Why Crime Policy Should be as Complex as Crime Itself

The Need for a Macro Perspective on Crime

This article first appeared in Vital City.

Crime, we are told, played a key role in the 2024 election. Voters were concerned about rising crime (although national crime appears to have declined in every major category) and cast their ballots for the candidate they believed could address it. Contrary to those who seem to believe that the answer to rising crime is simply hiring police and charging them with more vigorously enforcing the laws, however, crime is a complex challenge — and understanding it demands a comprehensive theoretical framework.

There are many analogs in other disciplines. In physics, scientists must reconcile the behavior of subatomic particles with the structure of the cosmos. In economics, it means integrating theories of individual decision-making with models of entire economies. In health, allowing individuals to make their own healthy choices is juxtaposed with the need for collective action against collective contagion. For the most part, these fields fail to un…