A Post-Recession Crime Decline? Not in Our Homes

Pundits and pointy-headed criminologists alike seem befuddled by the nation's reportedly declining crime rates. Why does violent crime keep dropping even while economic woes keep millions are out of work? After all, you'd think that in a time of recession, more people would be motivated to commit crimes.

But even as statistics point to a drop in street crime, Judith Spitzer of WeNews suggests we might also be experiencing an unseen crime wave: a rise in domestic violence. And yet these crimes fail to make mainstream headlines because, shamefully, the FBI does not consider domestic violence something that merits monitoring under its own category of crime.

There may be a glaring absence of federal data, but a variety of state and national anti-violence coalitions have carefully monitored the trend. Spizer's piece cites numerous findings, including significant increases in reported domestic violence homicides in Utah, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Kansas, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The National Network to End Domestic Violence also reports that coalitions across the country have observed increased domestic homicides, suicides and overall requests for services connected to domestic violence.

The lagging economy and stresses of unemployment undoubtedly have contribute to this disturbing trend. But it'd be wrong to blame just the economy for the deeper problem of male violence against women.

This violence -- which surfaces in good times and bad -- has many roots within U.S. society. Consider two of them. First, there's our apparent addiction to bloody foreign wars. War is the prototypical theater for male violence, and it's no surprise -- and no secret -- that sexual assaults against women are rampant in the military. The longer these brutal wars drag on, the more violence we can expect will return to our domestic front.

Second, there's the pervasive problem of sexism in mass U.S. culture. We may live in 2010, but as Roxann MtJoy recently noted, a disturbing number of young people today (male and female) apparently hold the 19th century view that rape victims should accept responsibility for being attacked. Such paleolithic attitudes demonstrate that for all the progress that has been made in confronting violence against women, we still have a long way to go.

But there's one easy way for the federal government to help. The FBI should take a stand by taking domestic violence seriously as a category of crime that is tracked and updated as regularly as any other. Without keeping regular data on domestic violence, we only close our eyes to the reality of growing violence in our homes.

Photo Credit: Ghetto_guera29