Homicide rates in Massachusetts have reached an all-time low in the last 10 years.
Members of law enforcement contribute this drop to multiple factors regarding enforcement on gangs, drugs, and firearm trafficking.
Others have speculated that the snowstorms of 2015 have helped with curbing crime, as the snow has kept people indoors.
According to the Boston Globe, in 2010, the Bay State had 220 homicides. In 2014, there were 146; in 2015, 133 homicides.
The numbers were compiled by the Boston Globe with numbers retrieved from Massachusetts State Police. Also included were Boston, Pittsfield, Springfield, and Worcester police departments who conduct their own death investigations.
The decreased rates of homicide in Massachusetts follow national averages.
David Procopio, director of media communications for the Massachusetts State Police, said that the decrease is due in part to concentrating law enforcement resources to “hammer the drug and gun trade in high-crime areas.”
“Our State Police gang and drug units make great efforts in urban neighborhoods, working with their local police counterparts, to disrupt drug networks and seize illegally owned guns and arrest the people who sell the drugs and the guns,” said Procopio.
While homicide rates went up in the early 2000s, Procopio said this was due to “many of the ‘impact players’ who went to prison in the 1990s were getting released and returning to their old stomping grounds”.
Not all strategies used are reactive measures. Proactive measures (things done before crime occurs), including arresting gang members and seizing illegal guns before crimes take place, prevent crime in large cities.
University of Massachusetts Boston sociology professor Stephanie Hartwell told the Boston Globe that 70 percent of all homicides are from firearms. Hartwell also added that “gang sweeps,” where police raid gang members, are also a very useful proactive approach. Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz says the sweeps are useful because they “let people know we’re watching.”
Some argue that something more than arrests are needed to stop and prevent crime. Many cities, like Boston, use outreach programs geared towards at-risk youth. These programs also reach out to community residents.
Besides law enforcement, community groups, such as the Boston Ten Point Coalition (BTPC), try and help end violence in the city. BTPC’s website describes them as “an ecumenical group of Christian clergy and lay leaders working to mobilize the Christian community around issues affecting black and Latino youth.”
BTPC aims to “assist youth at high risk for violence, drug abuse, and other destructive behaviors” through working with community, private, and governmental organizations.
Frank Farrow, community engagement coordinator at BTPC, also notes that it is important to credit more than just law enforcement in reducing the homicide rate. Farrow said it is critical to credit Boston’s medical care providers. “Every shooting is a potential homicide,” said Farrow.
Despite a decline in Boston’s homicide rate, the number of non-fatal shootings in Boston was 244 in 2015, 30 more than 2014.
Professor James Alan Fox, Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy at Northeastern University, told the Boston Globe that the ability to get real-time crime data, video surveillance, and drug market changes has helped. Fox also notes that the aging population has also contributed.
Fox said the state should not take the drop for granted, referring to the early 1990s when homicide rates went up in the crack/cocaine epidemic. Relating to this, Fox notes that homicide rate decreases should not mean that governments cut the funding for good programs.