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Crime in Chicago has been tracked by the Chicago Police Department's Bureau of Records since the beginning of the 20th century. The city's overall crime rate, especially the
violent crime A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful Force (law), force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violence, vio ...
rate, is higher than the US average.
Gangs in Chicago Chicago is considered the most gang-occupied city in the United States, with 150,000 gang-affiliated residents, representing more than 100 gangs. wikt:turf war, Gang warfare and retaliation are common in Chicago. Gangs were responsible for 61% of ...
have a role in the city's crime rate. Chicago gangs prefer to do business with
Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
gun stores because Indiana has significantly weaker laws than
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
. The number of homicides in Chicago hit a 25-year high in 2021, but reached a five year low in 2024 with a continued downward trend into 2025.


Overview

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
saw a major rise in violent crime starting in the late 1960s. Homicides in the city peaked in 1974, with 970 homicides when the city's population was over three million, resulting in a homicide rate of around 29 per 100,000, and again in 1992, with 948 homicides when the city had fewer than three million people, resulting in a homicide rate of 34 per 100,000 citizens. After 1992, the homicide count steadily decreased to 415 murders by the mid-2000s, a reduction of over 50 percent. In 2021, there were 805 homicides recorded, representing a homicide rate of 29.8 per 100,000. The year of 2022 saw a decline in homicides, followed by another 15% decline in 2023, ending the year with a total of 621.


Violent crime

Chicago experienced major rises in the 1920s, in the late 1960s, and in the 2020s. a decline in overall crime in the 2000s, and then a rise in murders in 2016. Murder, rape, and robbery are the most common violent crimes in the city, and occurrences of such incidents are documented by the Chicago Police Department and indexed in annual crime reports. After adopting crime-fighting techniques in 2004 that were recommended by the
Los Angeles Police Department The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...
and the
New York City Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...
, Chicago recorded 453 homicides, the lowest total since 1965. This homicide rate of 15.8 per 100,000 population was still above the U.S. average, an average which takes in many small towns and suburbs. By 2010, Chicago's homicide rate had surpassed that of
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
(16.3 per 100,000), and was more than twice that of
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
(7.0 per 100,000). By the end of 2015, Chicago's homicide rate rose to 18.6 per 100,000. By 2016, Chicago had recorded more homicides and shooting victims than New York City and Los Angeles combined. By the end of 2020, Chicago's homicide rate rose to 28.4 per 100,000. Chicago recorded 779 homicides in 2020. This figure represents an increase of more than 55% over 2019. On the
Fourth of July Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing th ...
weekend 2021, at least 100 people, mostly African-American, were shot, 18 of them fatally. Chicago's biggest
criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...
challenges have changed little over the last 50 years, and statistically reside with homicide, armed robbery, gang violence, and aggravated battery.


