evidence: Sky-high violent-crime rates of recent years have suddenly—mercifully—plummeted. [...] "The quarterly data in particular suggests 2023 featured one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the United States in more than 50 years," Asher wrote in his Substack newsletter. [...] Similarly, the specific reasons for the drop are also unclear. Part of it is that the conditions that seem to have led to the rise—including the Floyd protests and the pandemic—have eased. But actions taken by policy makers to quell crime may have also helped.