A decline in violent crime in many American cities is not just continuing, but accelerating.
Data for the first half of this year showed a 22% drop in homicide deaths for Baltimore, compared with the same period in 2024. In Boston last year, homicides were down to their lowest number since 1957. Cities such as Detroit; Oakland, California; and San Antonio are on similar trajectories.
Behind the turnaround is a mix of strategies that deliver a message of caring – and consequences.
Evidence of a city’s care for residents can involve simple fixes, such as better street lighting or cleaned-up lots. Such measures encourage residents to venture outdoors, thus providing “eyes on the street,” as the late urban theorist Jane Jacobs put it. Also key are community groups that offer summer youth programs, treatment for substance misuse, and mental health and job counseling.
For those prone to commit crime, however, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott delivered a stern message earlier this year: “Take us up on our opportunities to change your life,” CNN reported him as saying, “or end up … indicted, headed to prisons.”
Meanwhile, police forces across the country are focusing their visibility on known “hot spots” of crime. They also rely more on community workers to avoid being drawn into noncriminal emergencies, such as mental or drug-induced distress or family arguments.
Most gun violence in the United States stems not from preplanned attacks but from disagreements that flare up in the heat of the moment, according to Jens Ludwig, director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab. Staff and volunteers in community and faith groups are sometimes more alert than police to signs of escalation and are able to intervene or call on trained support.
This shared police-community approach is a “revolution in public safety,” according to New York University’s Policing Project. It reflects a consensus “that the police should not be the only professionals responsible for public safety,” project staff wrote in The New York Times in May.
Crime prevention often requires “nonpunitive, transformative solutions,” as a community program called FORCE Detroit describes it. That city initiative relies on teams of “credible messengers” – including former offenders – to stay in regular contact with individuals at risk of perpetrating violence. According to founder Alia Harvey-Quinn, a team’s “authenticity” and depth of caring, in turn, “unlocks a set of honor codes that are within our community,” she told CNN last fall. When individuals “feel like people care, they show up and protect the work and the organization.”
