Less crime, but still scared...

[DarkRose]

Not sure which forum this fits in...

Fear of Crime: Crime has plummeted over the last 20 years. Why aren't we less scared? - By Christopher Beam - Slate Magazine

Look at how much crime rates have decreased, and how many gun RIGHTS laws have grown in that time period, and try to argue legal gun ownership doesn't deter crime... (though some areas crime has dropped is still very difficult to carry a handgun legally)

Yet people are still just as scared, if not more so...

WTH?

 

[Lobo]

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[ATOMonkey]

It also goes to how new outlets sensationalize violent crime in order to boost their ratings.

It makes it seem like there is a LOT more crime than there really is. Based on the news you wouldn't think it would be possible to go East of Pennsylvania Ave without getting into a gun fight. I've spent the last 10 years or so working in what people would describe as sketchy neighborhoods in 3 cities and have yet to even see a crime committed, much less be a victim of one.

If people would just step out of their comfort zones a couple times a day they'd learn that the world isn't nearly as frightening as they think it is. That's not to say bad things don't happen and you shouldn't be prepared for them, but they are very few and far between.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

I tend to agree with ATOMonkey.

In today's age of 24-hour instant access to "media" of all sorts, news really does travel in the blink of an eye. And it travels much farther than ever before. Used to be, if you were in Indy, NOTHING in South Bend made the local news but the ND football scores. Now a person can read the paper and even watch the SB news from their bed.

This is also why there are so many tin-foil-hatters out there who LOVE to spread the word that the world is ending due to the # of earthquakes/floods/landslides/hurricanes/typhoons/tsunamis/etc. It wasn't that long ago where the average Joe just didn't have an avenue to learn about these things.

-J-

 

[DarkRose]

I agree with a lot of that. A lot of these events wouldn't have been a widespread concern even 15 years ago, because they wouldn't have had as much widespread coverage.

The internet and cell phones, twitter, online news, etc. has mad it easier to spread both good new, and bad. As well as rumors, hearsay, falsehoods, facts, fiction, and nudie pics, and bacon porn images...

Some of these things that seem to be an "epidemic" now have always been around, the news just didn't spread far and wide...

I'm all for technology, I'm a computer/smartphone geek myself, but it has it's cons along with the pros

And we all know what the opposite of PROgress is....

 

[Bunnykid68]

Thirty years ago we would have never heard about kids being kidnapped in other states.

 

[dross]

Excellent points above.

I'm reminded of an article I read years ago in the Harvard Business Review, about analyzing the real problem.

A beach somewhere (I don't remember now) had an abnormally large amount of shark attacks one year. Typically there were one or two, suddenly there were ten in one year, and a couple were nasty and fatal. These statistical anomalies occur, especially with low sample numbers. Some years they had no shark attacks.

Anyway, because they had the increased attacks, and because of the sensationalism of the attacks and the local press coverage, the local government decided to do something.

Many ideas were proposed, all drastic and expensive. They were close to putting in some kind of shark proof fence in the water that would be expensive and limiting. Finally, someone pointed out that if you took the number of shark deaths over that stretch of beach over the last twenty years, and compared it to the drowning deaths, they could save many, many more lives at a tiny fraction of the expense, just by increasing their life guard personnel by a small percentage.

See, people don't fear drowning like they do sharks. Violent crime is that way. It's scary way out of proportion to its likliehood of occurence.

The other question raised by this decrease in crime is why are we increasing numbers of police, and police tactical units, and all this new latest and greatest expensive equipment when crime is decreasing? Most people in prison - and therefore most people arrested - are in prison for drug offenses.

 

[rambone]

This is also why there are so many tin-foil-hatters out there who LOVE to spread the word that the world is ending due to the # of earthquakes/floods/landslides/hurricanes/typhoons/tsunamis/etc.

Tinfoil hats provide no protection from natural disasters.

 

[DarkRose]

Tinfoil hats provide no protection from natural disasters.

What about rampant solar flares?

 

[ATOMonkey]

What about rampant solar flares?

You'd need to cover your entire body in foil to protect against the radio waves, and then you'd probably die of being cooked alive like a jiffy pop.

 

[DarkRose]

You'd need to cover your entire body in foil to protect against the radio waves, and then you'd probably die of being cooked alive like a jiffy pop.

Mmmmmm, popcorn....

 

[Doug]

It is politically important to keep people as close to a state of panic as possible.

The aim is to make people feel as helpless as possible.

"It can happen to anybody..."

"There's nothing you can do to prevent it..."

"You can't stop it..."

The above statements are constantly used with regards to crime. Add statistics that overstate the dangers of firearms (count everyone up to age 23 who dies of a gunshot as a child killed by gunfire, include justified shootings with murders in the homicide rate, put 10 year totals for accidental shootings next to 1 year rates for other accidents, etc) to convince people they should not try to protect themselves and that the Government is their only hope.

You're just trying to get them to trade freedom for safety.

You can't allow much of anything that will actually increase safety because that might reduce the fear level.

My personal fear level is pretty low; I live in condition yellow, I've got a gun, and I know how to use it. "Don't mess with an old guy. If he can't fight you, he'll just kill you."