NH Union Leader: Boston illegal: Guess what? Criminals kill people
Date: Jan 16, 2006 3:36 PM
Boston illegal: Guess what? Criminals kill people
NH Union Leader, Jan 16,2006 http://www.theunionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Boston+illegal%3a+Guess+what%3f+Criminals+kill+people&articleId=474a1b6f-2f71-40e5-aa00-ff07364a00f7

BOSTON’S 2005 homicide rate was its highest in a decade, and a year-end review of the city’s murders indicates that a rise in criminals, not guns, was the primary culprit.

Last year Boston Mayor Tom Menino blamed an influx of guns from northern New England for the city’s spiking murder rate. But an analysis by The Boston Globe last week found a more plausible culprit. A rise in young men.

Typically, cities that see large increases in their population of young males also see large increases in crime. Boston was no exception. “While the city’s overall population grew by less than 3 percent between 1990 and 2000, the number of males under 18 increased by nearly 8 percent,” the Globe reported. Menino even admitted that soon after he took office he was warned that this demographic trend, and its attendant crime wave, was coming.

Some experts told the paper that Boston’s explosion in homicides was a combination of more young men, lots of gang activity, and a thug culture centered on primitive displays of “respect.” In that culture, if someone “disrespects” you, you kill him.

None of this suggests that guns are the root of the problem. It suggests that ? surprise! ? criminals are.

If Boston officials don’t want a repeat of 2005, they’d do well to turn their resources toward finding and locking up gang members and drug dealers rather than changing gun laws in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.