http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2016/05/20/ferguson-effect-is-real-and-it-threatens-to-harm-black-americans-most-n2165563Michael Barone
Posted: May 20, 2016 12:01 AM
University of Missouri at St. Louis criminologist Richard Rosenfeld has had "second thoughts." Like many academic criminologists, he had pooh-poohed charges that skyrocketing murder rates in many cities in 2015 and 2016 result from a "Ferguson effect" --
a skittering back from proactive policing for fear of accusations of racism like those that followed the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014.
Now,
. Homicides in those cities were up 17 percent from 2014. And 10 cities,
all with large black populations, saw homicides up 33 percent on average.
"These aren't flukes or blips, this is a real increase," Rosenfeld said. "The only explanation that gets the timing right is a version of the Ferguson effect."
