ATLANTA — Since the beginning of the pandemic, violence in Atlanta has drastically increased and left many communities feeling unsafe.
According to a WalletHub study, homicide rates have risen by an average of 37% in 50 of the most populated U.S. cities, and are still rising. These numbers were found by taking preliminary police department crime data to find the total Q4 homicides in 2021 and comparing them to Q4 numbers in 2020.
WalletHub also looked at numbers from 2019 to see how homicide rates compared to pre-pandemic and constructed a list of cities with the largest increase in homicide rates across the country.
The City of Atlanta made that list, ranking at number 17.
“So right now, Atlanta has the 17th highest increase in homicides when we're just looking at the Q4 numbers. So that is an increase not only from last year, but also up from 2019. So not only have we seen things increase from the pandemic, but also from pre-pandemic levels,” WalletHub Analyst, Jill Gonzalez said.
She believes that the rise in homicide rates is due to several factors.
“Instability because of the pandemic, higher stress levels because of the pandemic, and unemployment certainly did play into that as well. But also social unrest, political changes, economic pressure, all of those things were definitely at play." She said.
The survey also looked at the political majority within the cities, with red cities having higher homicide rates than blue cities.
Despite the significant increase in homicides, Gonzalez said that economic recovery can cause the numbers to become more stable.
Until then, there are ways that Atlanta communities can advocate to see a decrease in homicide within their city.
“This is an election year. It's still very much important to put pressure on your local authorities. To take action against rising crime rates, prevent more violence, look into neighborhood watches, and really start and continue to do these things until you see some change and more stability,” she said.