Wisconsin Crime Rates: A Deep Dive into 75 Years of Trends, Shocks, and Shifts
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Wisconsin Crime Rates: A Deep Dive into 75 Years of Trends, Shocks, and Shifts

The early 1980s marked Wisconsin’s crime zenith—4,799 per 100,000 in 1980. Violent crime peaked at 264.8 by 1990, driven by the crack cocaine epidemic ravaging Milwaukee. Murders held at 4.6, aggravated assaults hit 152.1. Property crime eased slightly to 4,133 by 1990, with burglary dropping to 927.8. Why the shift? Tougher policing and sentencing kicked in by the late ’80s, while phasing out leaded gasoline—linked to aggression—started paying off. It wasn’t all rosy, but the tide was turning

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