There’s About a 40% Chance You’ll Get Away With Murder in America

The FBI just released their latest crime statistics and according to a report from Vox, the cops only cleared about 62% of murder cases, meaning 38% of cases haven't led to any arrests.

They found the police only cleared 61.6% of murder cases last year . . . which means either they arrested someone or they dismissed the case because they figured out it was a suicide or something else.

That means 38.4% of murders last year did NOT lead to any arrests.

That's not the only crime people are getting away with.  There was no arrest in 46% of aggravated assaults . . . 66% of rapes . . . 81% of larcenies . . . 86% of car thefts . . . and 86% of burglaries.

The good news is the crime and murder rates fell in 2017, following two years of increases in violent crime and in particular, murder.

But the clearance rate numbers suggest there is room for police to improve.

The dangerous consequences of low clearance rates might be one thing that helps keep crime higher in America that it would be otherwise which contributes to the term "legal cynicism."

Scholars define this as crimes going unpunished and people are more likely to think that the government, and particularly the police and criminal justice system, aren't taking such acts very seriously and that makes people distrust the police and justice system to an even bigger degree.