Murder and shootings 1991-Present

Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said a pervasive "no-snitch code" on the street remains the biggest reason more murders aren't being solved in Chicago, adding, "We're not doing well because we're not getting cooperation ..They don't feel protected when they come forward. They feel that police will throw them under a bus, and they still have to live in the neighborhood." By 2016, Chicago's murder clearance rate had dropped to only 21%, and its
detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads the ...
force had dwindled from 1,151 in 2009 to 863 as of July 2016. Warmer months have significantly higher homicide rates, and over 70% of homicides take place between 7 pm and 5 am. In 2011, 83% of homicides involved a firearm, and 6.4% were the result of a stabbing. 10% of homicides in 2011 were the result of an armed robbery and at least 60% were gang or gang narcotics altercations. Over 40% of victims and 60% of offenders were between the ages of 17 and 25. 90.1% of victims were male. 75.3% of victims and 70.5% of offenders were African American, 18.9% were Hispanic (20.3% of offenders), and whites were 5.6% of victims (3.5% of offenders). Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy was terminated by
Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician, advisor, diplomat, and former investment banker who most recently served as List of ambassadors of the United States to Japan, United States ambassador to Japan from 2022 ...
following the fall out from the shooting of Laquan McDonald.A gunshot wound to the body's center of mass can quickly prove fatal without immediate medical attention due to
blood loss Bleeding, hemorrhage, haemorrhage or blood loss, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear, urethra, v ...
and internal injuries. In September 2015, University of Chicago Medicine and Sinai Health Systems announced a joint $40 million venture to convert Holy Cross Hospital into a Level 1
trauma center A trauma center, or trauma centre, is a hospital equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major traumatic injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds. The term "trauma center" may be used incorr ...
on the South side, making some of Chicago's most violent neighborhoods less than five miles from high-quality care. Non-fatal gunshot victims in Chicago had an overall rate of occurrence of 46.5 per 100,000 from 2006 to 2012, with a demographic breakdown of 1.62 per 100,000 for whites; 28.72 for Hispanics, and 112.83 for blacks. It is estimated that the medical expenses associated with gun violence costs the city of Chicago $2.5 billion a year. Chicago has been criticized for comparatively light sentencing guidelines for those found illegally in possession of a firearm. Most people convicted of illegal gun possession receive the minimum sentence, one year, a ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' analysis found, and serve less than half of the sentence because of time for good behavior and pre-trial confinement. The minimum sentence for felons found in possession of a firearm is two years. Those charged with simple gun possession had an average of four prior arrests
Felons charged with prior gun related crimes will be faced with stricter sentencing as of a new bill proposed in 2017
Those charged with gun possession by a felon had an average of ten prior arrests. August 2016 marked the most violent month Chicago had recorded in over two decades with 92 homicides, included the murder of Nykea Aldridge, cousin of NBA star Dwyane Wade. Chicago's 2016 murder and shooting surge attracted national media attention from CNN, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'', ''Time'' magazine and PBS. Filmmaker
Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...
's 2015 release, '' Chi-Raq'', highlights Chicago's gun violence using a narrative inspired by the Greek comedy '' Lysistrata''. Chicago's deadliest day since reliable digital records began in 1991, was on May 31, 2020, with 18 murders committed. That day was part of a three-day weekend that had 85 shootings, and 24 murders, the all-time highest number killed on a Chicago weekend. Reports indicate that the victims were of various ages and occupations, but mostly black. The violence was framed by the
George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...
, but researchers said it was unheard of and unable to be contextualized. The city's second-deadliest day had 13 murders, and occurred in 1991 shortly after digital records were introduced. There is no deadlier day recorded in the past 60 years, but records prior to 1991 may be unreliable.


Crime rates by community area

The seventy-seven Chicago community areas were defined cooperatively by the U.S. Census Bureau and the University of Chicago Department of Sociology following the 1920 Census. Although there have been substantial changes in population and infrastructure since then, the community areas remain the most widely used geographic units by Chicago planning agencies, advocacy groups, and service providers. Homicide rates in Chicago vary greatly depending on the community area. Many of the predominantly African American community areas on the South Side are impoverished, lack educational resources and noted for high levels of street
gang A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Wiktionary:territory#Noun, territory in a ...
activity. The community areas of Englewood on the South Side, and Austin on the West side, for example, have homicide rates that are ten times higher than other parts of the city. In September 2015, West Garfield Park was named "America's
mass shooting A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...
capital", citing 18 occasions in 2015 in which at least four people were shot in a single incident. Violence in these community areas has had a detrimental impact on the academic performance of children in schools, as well as a higher financial burden for school districts in need of counselors, social workers, and psychiatrists to help children cope with the violence. In 2014, Chicago Public Schools adopted the "Safe Passage Route" program to place unarmed volunteers, police officers and firefighters along designated walking routes to provide security for children en route to school. From 2010 to 2014, 114 school children were murdered in Chicago. The table below shows population, crime totals and per capita crime rates by community area for 2020, the most recent Census year.


General crime rates by community area


Homicide rates by community area


Street gangs

Chicago has an estimated population of over 100,000 active gang members from nearly 60 factions according to studies from 2011/2012. Gangs were responsible for 32% of the homicides in Chicago in 2011, however this has fluctuated over time. In 2023, 24% of criminal homicides could be attributed to a gang altercation, a decrease from 2022's 30%. Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy blamed Chicago's gang culture in 2015 for its high rates of homicide and other violent crime, stating "It's very frustrating to know that it's like 7% of the population causes 80% of the violent crime...The gangs here are traditional gangs that are generational, if you will. The grandfather was a gang member, the father's a gang member, and the kid right now is going to be a gang member." Mayor Rahm Emanuel disbanded the Chicago Police Department's anti-gang unit in 2012 in order to focus on beat patrols, which he said would have a more long-term solution to violence than anti-gang units. As many as 70 active and inactive Chicago street gangs with 753 factions were identified in 2016. Some of the gangs that contribute most of the crime on the streets of Chicago: * Gangster Disciples * Vice Lords * Black P. Stones * Latin Kings * Black Disciples * Maniac Latin Disciples *
Spanish Cobras The Spanish Cobras is a primarily (but not exclusively) Hispanic and Latino Americans, Latino street gang, present in multiple states throughout the Midwestern United States, with a strong presence on the north and west sides of Chicago, Illino ...
* Almighty Saints * Spanish Gangster Disciples * Four Corner Hustlers * Norridge Hearts Detailed analysis of the homicides timeline by month show that homicides (of all races) went up right after Martin Luther King was killed in 1968 (still for reasons unknown). However, Hispanic-on-Hispanic homicides, did not notably start until the summer of 1971, due to the Latin Kings gang election meetings. However, this claim can't be immediately proven, as homicides by race are not made public for those time periods.


