The pandemic didn’t cause the huge increase in the murder rate – Liberty Unyielding
The murder rate rose 30% last year in America s major cities, after the number of people in America s prisons and jails dropped by 14% from 2019 to mid-2020. But progressive politicians and professors don t want to admit that letting criminals out of jail can lead to more crime.
Instead, they blame it on the global COVID-19 pandemic without pointing to any global increase in the murder rate. On Twitter, Professor Shon Hopwood suggested the rise in America s murder rate was due to the global pandemic, reduced economic opportunity, and the most contentious presidential election of the past 30 years. Hopwood is a convicted bank robber who spent time in prison, and dislikes keeping people in jail.
In reality, murder rates fell in much of the world during the pandemic. As InSight Crime notes, It s too early to tell with any degree of certainty how exactly the pandemic may have impacted levels of violence, but there were notable developments, including significant reductions in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela, historically some of the most homicidal nations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
If reduced economic opportunity actually increased murder rates, as Hopwood suggested, murder would have increased throughout Latin America during the pandemic, since it devastated Latin America s economy. COVID-19 caused widespread hunger in Latin America, unlike the United States. Yet murder rates fell in 2020 in Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, and El Salvador all countries where malnutrition is widespread. Each of these countries suffered from a shrinking economy during the pandemic: Venezuela s economy shrank 10%, El Salvador s 9%, and Honduras s