If cur­rent trends con­tin­ue, New York City will like­ly have few­er than 500 homi­cides this year, the low­est num­ber in a 12-month peri­od since reli­able NYC Police Department sta­tis­tics became avail­able in 1963. As of November 18, 2007, the police depart­ment logged 428 killings, the major­i­ty of which were com­mit­ted by friends or acquain­tances or were drug or gang-relat­ed. In fact, only 35 homi­cides this year were com­mit­ted by strangers to the vic­tims, a num­ber described as ​“micro­scop­ic” in a city of 8.2 mil­lion.

Thomas Reppetto, a police his­to­ri­an, not­ed: ​“Not only has the N.Y.P.D. reduced mur­der, by near­ly 80%, but it has changed the pat­tern of homi­cides.” In 1990, New York record­ed its high­est num­ber of mur­ders at 2,245, with many of the vic­tims being killed by strangers. Of the 412 mur­ders this year, many assailants and vic­tims had pre­vi­ous arrests for nar­cotics. Overall, crime rates in New York City are down 6.47%.

(“City Homicides Still Dropping, to Under 500” by Al Baker, New York Times, Nov. 23, 2007). See also Deterrence. The num­ber of mur­ders in New York had already been drop­ping sharply for 5 years when the state adopt­ed the death penal­ty in 1995. The law was struck down by the courts in 2004 and mur­ders have dropped low­er since then.

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