FBI-authored data point to Tennessee as being a state that has a comparatively outsized problem when it comes to incidents linked with violent crime, at least in one recent year.
Does that mean in and of itself that Tennessee has deep-seated and significant concerns with criminal activity occurring inside the state?
It is tempting — at least for some — to oversimplify and quickly endorse arguments promoting the position that “yes” is the sole and simple answer to that query.
Impliedly, the authors of a recent article penned by the national organization Pew Research Center would strongly counsel against any such conclusion, though, with evidence they cite strongly undercutting its suggested validity.
Here’s a core kernel from the data they point to in an article from last week that prominently cites to evidence culled by both the FBI and other government regulators: Crime across broad categories (from violent activity to theft-related offenses) is down from previous years, and in a big way.
And, thus, while Tennessee’s 2015-derived data might be concerning, it just as likely spells an aberrational blip on the radar screen scanning crime activity nationally, which strongly denotes a discernible and sustained downward trend.
Consider this, for example: The FBI states that violent crime occurring across the country has fallen by half over the past generation.
And yet we often hear otherwise from ardent proponents of ever-tougher criminal law policies and progressively harsher sentencing guidelines.
The evidence from the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics strongly suggests that some material overstating is going on regarding the dimensions of crime in the United States.
Reality, not fiction, is a key imperative for a criminal law system that truly seeks to be just.
Proven criminal defense attorneys know that the individuals who reach out to them for help have an immediate and compelling need for legal representation that promotes fundamental fairness and that aggressively focuses always on the truth and a correspondingly just outcome regarding any criminal charges being faced.