The declines are relatively small compared to larger, steady drops in the 1990s, and the results are by no means the same across the country,

Congress is like the call girls. People don't feel the impact directly.

When you have a real rash [of killings], it's probably people outside the law.

We're not seeing important national trends like the shrinking of crack markets in the 1990s, ... These are responses to local situations, changes in local drug markets and shifts in gangs.

Rural areas are lagging because they are the last front in the 1980s crime wave that started with crack in the big cities and put guns in the hands of kids in gangs and outside gangs.

it might mean the South is becoming more like the rest of the country.