美国国家公共电台 NPR 美联邦调查局称 美国谋杀案创有史以来最大涨幅

New data released by the FBI show an unprecedented¹ spike² in murders nationwide in 2020.

联邦调查局发布的新数据显示，2020年全国谋杀率达到前所未有的高峰。

That's right. Homicides rose by almost 30% last year compared to 2019. That's the largest single-year increase ever recorded in the U.S.- although, worth noting, the murder rate is still lower in this country than it was in the 1990s.

没错。与2019年相比，去年的凶杀案上升了近30%。这是美国有记录以来最大的单年增幅，值得注意的是，尽管这个国家的谋杀率仍然低于上世纪90年代。

NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us now. Ryan, tell us about this FBI crime data.

NPR司法记者莱恩·卢卡斯现在与我们连线。莱恩，跟我们说说美国联邦调查局的犯罪数据。

Well, the headline here is pretty sobering. The data show 21,570 murders in 2020. That's 4,900 more than in 2019.

好吧，现在的标题相当发人深省。数据显示，2020年有21570起谋杀案。这比2019年增加了4900人。

So you said at the top, that's almost a 30% year-on-year increase. Richard Rosenfeld is a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Here's what he had to say about that.

你在最开始说，这几乎是30%的同比增长。理查德·罗森菲尔德是密苏里大学圣路易斯分校的犯罪学家。下面是他关于这件事的看法。

That's historically unprecedented. A percentage increase of that magnitude in a single year has simply never been recorded to my knowledge. So that's very troubling.

这在历史上是前所未有的。据我所知，从未有过单年内增长百分比如此高的记录。这非常令人不安。

Now, the spike in murders, of course, is bad, but there is good news here. Not all violent crime increased. Robberies, for example, were down. Property crimes, which accounts for most crime in the U.S., dropped by 8% in 2020.

当然，谋杀案的激增是不好的，但也有好消息。并非所有的暴力犯罪都有所增加。例如，抢劫案减少了。 在美国占大多数的财产犯罪2020年下降了8%。

That continues a long-running downward trend. But that spike in murders, it's glaring, it's jarring, and it's, of course, a serious problem.

这延续了长期以来的下降趋势。但是谋杀案的激增，很明显，很不和谐，当然，这是个很严重的问题。

I think probably the question everyone has here is, why did this happen?

马丁内斯:我想这里的每个人都有一个疑问，为什么会发生这种事?

Well, it's difficult to attribute causality because often local factors drive crime, and we're talking about nationwide statistics here. But 2020 was unusual in that two things really did touch every community in the country - the pandemic and the civil unrest following the police killing³ of George Floyd.

很难确定因果关系，因为犯罪往往是由当地因素造成的，而我们在这里谈论的是全国性的统计数据。但2020年的不同寻常之处在于，有两件事真正触动了这个国家的每个社区——疫情和警察杀害乔治·弗洛伊德后引发的内乱。

And those two things coincided with a dramatic increase in murders. Researchers say that certainly points to some sort of connection.

这两件事同时发生，谋杀案件急剧增加。研究人员表示，这肯定指向了某种联系。

But Rosenfeld said several things could have contributed to this - economic hardship caused by COVID-19, police pulling back because of the pandemic, trust in the police cratering⁴ in many communities because of Floyd's killing.

但罗森菲尔德说，有几个因素可能导致了这种情况——新冠肺炎造成的经济困难，警察因为疫情而退缩，很多社区对警察的信任因为弗洛伊德的死而崩溃。

And also, research shows that more people were carrying firearms in public. And the FBI data show a gun of some sort was used in around 77% of these murders, which is the highest number on record.

此外，研究表明，越来越多的人在公共场合携带枪支。联邦调查局的数据显示，大约77%的谋杀案中使用了枪支，这是有记录以来的最高数字。

So all of these things could have factored in, but their exact connection at this point is still unclear.

所以所有这些因素都有可能，但它们之间的确切联系目前还不清楚。

Now, you talk about the pandemic and the civil unrest being nationwide phenomenons. Was this spike in murders a nationwide thing as well, or was it just limited in scope?

现在，你谈到了疫情和全国范围的内乱现象。谋杀率的激增是全国性的，还是仅限于一定范围?

Well, according to the FBI data, this was very much a nationwide thing. Murders were up in small towns and big cities and really everything in between. And that's a shift from what happened back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

嗯，根据联邦调查局的数据，这是一件全国性的事情。谋杀案发生在小城镇和大城市以及两者之间的任何地方。与20世纪80年代末90年代初相比，这是一个转变。

Back then, big cities like New York and Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., were driving the national murder rate.

当时，像纽约、洛杉矶和华盛顿特区这样的大城市推动着全国的谋杀率。

In 2020, it really was happening everywhere. But look; the homicide rate and the overall crime rate, even with this spike, is still significantly lower than it was in those peaks in the 1990s.

在2020年，它真的发生在各个地方。但是看看; 谋杀率和总体犯罪率，即高达一定峰值，仍然比20世纪90年代的峰值低得多。

Ryan, what about this year, though? Has the surge in murders continued into 2021?

莱恩，那今年呢? 谋杀案件的激增是否会持续到2021年?

We don't have FBI data for 2021 yet. We won't until next September. But Rosenfeld has compiled preliminary data from several dozen big cities. Here's what he said.

我们还没有2021年的联邦调查局数据。我们要等到明年九月。但罗森菲尔德已经汇编了几十个大城市的初始数据。他是这么说的。

What we're beginning to see is that that homicide increase that began last year, it has not disappeared. But it is or does appear to be subsiding⁵.

我们一开始看到的是，去年开始的杀人案增加的情况仍然存在。 但它正在消退，或者似乎正在消退。

He said the data show a 16% increase in murder in the first six months of 2021. That, of course, is not great, but it is a rate that's less than the 30% that we saw in 2020. And that, Rosenfeld said, is at least a small cause for optimism.

他说，数据显示，2021年前6个月，谋杀案件增加了16%。 当然，这并不是很好，但这个比例低于我们在2020年看到的30%。罗森菲尔德说，这至少是一个保持乐观的小理由。

All right. At least there is some optimism.

好的。至少还有一些乐观的理由。

1 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

2 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 cratering   

n.缩孔（露底），陷穴（漆病），磨顶槽v.火山口( crater的现在分词 )；弹坑等

参考例句：

• In addition, cratering and ground shock phenomena are observed, as will be described in Chapter VI. 此外，还可以观察到巨坑或地面冲击波的现象，这些现象将在第六章中加以叙述。 来自辞典例句
• Check the page without pinhole, bubble cratering and fix it. 查抄版背有无针孔、气泡等弊病，并举动补缀。 来自互联网

5 subsiding   

v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的现在分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上

参考例句：

• The flooded river was subsiding rapidly. 泛滥的河水正在迅速退落。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Gradually the tension was subsiding, gradually the governor was relenting. 风潮渐渐地平息了。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）