LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Crime is a standard election issue but rarely have parties and candidates offered such starkly polar narratives about public safety than in 2024 campaigns, criminal justice experts say.
That’s not surprising when local and state law enforcement agencies define, collect, and report crime data differently, and at different times, leading to incomplete statistics that allow candidates to “pick and choose what story to tell,” maintains Prof. Alex Piquero, sociology and criminology chair at the University of Miami.
“There’s lot of different crime stories” to manipulate, Piquero, a former U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics director, told state lawmakers, legislative aides, and lobbyists on Aug. 6 during the National Conference of State Legislators’ (NCSL) Annual Legislative Summit in Louisville, Kentucky….