surge in violent crimes.
"I think the big complication here is that there's no clear, single cause of the spike in crime rates -- this is not like the coronavirus, where vaccine is a simple and straightforward remedy for it," Galdieri told Xinhua. "So it won't be clear whether these measures are effective until and unless crime rates drop."
