>> >> Well, New York's murder rate is double Moscow's.
not anymore. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/153988.stm
>> >
>> > Hey, but it's less than half what it was a decade ago!
>>
>>Must be because of all those new strict gun laws.
>>
>>Oh, wait.
>
>Seriously, what's the likely cause? Murders in Russia are almost always
>domestic violent (guy gets drunk, has argument with wife, stabs her with
>kitchen knife, doesn't remember it the next morning).
something seriously wrong with that!
The increasing crime rate in the 70s and its subsequent drop had to do with demographics. Most murders are committed by people ages 14-35. Voila! Bulge in population from baby boom; bulge in crime rates and especially homicide by gun rates, where young males late teens to early 20s committ them the most frequently. That doesn't explain it all, of course, but it helps to understand the legacy of the crime mythologies that often occlude clear thinking. Like the above statement, which implies that it's impersonal violence--homicides committed by strangers that is most odd about the US.
The US homicide rate was 4.6 per 100,000 in 1950. Today, it 5.7 per 100,000 (as of 2000). The upward trend started in the mid-60s and peaked out in 1980. 3/4 of homicides were committed by acquaintances, neighbors, family members, intimate partners [1], where women are homicide victims at twice the rate of men. Half the murders by strangers were committed in the commission of a felony such as robbery, burglary. [see fn 1] 40% were the result of an argument
Another issue that's a problem for international comparison is that, to some extent, crime stats are an artefact of the criminal justice system itself. If you have a vast apparatus for apprehending and prosecuting people, you will have--voila!--more crime. Another problem is how homicide crimes are prosecuted and counted.
kelley