Miami, Florida: Crime Statistics and Trends

Historical data shows a steady decrease in the incidence of violent crimes in the United States beginning 1994 after more than three decades of increasing trend following World War II (James, 2018). According to John Gramlich's (2019)  Five facts about crime in the U.S.,  violent crimes composed of murder and manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault have drastically fallen over the past half-century. However, there were discrepancies between the records reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). While both agencies agreed that while there was a significant decrease in violent crime rate, their figures do not tally. The FBI reported a drop of 49% to compare to the BJS' 74% from 1994 to 2017 (Gramlich, 2019). From 1960 to 1993, the crime rate was increasing, but from 1994 to 2017, the gradual decrease became significantly noticeable. Many analysts believe that this drop may be attributed to several factors, which could be viewed as either an improvement in the criminal justice system or some reclassification of crime like in the case of rape. In this paper, a review of Miami, Florida's crime statistics and trends will be considered in an attempt to analyze the factors that may have resulted to the city's crime rates throughout a ten-year record from 2007 to 2016. Specifically, this paper will concentrate on murder and manslaughter, being classified as one of the four criminal offense under violent crimes. The said records from the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be presented both in tabular form and line graph covering ten years to help establish a trend that shall support the detailed evaluation of the city's current crime rate and peace and order status.

Miami, Florida: An Overview 

Miami is one of the major cities in the United States. The city of Miami is considered the center of South Florida's economic, financial, and cultural activities. With an estimated total population of 470,914, Miami is Florida's second-largest city in terms of population, while it is the 43rd most populated area in the U.S. ("The American Community Survey," 2016). Being referred to as the center for economic and financial activities in Southern Florida, Miami is United States' third-richest metropolitan area, and the 8th in the world in terms of purchasing power ("City Mayors: Richest cities in the world," 2016). Given the progressive status of Miami, the crime rate in the city is one of the most pressing issues that the local government has to address. According to the website City-Data, the crime rate in Miami was plotted at 391. This figure is 1.4 times higher compared to the nation's average crime rate, and 89.7% higher than any of the United States' cities ("Crime in Miami, Florida (F.L.): murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts, arson, law enforcement employees, police officers, crime map", 2018). Nevertheless, the local government of Miami brags about the 14% drop in criminality in 2017 as it stood in comparison to the report made in 2016.

Murder and Manslaughter: Violent Crime Rate in Miami (2007-2016) 

Over the course of a ten-year period, the actual recorded incidence of murder in Miami has shown a relatively increasing trend. From 2007 to 2016, there was steady increase in reported cases of murder in Miami except in 2008 and 2009, and yet again in 2015 and 2016 when there was a slight break in the trend. (Please refer to Table 2 for the historical trend).

The historical records were provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) based on victimization data. Given this circumstance, there might still be an unreported and undocumented incidence of murder that may not have been adequately recorded. This assumption is based on the definition and the classification of a victimization data, which refers to documents complied over some time from interviews made on sampled individuals to determine whether this individual has suffered or experience victimization over the past six months (Shook-Sa, Couzens & Berzofsky, 2011). 

Figure 1: Murder Incidence in Miami (2006-2017) 

Table 1: Murder Incidence in Miami (2006-2017) 

Source: FBI Victimization Data 

           For some social analysts, the significant decrease in crime rate may be caused by several factors. For example, the aggressive campaign launched by the government to fight criminality at all-cause has been one of the deterrents that leads to a significant decrease in the crime rate. A perfect example of this was during the early ’90s after crime peaked and drastically went down after the government imposed harsh punitive policies and adapted a tough-on-crime platform (Ford, 2016). Under Trump’s administration, there were reasons to believe that the significant decrease in crime will be primarily due to the president’s new immigration policy. Studies have shown that criminality, especially murder and drug-related crimes, are mainly due to the significant number of illegal immigrants (Wadsworth, 2010). Another policy that many people sees as affecting the crime rate, particularly murder was the law that regulates gun ownership. In Florida, gun ownership is not regulated. A concealed carry license is issued in the state, which for many people is an open invite to use it and be careless, which is why many believed that the crime rate in Miami is considered the highest amongst the different cities in the US. 

Conclusion 

           In conclusion, it can be told that crime rate varies depending on the circumstances that surrounds a locale. Government policies and economic conditions both play a critical role in the crime rate and the trend that it will create. 

References

City Mayors: Richest cities in the world. (2016). Retrieved 22 September 2019, from http://www.citymayors.com/economics/richest-cities-world.html 

Crime in Miami, Florida (FL): murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts, arson, law enforcement employees, police officers, crime map. (2018). Retrieved 22 September 2019, from http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Miami-Florida.html 

Ford, M. (2016). What Caused the Great Crime Decline in the U.S.?. Retrieved 22 September 2019, from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/what-caused-the-crime-decline/477408/ 

Gramlich, J. (2019). 5 facts about crime in the U.S. Retrieved 22 September 2019, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/03/5-facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/ 

James, N. (2018). Recent Violent Crime Trends in the United States. Retrieved 22 September 2019, from https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45236.pdf 

Shook-Sa, B., Couzens, G., & Berzofsky, M. (2011). User's Guide to National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) Direct Variance Estimation. Retrieved 22 September 2019, from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/NCVS_Variance_User_Guide%2011.06.14.pdf 

The American Community Survey. (2016). Retrieved 22 September 2019, from https://www.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/2016_Gazetteer/2016_gaz_place_12.txt 

Wadsworth, T. (2010). Is Immigration Responsible for the Crime Drop? An Assessment of the Influence of Immigration on Changes in Violent Crime Between 1990 and 2000.  Social Science Quarterly ,  91 (2), 531-553. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00706.x