Violent crime in America has been dropping for years, reaching a point in 2012 that was roughly half of what it was in 1993. But that may be changing.
The New York Times reported that violent crime was rising sharply in cities like Milwaukee and St. Louis. In Hartford, there were 19 homicides in all of 2014. That number was matched in late July this year.
While there are a lot of reasons why violence is spiking, police officers note a growing willingness to use violence to settle minor disputes.
There have been hundreds of mass shootings since 26 people were killed in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The violence is fueled by easy access to guns and seems to spread like a contagious disease, reaching a new level with the recent shootings of two journalists in Virginia.
By definition, a contagion feeds off itself and is difficult to stop. It can destabilize fragile, otherwise controlled people who perform acts of violence after observing shooting after shooting. Are we entering a more dangerous period of highly-visible shootings?
GUESTS:
- Dr. Hank Schwartz - Psychiatrist-in-chief at Hartford Hospital's Institute of Living, and Vice President of Behavioral Health at Hartford Healthcare
- Dr. Sherry Towers - Research Professor, Mathematical and Computational Modeling Sciences Center, Arizona State University
- Daniel Webster - Director, John Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research and Deputy Director for Research, Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence
- Gary Slutkin - Founder and Executive Director of Cure Violence, Professor of Epidemiology and International Health, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health
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John Dankosky and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on September 8, 2015.
