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UN Report Reveals Odds of Being Murdered Country By Country

ananyo (2519492) writes "A new UN report (link to data) details comprehensive country-by-country murder rates. Safest is Singapore, with just one killing per 480,000 people in 2012. In the world's most violent country, Honduras, a man has a 1 in 9 chance of being murdered during his lifetime. The Economist includes an intriguing 'print only interactive' (see the PDF) and has some tongue-in-cheek tips on how to avoid being slain: 'First, don't live in the Americas or Africa, where murder rates (one in 6,100 and one in 8,000 respectively) are more than four times as high as the rest of the world. Next, be a woman. Your chance of being murdered will be barely a quarter what it would be were you a man. In fact, steer clear of men altogether: nearly half of all female murder-victims are killed by their partner or another (usually male) family member. But note that the gender imbalance is less pronounced in the rich world, probably because there is less banditry, a mainly male pursuit. In Japan and South Korea slightly over half of all murder victims are female. Then, sit back and grow older. From the age of 30 onwards, murder rates fall steadily in most places.'"

386 comments

  1. I've made a decision by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 5, Funny

    In order to live as long as possible, I have decided to have gender reassignment surgery to become a woman, and I will move to Antarctica and start a utopian lesbian society, since there are no murders there. I haven't worked out the details yet, but it seems like a no-brainer.

    --
    This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
    1. Re:I've made a decision by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      You don't have to go that far--just move to Liechtenstein.

    2. Re:I've made a decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't recommend it. Violence against trans and gender-queer people are off the charts.

    3. Re:I've made a decision by fredprado · · Score: 1, Insightful

      There is a LOT less violence against women, gays and transgender people than there is against men.in general..The average of assaults against gay men and transgender men is way bellow the average in assaults against men in general. But just because they are part of a minority their injuries and deaths are suddenly more important through some weird exercise of rationalization.

    4. Re:I've made a decision by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 3, Funny

      Oh you and your facts.

    5. Re:I've made a decision by davester666 · · Score: 2

      man on LGBT violence appears more prevalent because it always makes the evening news...because the victim always looks great.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    6. Re:I've made a decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your news letter

    7. Re:I've made a decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah, I think Antarctica is probably a little more lively.

    8. Re:I've made a decision by master5o1 · · Score: 1

      To Liechtenstein would be going too far for a Kiwi like me.

      --
      signature is pants
    9. Re:I've made a decision by epyT-R · · Score: 0, Troll

      I know you're joking, but that is exactly how twisted left wing ideology gets when it has festered too long.

    10. Re:I've made a decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I haven't worked out the details yet, but it seems like a no-brainer.

      The choice of hair color will be blond I assume?

    11. Re:I've made a decision by mjwx · · Score: 4, Funny

      man on LGBT violence appears more prevalent because it always makes the evening news...because the victim always looks Faaaabulous

      Erm.. fixed that for you.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    12. Re:I've made a decision by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      You're green and fuzzy with a bad aftertaste?

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    13. Re:I've made a decision by znrt · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Most men are killed because of who they are - gay men and transgendered people are frequently killed for how they were born. If you can't distinguish the two, and why one is heinously more severe than the other, you fail as a human being.

      you take this way too seriously. for example, the un report doesn't count murders perpetrated in the name of "war on terror" (never actually reconned as a war, so those are plain criminal killings wether prosecuted or not) and this omission alone renders the figures meaningless anyway. just an example of many other ways people get killed without making it to the headlines or fancy un statistics. it's just gossip for gutmenschen (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutmensch).

      that said, how considering killing "because of how" fundamentally more heinous and severe than "because of who" is supposed to make a "better" human out of someone is beyond me.

    14. Re:I've made a decision by war4peace · · Score: 2

      Actually, he has wings, can't use them but can run really fast. And he also cuuuute! :)

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    15. Re:I've made a decision by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      If you can't distinguish the two, and why one is heinously more severe than the other, you fail as a human being.

