As noted on Freakonomics, crime is down.  Not only is it down, but it’s been going down for a decade.  That stats are there, though you would hardly know it since we read about the horrific crimes that happen with such frequency that one can’t help but be left with the impression that crime is rampant.  It’s not.

In the criminal defense business, we see falling crime rates happening in real time.  The end of year indictment numbers in New York are in the 4 digits, like Indictment Number 6347/2007.  Ten years ago, the last indictment of the year would have been closer to 29641/1997.  That’s an awful lot of business off the table for criminal defense lawyers.  Sure, a jaded statement, but we can’t defend people who aren’t getting arrested, now can we?

But the gross numbers only tell part of the story.  The nature of crime has shifted.  Serious crime, such as homicides and major drug cases, are substantially down.  The “quality” cases are few and far between.  This is good for society, bad for lawyers and problematic for those poor miscreants who get arrested for junk offenses.

In the old days, police and prosecutorial resources were focused on big cases, the ones on the upper end of the felony spectrum.  There were only so many prosecutors to go around, and they weren’t going to waste them on small potatoes, like simple weapons possessions or dime bag heroin sales.  These lower level cases were throw-aways, move them in and out and clear out the dockets for the players.  With cops tied up closing murder cases, who can bother with your garden variety assaults.

But today, there isn’t enough big stuff to keep the State busy.  When society was adrift in crime, they added tons of resources to combat the “plague” of crime.  Budgets bulged.  Courtrooms were opened.  Prosecutors were hired.  The State was ready.  So when things shifted, and knowing that no arm of government ever says that they have more money or staff than they need, so did the focus.

Without big guys to go after, they prosecutors make every offense the most vile crime in the world.  Jail time is demanded on misdemeanors that would have gotten 12 hours of community service a decade ago.  Drunk driving is the new murder.  Crimes that nobody thought twice about have become the greatest threat to civilization since the Wii.  This is what happens when they don’t have enough to do.

While criminal defense lawyers may bemoan the lack of quality cases, since defendants see less need for our services when they aren’t facing the rest of their natural lives in prison, the sharp decline in real crime over the past 10 years is a good thing for America.  But maybe it’s time to readjust our perspective on the allocation of scarce resources, rather than turn jaywalking into a capital offense.  Just because we have extra room in our prisons these days doesn’t mean that we need to fill it.