Political corruption

Chicago has a long history of public
corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...
that regularly draws the attention of federal law enforcement and federal prosecutors. Chicago's political landscape has been firmly under the control of the Democratic Party for over 85 years and has been widely described as a
political machine In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership c ...
. In the 1980s, the FBI's Operation Greylord uncovered massive and systemic corruption in Chicago's judicial system. Greylord was the longest and most successful
undercover operation A covert operation or undercover operation is a military or police operation involving a covert agent or troops acting under an assumed cover to conceal the identity of the party responsible. US law Under US law, the Central Intelligence Ag ...
in the history of the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
, and resulted in 92 federal indictments, including 17 judges, 48 lawyers, eight policemen, ten deputy sheriffs, eight court officials, and one state legislator. Nearly all were convicted on a variety of charges including
bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...
, kickbacks,
fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...
, vote buying,
racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...
, and drug trafficking. The late 1980s and 1990s saw further efforts by the FBI to prosecute Chicago's public crime syndicates. Operation Incubator obtained about a dozen convictions or guilty pleas, including those from five members of the City Council and an aide to former Mayor Harold Washington. Later Operation Gambat brought a wide range of charges against a Chicago judge, a state senator, an alderman, and two others relating to corruption in the
Cook County Circuit Court The Circuit Court of Cook County is the largest of the 25 Illinois circuit courts, circuit courts (trial courts of original jurisdiction, original and general jurisdiction) in the judiciary of Illinois as well as one of the largest unified cour ...
, the Illinois Senate, and the
Chicago City Council The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the Law and government of Chicago, government of the Chicago, City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 Wards of the United States, wards to serve four-year t ...
. Four were convicted and a fifth died during trial. The most extensive operation by the FBI of the 1990s, Operation Silver Shovel, sought to uncover corruption within Chicago labor unions, organized crime, and other city government officials. Operation Silver Shovel resulted in the conviction of six Chicago aldermen and a dozen other local officials on a wide range of corruption related charges. From 2012 to 2019, 33 Chicago aldermen were convicted on corruption charges, roughly one third of those elected in the time period. A report from the Office of the Legislative Inspector General noted that over half of Chicago's elected alderman took illegal campaign contributions in 2013. In 2015, mayor appointed Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, was convicted in a $23 million kickback scheme and was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. In addition to the Bennett conviction, a joint investigative report issued by the Office of the Inspector General and federal authorities documented widespread corruption within Chicago Public Schools in 2015. The audit noted the criminal shakedown of a CPS vendor, a records
forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally consists of the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific mens rea, intent to wikt:defraud#English, defraud. Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be fo ...
scheme by a principal, numerous instances of employees abusing CPS's tax-exempt status to purchase personal items at big-box retailers, illegally using taxpayer-funded resources to campaign for political causes and stealing from taxpayer-funded accounts intended for purchasing student materials. A 2015 report released by the University of Illinois at Chicago's political science department declared Chicago the "corruption capital of America", citing that the Chicago-based Federal Judicial District for Northern Illinois reported 45 public corruption convictions for 2013 and a total of 1,642 convictions for the 38 years since 1976 when the U.S. Department of Justice began compiling the statistics. UIC Professor and former Chicago alderman Dick Simpson noted in the report that "To end corruption, society needs to do more than convict the guys that get caught. A comprehensive anti-corruption strategy must be forged and carried out over at least a decade. A new political culture in which public corruption is no longer tolerated must be created". Examples of other high-profile Chicago political figures convicted on corruption related charges include Rod Blagojevich, Jesse Jackson Jr., Isaac Carothers, Arenda Troutman, Edward Vrdolyak, Otto Kerner, Jr., Constance Howard, Fred Roti and
Dan Rostenkowski Daniel David Rostenkowski (January 2, 1928 – August 11, 2010) was a United States Representative from Chicago, serving for 36 years, from 1959 to 1995. He became one of the most powerful legislators in Congress, especially in matters of t ...
. In October 2015, the FBI announced that Michael Anderson would take over for a retiring Robert Holley as Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Bureau. Anderson, a corruption veteran who wrote the FBI Public Corruption Field Guide, called Chicago "target rich" for cases in an interview with the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
''. Anderson commands a team of 850 agents in Chicago along with analysts and support staff. Most corruption cases in Chicago are prosecuted by the US Attorney's office, as legal
jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...
makes most offenses punishable as a federal crime. The current US Attorney for the Northern district of Illinois is Zachary T. Fardon. In a press conference in January 2016, in the wake of the conviction of former Chicago City Hall official, John Bills, for taking $2 million in bribes, Fardon commented "Public corruption n Chicagois a disease and where public officials violate the public trust, we have to hold them accountable. And I do believe that by doing so, it sends a deterrent message."


Policing

During the
Progressive Era The Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) was a period in the United States characterized by multiple social and political reform efforts. Reformers during this era, known as progressivism in the United States, Progressives, sought to address iss ...
, the first juvenile system was created by Chicago officials and, to make the court system more organized and specific, specialized courts, like those for domestic disputes, were created. Not only did the court and corrections systems change, there was also a change in policing. Divisions and squads became specialized on particular types of crime. The courts began to incorporate specialists, like scientists and psychologists, to make the trial and evidence more reliable and trustworthy. Chicago was among the first U.S. cities to create an integrated emergency-response center to coordinate the response to natural disasters, gang violence, and terrorist attacks. Built in 1995, the center is integrated with more than 2,000 cameras, communications with all levels of city government, and a direct link to the National Counterterrorism Center. Police credited surveillance cameras with contributing to decreased crime in 2004. In 2003, the Chicago Police Department began installing POD's (Police Observation Devices) in high-crime areas. The cameras are able to rotate 360 degrees and zoom to a fine level of detail. The devices are also bulletproof, operable in any weather condition, record continuously and switch into night-vision mode after dark. POD's are used to monitor street crime and direct police deployment. Data from the cameras is wirelessly transmitted to the Chicago Crime Prevention and Information Center (CPIC) which can individually control any camera. Over 20,000 cameras currently operate in Chicago. In addition to PODs, colloquially referred to as "blue-light cameras", the city has added general surveillance cameras to CTA stations, buses, Chicago Housing Authority buildings, public buildings and schools. This has prompted harsh criticism from
privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
advocates and the
ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. ...
who called the program "A pervasive and poorly regulated threat to our privacy". The Chicago Police Department has also been criticized for its liberal use of the controversial " stop-and-frisk" policy. For decades, the policy gave officers much more autonomy to conduct stops and pat-downs if there exists a reasonable suspicion that a suspect might be armed and dangerous. The ACLU has claimed that the policy unfairly targets African Americans, who accounted for nearly 75% of those stopped in 2014, even though they account for a third of the city's population. The Chicago Police Department confiscated almost 7,000 firearms in 2014, about 583 per month. The stop-and-frisk policy was largely abandoned by CPD in early 2016. Because the Chicago Police Department tallies data differently than police in other cities, the FBI often does not accept its crime statistics . Chicago police officers record all criminal sexual assaults, as opposed to only rape . They count aggravated battery together with the standard category of aggravated assault . As a result, Chicago is often omitted from studies such as Morgan Quitno's annual "Safest/Most Dangerous City" survey, which relies on FBI-collected data. The Chicago Police Department's CLEAR (Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting) system is a web application enabling the public to search the Chicago Police Department's database of reported crime. Individuals are able to see maps, graphs, and tables of reported crime. The database contains 90 days of information, which can be accessed in blocks of up to 14 days. Data is refreshed daily. However, the most recent information is always six days old. The police use "guardian-like" intervention, a method relying on information from an individual's criminal history in order to predict the likelihood of becoming a victim or perpetrator of violence, to "build public trust and legitimacy." CPD tallied 22 police-involved shootings in 2015, eight of which resulted in fatalities. Fatality cases involving an African American perpetrator often gave rise to a media sensation, both in Chicago and elsewhere. In December 2015, the US Department of Justice opened a
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
investigation of the Chicago Police Department in the aftermath of the Laquan McDonald case. The "pattern and practice" probe evaluated the use of force, deadly force, accountability and tracking procedures of the department. A 190-page report issued in April 2016 deemed the Chicago Police Department a racist organization. Chairman of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, Dean Angelo called the report "totally biased" and "utterly ridiculous". 2016's surge in murders and shootings, coupled with a decline in gun seizures, led former Police Superintendent John Escalante to express concerns in March 2016 that officers might be hesitant to engage in proactive policing due to fear of retribution. Officers anonymously reported to the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' that they have been afraid to make investigatory stops because the Justice Department and American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois have been scrutinizing police practices. Data of the supposed pullback was reflected with an 80 percent decrease in the number of street stops that officers made since the beginning of 2016. Dean Angelo has claimed that part of the problem is politicians and groups like the ACLU who don't know much about policing, and yet are "dictating what police officers do". Professors Paul Cassell and Richard Fowles at the University of Utah later analyzed the 2016 Chicago homicide "spike" and concluded that the most likely cause was a consent decree entered into by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) with the Chicago Police Department restricting stop and frisks. Cassell and Fowles concluded that 239 additional victims were killed and 1129 additional shootings occurred in 2016 because of the reduction in stop and frisks. This study, however, failed to identify such spikes in the large number of other cities subject to similar consent decrees, leading to questions about whether they had really identified a causal relationship.