      Oh so you're not stabbing me to death because I'm gay, you're stabbing me so you can steal my money! I feel much better about that, thanks! uuurrrrrrrggggggh *splat*

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    16. Re:I've made a decision by multi+io · · Score: 2

      In order to live as long as possible, I have decided to have gender reassignment surgery to become a woman, and I will move to Antarctica and start a utopian lesbian society, since there are no murders there. I haven't worked out the details yet, but it seems like a no-brainer.

      You could start with killing somebody else -- the odds of *two* murders occuring would be even lower!

    17. Re:I've made a decision by nospam007 · · Score: 1

      You could also move to Lichtenstein for example, there were 0 murders there, I don't know why Singapore is mentioned, perhaps the submitter is from there.

    18. Re:I've made a decision by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

      Me to, I can't wait to have lesbian sex with you. Oh wait...

    19. Re:I've made a decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too bad you didn't live in a Stand Your Ground state!

    20. Re:I've made a decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget to bring strap-ons and lube. Lot of lube. And ball gags too.

    21. Re:I've made a decision by Sique · · Score: 1

      Because the population of the whole of Liechtenstein could fit into a football stadium, whereas Singapore has a a few more inhabitants. With the murder rate of Singapore, Liechtenstein would have not a single murder in 9 out of 10 years.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    22. Re:I've made a decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How I was born and who I am are fundimantal parts of each other. If you can't see that YOU fail as a human being

    23. Re:I've made a decision by dargaud · · Score: 1

      Well, there was at least two attempted murders that I know off in Antarctica, google "McMurdo hammer incident" for one in '96. The other one was a cook in the '50s who put broken glass in the soup of a crewmate who would wake him up every night when noisily going to bed.

      --
      Non-Linux Penguins ?
    24. Re:I've made a decision by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      Particularly in Antartica, which is ironic given how indistinguishable penguin genders are. Motherfuckers HATE it when they get it wrong, because it happens all the time. They'll waddle you to death if you're a guy wearing a skirt.

    25. Re:I've made a decision by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      You could also move to Lichtenstein for example, there were 0 murders there, I don't know why Singapore is mentioned, perhaps the submitter is from there.

      With Liechtenstein's small population, you'd expect that statistically they'd have a zero murder years in most years, but an excessively high rate of one in 20,000 for some years.

    26. Re:I've made a decision by N0Man74 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I know you're joking, but that is exactly how twisted left wing ideology gets when it has festered too long.

      I want you to take a moment and honestly consider the following question.

      Which of these two do you think is more likely:

      1) The left wants to turn everyone into black transgender lesbian atheistic Muslims on welfare having abortions, and the right wing is absolutely right about the liberal agenda...
      2) The left believes in respecting the humanity, identity, and choices of people, and the right wing tries to demonize liberal ideology in order to make foolish people (like yourself) believe that protecting a choice or identity is the same as forcing it on people.

    27. Re:I've made a decision by operagost · · Score: 2

      Not bad-- you answered a mildly trollish post with a combination straw man/false dilemma!

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    28. Re:I've made a decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no more or less heinously severe reason for killing people you dumbshit. Youre basically saying killing people for one reason (who they are) is not nearly as bad as killing them for other reasons (how they were born). Youre a sick fuck.

    29. Re:I've made a decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how considering killing "because of how" fundamentally more heinous and severe than "because of who" is supposed to make a "better" human out of someone is beyond me.

      You have to admit, it does seem worse when a kid gets beaten to death for just being gay, as opposed to, say, a kid who is in a gang and gets shot during a drug war. Now, you can argue that there are social reasons why that kid ended up in a gang, and both deaths are sad, but still.

    30. Re:I've made a decision by Silas+is+back · · Score: 1

      Too bad Liechtenstein just had a rather dramatic murder this week where a fonds manager shot a banker: http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/news... (German), ruining the whole statistic.

      --
      this sig is useless
    31. Re:I've made a decision by master5o1 · · Score: 2
      --
      signature is pants
    32. Re:I've made a decision by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      1. The proof is in the law lobbied for by left wing think tanks and lobby groups. It very clearly discriminates based on race and sex, granting privilege to one while painting the other as oppressors. I'll leave it to you to figure out which sides are which. It is not difficult.

