March 23, 2022

Good morning. A violent weekend highlights America's continuing crime wave.

A shell casing at the scene of a shooting in Dumas, Ark.Rory Doyle for The New York Times

Nine mass shootings

Many crime experts define a mass shooting as an event in which four or more people are shot. Last weekend, there were a shocking number of them — at least nine — across the U.S.

In Norfolk, Va., an argument outside a pizzeria led to a shooting that killed two people, including a 25-year-old newspaper reporter who was a bystander. In the farming community of Dumas, Ark., a gunfight broke out at an annual car show, killing one person and injuring 27. In downtown Austin, Texas, four people suffered gunshot wounds during the final weekend of the SXSW festival.

The burst of weekend violence continues a trend that began almost two years ago, early in the Covid-19 pandemic, and shows no signs of easing, as my colleagues Tim Arango and Troy Closson report. Murders have risen more than 30 percent since 2019, recent data suggests. They are still far below the levels of the 1970s, '80s and early '90s but have reached the highest point in more than two decades.

"We can't endure this anymore, we just simply can't," Dan Gelber, the mayor of Miami Beach, said after two shootings last weekend led the city to impose a midnight curfew.

What explains the crime wave? There is no fully satisfying answer, but experts point to several plausible partial explanations. They include: Social isolation and frustration caused by the pandemic. A sense of lawlessness stemming from police violence (like the murder of George Floyd). Police officers' timidity in response to recent criticism of them. And a rise in gun sales during the pandemic.

Yet the crime wave seems both too broad and too distinctly American for any one of these factors to be a tidy explanation.

Gun crime isn't the only kind of violent crime that is rising, for example. Nor are the crime increases limited to places where police brutality has been worst. As for the pandemic, if it were the only cause, you would expect crime to have surged in many countries. Instead, it has held fairly steady in Britain, Canada, France, Japan and elsewhere.

The closest thing that I have heard to a persuasive answer comes from history. Criminologists and historians who have studied past crime waves — like Gary LaFree, Richard Rosenfeld and Randolph Roth — point out that they often occur when people are feeling frustrated with society, government and their fellow citizens. This frustration can feed a breakdown in societal norms and a rise in what the sociologist Émile Durkheim called "anomie."

'Fellow feeling'

Roth, looking at homicide rates in the U.S. and Western Europe over the past 400 years, argues that crime tends to increase if people lose trust in society's institutions and basic fairness. When empathy for other citizens — or "fellow feeling," as Roth and others call it — declines and anomie rises, crime also rises. The American crime increases of the 1960s and '70s were a good example, criminologists say.

Most citizens do not commit crimes, of course. But social alienation makes some people more willing to break the rules and act violently. A broader sense of disorder can create a so-called moral holiday, as The Atlantic's Graeme Wood has written.

When I was talking about this idea with colleagues yesterday, German Lopez — who's written about the crime wave in this newsletter — pointed out that the anomie theory can feel unsatisfying because it is ephemeral and unprovable. But it also fits the facts better than any alternative, German added.

A gun store in Austin, Texas. Matthew Busch for The New York Times

By many measures, Americans are feeling frustrated with their government, their economy and their fellow citizens. Nearly 80 percent are dissatisfied with the country's direction, according to Gallup. People spend hours screaming at one another on social media. Many Americans consider people with opposing political ideas to be so wrong that they don't deserve the right to express their views. Polls also show an alarming degree of skepticism about democracy and openness to political violence.

Along with these signs of alienation, a wide range of behavior has deteriorated. Alcohol abuse and drug overdoses have increased. Americans' blood pressure is up, and measures of mental health are down. Vehicle crashes have surged.

In each of these cases, the pandemic seems to be playing a role: The trends either began or accelerated shortly after Covid overwhelmed daily life in the spring of 2020. But the pandemic appears to be only part of the story. This country's recent dysfunction is bigger than Covid. It is a dark new form of American exceptionalism.

THE LATEST NEWS

State of the War

A family from Ukraine crossing into Palanca, Moldova, yesterday.Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

Vladimir Putin is expanding his crackdown on dissent. Russia extended a law banning criticism of the government, and a court sentenced the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny to nine more years in prison.
Russia's battlefield failures are creating fissures among its leadership. Six Russian generals have died in combat, Ukraine says, and a top intelligence official is reportedly under house arrest.
The Ukrainian military recaptured a town outside the capital, Kyiv, and is trying to retake Kherson, a southern region bordering Crimea.
Russia's "combat power" has dipped below 90 percent of its original strength, according to the Pentagon. Still, Russian forces continued to bombard civilian areas.
About 10 million have fled their homes. "The Ukrainian people are enduring a living hell," António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, said.

MORNING READS

OK, Doomer: Meet the climate activists who say it's not too late.

Against neoliberalism: A new magazine connects economic progressivism and cultural conservatism.

The Ethicist: Should you keep your teenager's sexual relationship a secret?

A Times classic: The food expiration dates you should actually follow.

Advice from Wirecutter: This device lets you cook almost anywhere you can find an outlet.

Lives Lived: Julian Heicklen, a cantankerous civil liberties advocate, angered prosecutors by staging weekly protests outside a Manhattan courthouse. He died at 90.

ARTS AND IDEAS

From left: Jonathan Michel, Bendji Allonce and Axel Tosca at Cafe Erzulie in Brooklyn.Sinna Nasseri for The New York Times

Where jazz lives now

When you hear the words "jazz club," a specific image comes to mind. It probably includes dim lighting and closely packed tables. You may even imagine this to be in New York, deemed the jazz capital of America.

Most of New York's traditional clubs (think Village Vanguard or the Blue Note) have survived the pandemic. But young bandleaders, many of whom found large audiences on streaming services, are also spreading jazz to different spaces in the city.

The Alphabet City venue Nublu, which describes itself as "a little clubhouse where friends get together and just play music," hosts Monday nights that combine jazz, electronic music and rock. And the Haitian restaurant Cafe Erzulie, on the border of Bushwick and Bed-Stuy, has bluish-green walls with palm-leaf patterns rather than the dark vibe of a jazz bar.

"Updating our sense of where this music happens might be fundamental to re-establishing jazz's place in culture," Giovanni Russonello writes in The Times, "especially at a moment when the culture seems ready for a new wave of jazz." See some of the new artists and spaces here.

PLAY, WATCH, EAT

What to Cook

Joel Goldberg for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

Conchas, the Mexican sweet bread, are a seashell-shaped delight.

What to Listen to

How the artists Christine and the Queens, Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek navigate pop.

What to Read

In "Truly, Madly," Stephen Galloway writes about one of the 20th century's most glamorous, turbulent couples, Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier.

Late Night

The hosts riffed on the Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Now Time to Play

The pangrams from yesterday's Spelling Bee were campaign, campaigning and camping. Here is today's puzzle — or you can play online.

Here's today's Wordle. Here's today's Mini Crossword, and a clue: Sweetheart (five letters).

If you're in the mood to play more, find all our games here.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David

P.S. Taiwan held its first democratic presidential election 26 years ago today. Voters cast ballots "almost giddily," The Times reported, as U.S. aircraft carriers protected the island.

Here's today's front page.

"The Daily" is about the Supreme Court confirmation hearings. On "The Argument," a debate about Republicans' split over Ukraine.

Natasha Frost, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti, Ashley Wu and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.