Numbers about crime that matter

People get wrapped up in statistics. For some, it’s the Oriole pitching staff’s ERA. Others worry about the unemployment and foreclosure rates. For those concerned about crime, there are lots of numbers to check. Police departments keep them. So do prosecutors. And so do those who wonder where it’s safe to be at any given time.

And so does the FBI, which this month released nationwide statistics for 2008.

A year ago stat watchers wondered if Baltimore would have fewer than the magic number of 200 homicides. A deadly end of the year pushed the number to 234, still the city’s lowest annual total in decades.

This year, there’s lots of talk in the city about two subjects: violent crime spreading to supposedly safe areas, like the tourist-filled Inner Harbor and downtown’s Mt. Vernon, and trust in crime statistics. The statistics were on Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld’s mind when he spoke with us at length recently (here and here).

Former city police captain Jerry Busnuk recently wrote in his blog about both topics. So has The Sun’s Peter Hermann, in stories and his blog, which we publish on this site.

Summer’s here. What can we expect? We’ll be watching.

Looking at an important aspect of the national picture: A report released this month by the Council of State Governments Justice Center and Policy Research Associates found that that 14.5 percent of men and 31 percent of women ― 16.9 percent overall ― who end up in jails suffer from serious mental illnesses and have the greatest need for comprehensive and continuous treatment.

These estimates suggest that every year up to 2 million bookings of people with serious mental illnesses occur, according to the report.

Much of the research was done at Maryland prisons. The complete report is available as a pdf.

As we’ve written, the Baltimore-area affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness has created and offers a guide to help families guide the mental ill away from crime and prison.