In a 2016 article by U.S. News they state that although the national crime rate is at a “historic low,” the Chicago murder rate continues to rise. This comes from after information received from the Brennan Center for Justice, a policy institute at the New York University School of Law. The articles goes on to explain some of the reasons for the surge, and why the institute projects the rates will escalate on this subject when it comes to Chicago. They use sources from the Chicago Tribune, in which they report that the city has recorded 528 homicides in 2016.
Three graphs were included in the article, each one displaying the national murder rate across what seems like the most populated and largest cities in the states. While the articles explains the numbers per year, it would have been more relevant to include statistics on Chicago. The article is about crime and murder rates in Chicago, and that is the data that should have been shown, but we don’t see that as a separate set. The national rate is covered, but it would have made a striking difference if there was data that compared solely Chicago against that national average, or another city with equal size in population.
The issue with a lot of the data is its collection. Each displays the murder rate per 100,000 people, but it’s pit against the national, what if it were city to city with equal or similar inhabitants. How can we compare a large city with a medium one – the resources, the population, and its law enforcement is not the same; there should be more factors contributing to the numbers. Overall the article does a good job at detailing the numbers, but it would have made for a different article if it was more about why the numbers. Also, on some of the reasons stated for the rates increasing, I still had questions towards the end of the article, needed more context. Numbers don’t always tell the whole story.