murder rate

Year-end figures show that Louisiana cities saw the same record surge in homicides in 2021 as many cities in other states, marking a second straight year of rising murder rates. And as the killings have increased, police departments have been struggling to keep up, and the clearance rate — the percentage of cases being solved — has declined in several cities.

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore comments on the increase in murders in the Capital region, the pending loss of funds for the BRAVE program…

In 2007, Missouri repealed a law requiring gun buyers to obtain a license demonstrating they'd first passed a background check. In the years that followed, the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research tracked the results. In the forthcoming issue of Journal of Urban Health, the center will release it's findings: The law's repeal was associated with an additional 55 to 63 murders per year in Missouri between 2008 and 2012. For more on the report, Audie Cornish speaks with Daniel Webster, the director of the center.