QUOTED

New national FBI statistics show violent crime increased in 2005 and 2006–the first jumps in 14 years, and the recent increases defy easy explanation. Homicides and robberies are up, while other violent crimes–rapes and aggravated assaults–and all types of property crimes continue to decline. While many hypotheses have been put forward to explain the
crime wave, none can explain both why crime started to increase in 2005, and why the crime wave seems to be most concentrated in robberies. In this brief, we propose that the rise in violent offending and the explosion in the sales of iPods and other portable media devices is more than coincidental. We propose that, over the past two years, America may have
experienced an iCrime wave.”

–Abstract, “Is There an iCrime Wave?” Urban Institute Justice Policy Center