I think it’s a bit of a stretch to blame it solely on wealth inequality though. Over the past 30 years the wealth inequality in the US has grown worse while the murder rate has dropped.
But, I can address your counter-argument here if you have the time to read through a paragraph or two.
First, the murder rate in the 1950s and 1960s were as low or lower than it is today (towards the end of the 1960s it got to todays numbers).
But, crime did indeed peak violently in the 1970s and 1980s.
But, it was a time of extreme upheaval socio-economically speaking.
Unemployment was very high. And, inflation was extremeley high, it reached above 10% several years. In reaction, the Fed raised interest rate to TWENTY percent. Those sort of numbers will create havoc in any society.
Simultanlusly the economy went through a stagflation, most major cities went through population decline, and all the major industries started shutting down production in the U.S. effectively "killing" the American industrial city. It got so bad New York City practically went bankrup in 1975.
Once the economy stablizied in the 1980s, and started growing into the 1990s, crime did fall drastically. And, the crime numbers have returned to similar numbers as to before the 1970-80s.
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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '19 edited Aug 05 '19
Eastern Europe is not even close to the U.S.
Russia has a very high murder rate, but it is also very poor. Ukraine has a high one too, but they are still in the aftermath of a civil war.
The U.S. is closer to the poor world than the wealthy world when it comes to violence, and it has everything to do with the gaping inequality here.