New York City Went Five Full Days Without A Murder Leading Up To Christmas

New York City really is having a silent night — or. more precisely, a silent week — as there have been no reported homicides for five days straight. In addition, the yearly murder rate is also down slightly from last year, giving New York City the opportunity to see out the year with 300 murders or less.

According to the New York Daily News, there has not been a murder in New York City since Friday, December 21. Lewis Shamberger, 32, was shot once in the back on Friday at E. 169th St. and Boston Road in the Bronx at approximately 12:55 a.m. Shamberger was taken to Lincoln Hospital but was later pronounced dead. This case remains unsolved and police have released surveillance video of “a person of interest fleeing the scene.” They have requested assistance from the public in the matter.

However, since then, and in the lead up to Christmas, it has been relatively quiet for the NYPD in a city which has over 8.5 million people.

As well as the lack of deaths in the last five days, there have been three fewer deaths for 2018 than for the same period of time in the previous year. Reporting, up until December 23, sees 283 homicides so far for 2018. Last year, up until December 23, 2017, there were 286 reported deaths.

According to the statistics, this is a 1 percent drop from 2017 in the homicide rate. In addition, it is also a 16 percent drop from 2016.

And these numbers are considerably lower from the death rate in the 1990s. In 1990, there were 2,245 murders and, in the following year, there were 2,154 murders. Comparatively, by 2011, the number of murders had dropped significantly to 515.

While the murder rate is down in New York City, the incidence of reported rapes has actually risen by 22.4 percent this year. Authorities have put this significant rise in reported rapes down to the popularity of the #MeToo movement that sees more women reporting crimes against their person than ever before. So, while the percentage rate is alarming, it may not actually be a rise in offenses but a rise in the reporting of those crimes.

As well as a rise in reported rape cases, there has been a slight rise in the number of reports involving grand larceny. However, this rise represents only 0.3 percent, with statistics showing there were 42,670 reported cases of grand larceny in 2018, versus 42,555 in 2017.

Overall, though, it seems likely that New York City will see out 2018 with fewer than 100,000 crimes, which is considered good news by authorities.