Chicago City Wire

CHICAGO (June 10, 2024) – As Chicago moves into summer, analysis indicates that low-income areas of the city and Black and Hispanic Chicagoans are significantly more likely to experience crime.

Research from the Illinois Policy Institute found that Black and Hispanic Chicagoans comprised 95% of the city’s homicide victims over the past 12 months. Black residents were 20 times more likely to be homicide victims than white residents, while Hispanics were 4.7 times more likely.

Similarly, Black Chicagoans were 4.5 times more likely to be victims of violent vehicle crime and 5.3 times more likely to be assaulted.

Few assailants have been brought to justice. Citywide homicide arrest rates reached a record low from May 2023 through April 2024 compared to previous years. Only one in four homicides led to an arrest. The arrest rate for assaults has dropped to just one in ten over the past year.

“The majority of Chicagoans disapprove of the way Mayor Brandon Johnson is handling crime, and for good reason,” said Bryce Hill, director of fiscal and economic research at the Illinois Policy Institute. “His strategy of making drastic police budget cuts and eliminating hundreds of officer positions is making matters worse, especially for minority and low-income communities who will continue to suffer the most from this epidemic until city leaders get serious about crime.”

Violent crime in Chicago affects minority communities most:

Englewood and West Garfield Park, neighborhoods on the city’s South Side and West Side, led the city in homicides during the past year.

In total, nine out of every ten homicides reported from May 2023 through April 2024 occurred on the city’s South Side and West Side. In contrast, twenty-four of Chicago’s ninety-four neighborhoods experienced no homicides during that time, with fifteen of those communities located on the North Side.

Chicago’s youth face extreme risk: over forty-five percent of homicide victims with known ages were under thirty years old; eighteen percent were under twenty.

To read more about Chicago’s summer crime, visit illin.is/homicides.