Crime reporting accuracy

In 2014 and 2015, '' Chicago Magazine'' and ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'' conducted investigations into the CompStat data reporting of crime statistics for the city and reported irregularities. In addition, an audit conducted by Chicago's Office of the Inspector General found significant problems in the accuracy of CPD's crime data. According to ''Chicago Magazine'', superiors often pressure officers to under-report crime. An unnamed police source quoted in the magazine says there are "a million tiny ways to do it", such as misclassifying and downgrading offenses, counting multiple incidents as single events, and discouraging residents from reporting crime. The police department has responded that their statistics are generally accurate and that the discrepancies can be explained by differences in the Uniform Crime Reporting used by the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
and CompStat.


Gun laws and dealers

The city of Chicago has one of the highest homicide rates among large cities. Despite generally strict gun laws compared to neighboring areas, there are still many illegal guns in Chicago. It is estimated that 80% of homicides in Chicago are committed with firearms. Chicago passed a citywide handgun ban in 1982 that was in effect until a decision in '' McDonald v. City of Chicago'' by the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
in 2008. Chicago has a ban on guns designated as " assault weapons" and laser sights. Additionally, under Illinois law, to own a firearm one must possess a firearms owners’ identification (FOID) card, undergo a background check, and wait 72 hours before taking possession of a purchased firearm. Lost or stolen guns must also be reported to law enforcement within 72 hours. There are currently no gun stores within Chicago city limits and Federal firearms laws already make it illegal to buy firearms out of state without an FFL transfer and background check from that state. Access to guns is likely occurring via neighboring Indiana, a state with lax gun laws, and the many other areas through already illegal straw purchases. About 7000 guns are recovered by Chicago police each year at crime scenes. An estimated 45% of these guns are bought by straw buyers in states with lax gun laws, namely Indiana. In April 2021, the City of Chicago filed a lawsuit against Westforth Sports of
Gary, Indiana Gary ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 69,093 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it Indiana's List of municipalities in Indiana, eleventh-most populous city. The city has been historical ...
, alleging that it consistently ranks as one of the highest suppliers of guns used in crimes. The city claims that during the period from 2009 to 2016, 850 recovered guns were originally purchased from Westforth Sports.


See also

*
Gangs in Chicago Chicago is considered the most gang-occupied city in the United States, with 150,000 gang-affiliated residents, representing more than 100 gangs. wikt:turf war, Gang warfare and retaliation are common in Chicago. Gangs were responsible for 61% of ...
* Chuck's Gun Shop & Range * Kids Off The Block * Crime in Illinois * Race and crime in the United States


References


Further reading

* *Hagedorn, John and Brigid Rauch.
Housing, Gangs, and Homicide What We Can Learn from Chicago
" '' Urban Affairs Review''. March 2007 vol. 42 no. 4 435–456. doi:10.1177/1078087406294435.


External links


Chicago Police Department



ChicagoCrime.org

Chicago homicide map generator

Online Crime Map of Chicago
SpotCrime.com

* ttps://chicagomorningstar.com/tag/crime Crimes in Chicago and Illinois {{Chicago
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...