Why Is Murder Spiking? And Can Cities Address It Without Police?
About this episode
Sociologist Patrick Sharkey explains the surge in homicides after 2020 and what actually reduces urban violence. Drawing on 'Uneasy Peace,' he argues violence is extraordinarily concentrated — in a small number of neighborhoods and networks — and rooted in durable spatial inequality, not just policing levels. The great crime decline, he says, was real but 'uneasy,' built partly on mass incarceration; the pandemic and the upheaval after George Floyd's murder then shattered fragile equilibriums. Sharkey reviews the evidence for non-police interventions: focused deterrence, greening vacant lots, cognitive behavioral therapy, summer jobs for youth, and sustained investment in neighborhood organizations. The conversation wrestles with the defund debate — acknowledging research that more policing can reduce violence while insisting its costs fall heaviest on Black communities — and makes the case for a public-health approach to safety.