Criminals have been around for thousands of years, ever since God decided he liked Abel's lamb chops better than Cain's eggplant parm. We'd bet criminals will still be around two decades from now...and so will you.

Let's run the numbers. In 2012, there were more than 1.2 million violent crimes in the United States—that's a whole lot of murder, manslaughter, and assault. There were also nearly nine million property crimes, at a cost to victims of more than $15 billion.

This is where you come in, crime solver, and where we ask: How good are you at your job?

In 2010, at the national level, 64.8 percent of murders were solved, as were 56.4 percent of aggravated assaults and 40.3 percent of rapes. Those numbers are...not great. And the clearance rates for property crimes were abysmal, with 12.4 percent of burglaries and 11.8 percent of motor vehicle thefts solved.

There are a lot of bad people out there who need to be taught a good lesson. You'd better get a move on, or you're going to spend the next twenty years swamped with cold cases.

•  Back
• More