Did You Know...

...that only 61% of 2007 murders have been solved? It's down nearly 30% from the highest "clearance rate" of 91% in 1963.

The AP ledes the story in typical fashion*:

Despite the rise of DNA fingerprinting and other "CSI"-style crime-fighting wizardry, more and more people in this country are getting away with murder.

Who wants to bet that the reason more people are "getting away" with murder is because of the DNA fingerprinting and CSI-skills rather than in spite of them? In the middle of the 20th century, police could more easily plant evidence on suspects. In the past, prejudiced cops could berate/intimidate beleaguered immigrants and minorities into corroborating state's evidence much more easily.

The 34% decline in "cleared" homicides could easily be attibutable to the unrelenting nature of modern law-enforcement technology. No matter how many officers of the Chicago Police Department testify to the fact that they saw a black teen sexually assaulting some suburban girl, the DNA can override them all. It hasn't always been that way.

I don't think that the above is entirely true myself (I think some of this can be blamed on the increasingly anarchic and neglected nature of most American urban environs), but it's waaaay more convincing than simply marveling aloud "How can more murderers be getting away with it? WE HAVE BLACK LIGHTS?!"

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*I don't know why I still expect the news wires to have cogent or thoughtful prose in the reports. I suppose that it's not even fair to the AP or Reuters staff writers to demand New Yorker argumentation. I've written several pieces under pressure, and I know how it feels to have your boss standing over your shoulder, either metaphorically or literally: at that point you don't really care if what you've written makes clean sense, just as long as it appears to have been written by at least a high-school student you'll let it slide.