Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Wednesday, December 21, 2016.
Report: Chicago violence surge is largely responsible for homicide rate increase in big cities
The homicide rate for big cities in the U.S. is expected to increase by 14 percent in 2016, according to a report from the New York-based Brennan Center for Justice. The surge in murders in Chicago is responsible for 43.7 percent of the increase. “An increase in the murder rate is occurring in some cities even while other forms of crime remain relatively low,” notes the report. “Concerns about a national crime wave are still premature, but these trends suggest a need to understand how and why murder is increasing in some cities.” As of Sunday night, there had been 738 murders in the city in 2016, according to the Tribune. [Tribune]
