Crime: Red Delusions About Purple Reality

During previous week’s Oklahoma gubernatorial discussion Pleasure Hofmeister, the surprisingly aggressive Democratic candidate, dealt with Kevin Stitt, the Republican incumbent, who — like a lot of in his party — is running as a champion of legislation and buy.

“The fact is the fees of violent crime in Oklahoma are increased underneath your observe than New York and California,” she declared.

Stitt responded by laughing, and turned to the audience: “Oklahomans, do you believe that we have greater crime than New York or California?”

But Hofmeister was entirely appropriate. In simple fact, when it arrives to murder, the most reliably calculated type of violent criminal offense, it isn’t even shut: In 2020 Oklahoma’s murder fee was just about 50 p.c better than California’s, pretty much double New York’s, and this position almost certainly has not transformed.

Was Stitt unaware of this point? Or was he just counting on his audience’s ignorance? If it was the latter, he may perhaps, alas, have produced the proper simply call. Community perceptions about crime are generally at odds […]