USA. Trump sees ‘carnage’ from America’s drug boom. But major cities are getting safer.
USA. Trump sees ‘carnage’ from America’s drug boom. But major cities are getting safer.
(...) Criminologists see many potential factors, but one may play the biggest role in reducing drug-related killings: smartphones.
Just as mobile technology has transformed ordinary commerce, it has revolutionized illicit markets, too, making the drug trade more predictable and less lethal. GPS mapping, encrypted communications and messaging apps have vastly reduced the need for drug dealers to physically control urban spaces and defend them with deadly force, experts say.
“The technology of retail drug dealing has shifted radically, especially over the past 10 years,” said Mark Kleiman, a criminologist at New York University. “It’s no longer people standing on street corners. It’s hand-to-hand transactions between people with cellphones, and they’re not vulnerable in the same way.” (Washington Post, 28.01.2018)