Crime Down Outside Denver Proper

In an earlier post, I wondered if the big declines in Denver crime rates were a product of a suburbanization of crime in the metropolitan area. New FBI data suggest that this is not the case and that crime is down all along the Front Range, with the exception of Pueblo. More links can be found at the 5280 blog (Elevated Voices).

This makes the Denver use of DNA testing on minor crimes or other changes in policing increasingly implausible as a cause of the decline. It makes the possibility that gang activity has been disrupted, or that this is connected with a change in the character of the meth trade, seem more likely.

Incarceration rates have continued to increase, but the increase has been far more gradual than the dropoff of crime we have seen in the last couple of years. Incarceration has increased slowly, but steadily, for over a decade, and the rate of increase has not grown notably in the last couple of years.