More than half of those convicted of violent felonies between 1990 and 2002 in large urban areas ? including Baltimore City and Baltimore County ? had previous records, the federal government reported Sunday.
Thirty-eight percent, or almost four in 10, had previous felony convictions, and 18 percent had prior misdemeanors, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported.
“Anecdotally, we know there?s a pretty large number of crimes done by a small number of people,” said Byron Warnken, a criminal defense attorney and professor at University of Baltimore School of Law.
“Recidivism is a big problem either because we are not trying to rehabilitate criminals enough, or, if we are trying, we lack the resources. And yet others have no interest in being rehabilitated.”
The Justice Department study examined crime figures from the nation?s 75 most populous cities and counties and found that 56 percent of those found guilty of assault, rape, robbery or murder had at least one prior felony or misdemeanor conviction.
About half of all the violent crimes reported nationwide occurred in the 75 jurisdictions examined in the report.
A total of 180,298 crimes were committed between 1990 and 2002 in the 75 areas studied.
The largest category of crimes committed ? 69,000, or 38.3 percent ? involved drugs, according to the report.
In Maryland, Baltimore City and Prince George?s County account for 50 percent of the state?s criminal cases, Warnken said, citing the most recent Maryland Judiciary Report.
The “poor economics of urban areas” leads to drugs, he said, which in turn, feed the prevalence of guns, and finally, many of the violent crimes featured in Sunday?s report.
“There is more opportunity to do crime in the Baltimore area than in the farms of Kent County,” Warnken said.
In recent years, Maryland lawmakers have tried to prevent offenders from committing crimes again by passing “three-time and four-time loser statues,” which call for mandatory sentences for repeat violent criminals, he said.
But numbers like the statistics released Sunday have also led others to believe that locking up convicts ? both locally and nationwide ? does little to transform felons into law-abiding individuals.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
At a glance
A profile of violent felons in country?s 75 most populous cities and counties:
» 91 percent male
» 56 percent of robbers younger than age 25
» 50 percent of murderers younger than age 25
– Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice
