New Report: Overall Crime Declines in NYC Mask Continued High Crime Levels of Many NYC Streets

Though NYC has enjoyed a city-wide crime decline over the last three decades, a large numbers of NYC streets need targeted police efforts to combat crime   

NEW YORK, NY — Despite its current spike in violent crime, New York City has been a leader in crime-fighting solutions. For the last three decades, the city has seen crime rates fall significantly, with a decline by more than 70 percent in index crimes as reported by the FBI. Murders in New York City are also down, having fallen from over 2,000 in 1990 to 463 in 2020. But there’s a concerning upshot: this decline, along with growing concerns about police abuses, has led to a growing perception that an emphasis on crime control is no longer necessary.   

In a new Manhattan Institute report, David Weisburd, a professor at George Mason University and executive director of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, and Taryn Zastrow, a graduate research assistant at the same center, argue that crime hot spots in New York City continue to have very high levels of crime. Looking at NYPD crime reports for 2010, 2015, and 2020, Weisburd and Zastrow find that about one percent of streets in New York City produce about 25 percent of crime, and that these 1150 streets averaged more than 70 crime reports per year in the years studied.      

Looking at overall crime rates in New York City masks a more sobering reality for those who live on hot spot streets. The report takes a deeper look into these localized trends in New York City and the reality of high-crime levels on hot spot streets. The report, which is part of the Manhattan Institute’s Policing & Public Safety initiative, concludes that for those who live or work on the city’s hot spot streets, policing continues to be a critical service.  

Click here to view the full report.