The Guardian, February 10, 2017: Experts dispute Jeff Sessions claim that crime rise is ‘permanent trend’
“But this increase in violence has prompted fierce partisan debates over gun laws, poverty, racial bias in policing and the ‘Ferguson Effect’, the theory that America’s protests over police killings of black Americans are to blame for the murder increase. According to different variations of the theory, the widespread protests against police racism since Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson in 2014 have either emboldened criminals or made officers more hesitant in carrying out their jobs.”