The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America

by Barry Latzer

A compelling case can be made that violent crime, especially after the 1960s, was one of the most significant domestic issues in the United States. Indeed, few issues had as profound an effect on American life in the last third of the twentieth century. After 1965, crime rose to such levels that it frightened virtually all Americans and prompted significant alterations in everyday behaviors and even lifestyles. The risk of being mugged was a concern when Americans chose places to live and schools for their children, selected commuter routes to work, and planned their leisure activities. In some locales, people were afraid to leave their dwellings at any time, day or night, even to go to the market. In the worst of the post-1960s crime wave, Americans spent part of each day literally looking back over their shoulders.

The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America is the first book to comprehensively examine this important phenomenon over the entire postwar era. It combines a social history of the United States with the insights of criminology and examines the relationship between rising and falling crime and such historical developments as the postwar economic boom, suburbanization and the rise of the middle class, baby booms and busts, war and antiwar protest, the urbanization of minorities, and more.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Sociology, Crime, American, Social Issues

424 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 6, 2015

About the author

For over three and a half decades Barry Latzer was Professor of Criminal Justice at John Jay College, CUNY, where he was a member of the Masters’ and Doctoral faculties. He taught courses on criminal justice, criminal law and procedure, state constitutional law, capital punishment, and most recently, crime history.

Professor Latzer wrote and published six books, including a treatise on state constitutional law, and approximately 70 scholarly articles, research reports, magazine articles, book reviews and op-eds. His scholarly articles have been published in the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, the Journal of Criminal Justice, Judicature, Judges' Journal, Criminal Law Bulletin, and major law reviews. Other writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Daily Beast, National Review, the Chronicle of Higher Education, City Journal, the New York Post and the New York Daily News. A widely read interview with David Frum appeared in Atlantic, June 19, 2016. His recent article on “Alvin Bragg, the Prosecutor Who Won’t Prosecute,” was the cover story in the February 7, 2022 issue of National Review.

Professor Latzer received advanced degrees from the University of Massachusetts (Ph.D., 1977) and Fordham University School of Law (JD, 1985). His BA was from Brooklyn College (1966).

He briefly served as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn (1985-86) and as counsel to indigent criminal defendants in Manhattan (1986-87).

Barry Latzer has devoted the last decade to a major study of the history of violent crime in the United States. His recent book, The Rise and Fall of Violent in America (Encounter Books, 2016), a product of this research, examines the period from 1940 to 2015. The pre-1940 period is covered in his book just published by Louisiana State University Press: The Roots of Violent Crime in America: From the Gilded Age through the Great Depression (LSU Press, 2020).

Latzer’s most recent book, on criminal punishment in the United States, is entitled The Myth of Overpunishment: A Defense of the American Justice System and a Proposal to Reduce Incarceration While Protecting the Public. It was published by Republic Books in 2022.

Barry Latzer and his wife live in New Jersey. They have one daughter who lives in Portland, OR. When he isn’t writing, Prof. Latzer may be seen hiking or at the opera (especially the ones with murders).

Reviews

[Nik Conwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America. Barry Latzer


I'm a sucker for fact based evidence and research. Great science, economics.

Great book about rise and fall of violent crime over the past hundred years or so. Reads somewhat like a college textbook. Lots of great references and end notes. Good fact based read.

Interesting takeaways:

Causes of drops in crime: Young men going off to war, correlation with alcohol abuse (higher abuse == higher violent crime). Unemployment does not correlate; it's not the case that when there's lots of work available that crime drops.

Longer term trends, crime dips 1935-64, rises 64-95, dips 95.

Rise in 64 attributed to increase in young men (baby boom) exceeding a tipping point, a systemic overload of the criminal justice system and police/courts, and a subculture of black youth violence - swagger as defense against violence - respect and preemptive theft to increase respect. Came from the southern redneck culture. See "The Code of the Street". Crack cocaine epidemic in the 80s also significant source of violent crime.

Social contagion - people commit crimes because their peers are doing it. Things exceed a tipping point.

Dip in 95 - Cocaine epidemic ran its course. Younger people saw negative effects on their older siblings, did not want the same fate. More cops and policing about yes but the clearance rates of reported crimes being solved actually went down. (But, total amount may have been better but % was worse; was not explored by the author). (Thought experiment - do we have the expectation that percentage remains fixed as number scale (from a social perspective)?)

Definition of culture - the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from the others.

Sources of fear (say of flying or being a crime victim) - likelihood is important but that is tempered by unpredictability of something happening, the inability for us to take precautions, and potentially devastating consequences of the thing happening make all the difference.

[Marianne K · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great book filled with tables, figures, graphs and more graphs that lays out violent crime in America. Who perpetrates it. Are certain immigrant groups more or less likely to be violent. Why were certain decades more violent than others. These are a few of the questions addressed in this book. I was leery of ordering this not wanting a dry read but the author manages to present a fact filled presentation of violent crime in a palatable manner. My only complaint is the conclusion. I felt the author sugar-coated that in order to escape criticism.

[Mike R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preface this with the fact that this is a great book for a specific audience looking for factually based evidence regarding violent crime and its current and past situation in America. Somewhat of a dry read but well referenced and written. Would recommend to those interested in this subject to shine light in the true facts the mainstream media would never tell you because their indoctrination tendencies won’t allow them. 5 stars would recommend.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read and fluently written. However, a peculiar racial undertone is present in the author's emphasis on the "cultural causes" of crime. I certainly don't agree with this book's argument, but it is a well-written and compelling book nonetheless.

[Jww5du85 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting statistics, but read more like a textbook than a narrative. The structure made it difficult for me to keep track of what was going on or why it was taking so long to describe the graphs and tables spread throughout the book.

[John Minster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, exhaustive, and insightful book. Anybody interested in crime, it's causes and consequences, should read this book.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really technical but super informative

[Ryan Bohl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential to understanding crime and justice in the 21st century

Crime is not a matter of merely poverty gone violent, nor cultures gone septic, but something in between. This book demonstrates the essential tale of why American crime functions as it does, and perhaps can move us beyond our binary conversations for the future.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable history of violent crime over the past 50 years. Challenged some of my assumptions and beliefs and really pushed the envelope on race and cultural causes of crime. This author comes down in the camp of old school "tough on crime."

[Fred R · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's astonishing how few people are familiar with the history of crime in America over the past century or so. This is a solid, objective refresher.

[Dayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you really want to know about violence in our country, here are some well-researched data that will open your eyes.