Law Talk: Do rising temperatures mean rising crime rates?


Beyond brown lawns, exhaustion and dehydration, the heat wave carries another hazard – crime.

West Michigan sees an up-tick in violent crime that mirrors that tracked by the FBI nationally where violent crime rates climb by several percentage points between July and September.

In Chicago, the city groans under the steaming Lake Michigan-infused heat in the 90s as it also mourns the stunning 253 murders recorded in 2012 that Friday included 7-year-old Heaven Sutton who was shot to death while selling cold drinks and candy at a street stand with her mother.

There has even been a link established between growing global crime rates and global warming, according to professors from Iowa State University.

“High temperatures tend to make people a little more aggressive,” said Ottawa County Sherif Gary Rosema. "We see a few more domestics, a few more assaults.”

But is the link between violence and heat a causal link?

Many researchers see the issue not so much related to temperatures, but to people being more active and coming into contact with each other as they head outdoors.

Roger Humber, director of the Criminal Justice Department at South University in Montgomery, Ala., told that the link between temperature and crime comes down to a matter of opportunity.

"It's a simple but crucial fact that people tend to get out and about more when it's pleasant out," he said. "During the winter months, people can't get out. There aren't as many opportunities to interact."

Warm weather means that people mix and the results can end with violence, the article states.

"More opportunity for violent crime means more violent crime," he is quoted as saying.

That could explain the upward trend in violent crime on New Year’s Day.

But a recent series of studies compiled by Wired Magazine’s Science section indicates that in hot weather, people simply have trouble “thinking straight” and “people are more likely to interpret neutral signals as signs of hostility and less likely to condemn violence.”

But the studies indicate that while there is more violence in hot weather, the increase tends to drop as the temperatures rise into the mid-90s – perhaps because people become lethargic and less inclined to engage in physical activities.

For Rosema, the approach is better safe than sorry.

“We tell people to stay indoors and gather where there is air conditioning, like at the movies,” he said.

If crime is your primary worry, then maybe the dog days of summer are better enjoyed inside with the air on and a nice cold drink at the ready.

E-mail Barton Deiters: and follow him on Twitter at

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