Crime Monthly: Crime, Politics, & Sport. August 2025
Great Substack Articles About Crime
Dear Readers,
I have enjoyed taking some time off to rest, travel, and complete my move to Manchester. As many of you know, I will be starting a PhD in the History of Science at the University of Leeds!
On other news, we reached 500 Subscribers! I want to welcome all new subscribers and celebrate those who have been with us for a long time. Thank you.
This month, we're sharing some phenomenal writing from Substack and beyond. Some of the links below link to articles in other sources (sorry that some are paywalled). I am also delighted to have found some other Substackers and have some exciting plans for the weeks ahead.
Getting Tough on Crime Should Mean Solving Crimes
argues that we should focus on solving crimes rather than being tougher on those that are currently being solved. This excellent post provides a data-driven analysis on how we can best reduce crime. Safer Societies: Murder is Down
I was delighted to find
’a work. I thought I had come across a large portion of Substackers who write about crime, and it is always great to discover a new node in the network.Let’s begin by sharing some good news: murder, violent, and property crimes are down. This post delves into the data and explains some important trends.
I am reluctant to share two articles from the same author, but given that totalitarian President Trump took control of the DC police, this next post is current and insightful. Trump announced that “Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.” Trump intends to deploy Federal agents even if they do not have the same authorities as local police to make arrests for minor crimes. The NY Times has argued that Trump largely misled the public with mistaken figures.
Contrary to Trump’s claims, violent crime in DC is declining, and it is as low as it has been since the 1960s. Paul Krugman remarked that DC is safer today, even if many perceive it to be dangerous.
One issue that
highlights is how DC categorizes crime results in different numbers being reported to the FBI than to the public. Such that, “instead of publishing data on aggravated assaults, we get assaults with a deadly weapon.” This difference is central to the kinds of questions that Curing Crime seeks to explore.In the following post, Asher problematises the way crime is reported and explores how MPD’s data may exaggerate its decline. Nevertheless, murders have declined. While carjacking is declining, it is still higher than before the pandemic. In July 2025, there were 16 carjackings reported. It seems to me that this is a very low percentage.
Combating Match Fixing and Sport-Related Crimes
France introduced a new law that places the manipulation of sports at a level similar to organized crime, allowing the authorities to use the same tools to investigate and prosecute these crimes as they use to investigate other organized crime.
I hope you enjoy these articles. Next month, I once again plan to include articles from reading I do beyond Substack. I look forward to publishing weekly.
My summer was good, but oh so busy. I leave you with a photo taken in St Barths, where I celebrated my 40th birthday.