      2. I never said the neocons are any better. The left does not respect the rights of those who do not fit into one of its protected castes because they are assumed to be oppressors, and this bias shows in the governments, institutions, and media outlets under their influence. Effectively, it makes the traits they claim as irrelevant, the first cut when applying for jobs, school, or gaining any sort of help from the state. As far as left wing bigotry goes, the mozilla incident comes to mind as a recent example.. Obama's 'dear colleague' letter is another.

    33. Re:I've made a decision by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      I'd like to point out that I wasn't trolling. I wasn't deliberately trying to anger anyone. It is true that ideologically driven organizations ripen and fester when left sitting in power too long without challenge. Over time, the ideology becomes more important than the truth. How do you think nazi germany and the soviet union got where they are/were? How about north korea? Now there's a degenerated society if there ever was one. I hope this doesn't happen in the USA, because it will be misery for everyone, protected caste or not.

    34. Re:I've made a decision by znrt · · Score: 1

      You have to admit, it does seem worse when a kid gets beaten to death for just being gay, as opposed to, say, a kid who is in a gang and gets shot during a drug war. Now, you can argue that there are social reasons why that kid ended up in a gang, and both deaths are sad, but still.

      and as opposed to beating your wife to death because you feel she should love you more? or your neighboor because he's a foreigner or worships a different god? or some random villagers because someone ordered to do so? or because a court needed someone to blame and that nigger just happened to be around? or some random guy because you want his moonies or simply because you enjoy doing it? i see no fundamental difference, really.

    35. Re:I've made a decision by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      I know you're joking, but that is exactly how twisted left wing ideology gets when it has festered too long.

      Twisted Fester is the best metal band name ever.

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
    36. Re:I've made a decision by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      Because all the potential murderers in Singapore are imprisoned for chewing gum.

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
    37. Re:I've made a decision by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      The average of assaults against gay men and transgender men is way bellow the average in assaults against men in general. But just because they are part of a minority their injuries and deaths are suddenly more important through some weird exercise of rationalization.

      How is that measured? A closet gay gang member is evaluated in the non-gay statistics. So the number of hate-crime murders is below the number of non-hate murders. That's a good thing that it's lower, and a bad thing that we have any at all. But it says nothing about the number of gay people assaulted.

      So, if someone is mugged, when do they evaluate their sexual orientation? Or, if it's not evaluated for every crime, how do they keep the statistics you are claiming?

    38. Re:I've made a decision by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Ha ha ha. How many people have been imprisoned for chewing gum? Oh yeah, none. Too bad your joke is a lie.

    39. Re:I've made a decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you implying that being gay is a choice? You then have no idea what you are talking about. The Romans, the Ancient Greeks, even the American Native respected the gays. This "hatred" is purely Judeo-Christian.

    40. Re:I've made a decision by N0Man74 · · Score: 1

      Are you implying that being gay is a choice? You then have no idea what you are talking about.

      Why don't you go back and ready my post. If you look real hard you might see the words, "choice or identity". What do you think I'm implying now?

    41. Re:I've made a decision by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Twisted Festered Wing... Festered Ideal... Twist Fest... Long Festered Twist... Twisted Uncle Fester?

    42. Re:I've made a decision by fredprado · · Score: 1

      This is measured in exactly the same way all other demographic statistics are measured. By collecting and analyzing data. If someone is mugged or killed they do not evaluate their sexual orientation on the act, but the sexual orientation comes to light every time a crime is judged as a "hate crime", and it is a trivial thing to analyze court records.

      Sure, there may be "hate crimes" that are not judged as such, as there may be normal and "hate crimes" crimes that aren't judged at all, but there is no reason or evidence to conclude that they are significant enough to alter these statistics.

      Basically what we can see points exactly to what I say. What we cannot see I leave to your fertile imagination.

    43. Re:I've made a decision by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Shooting into a crowd at a mall and hitting a gay person will not be labeled a hate crime or under violence against gays, so using those statistics to show stright people are more likely to die is a non sequitur. That's not what the statistics measure. Not every crime against a gay person is measured as a hate crime, and thus, they can't be used to prove the number of crimes against gay people, as you assert.

    44. Re:I've made a decision by fredprado · · Score: 1

      Events like this are totally random and tend to be added to both groups equally. These events are mathematically unable to turn the counter the other way around, although they can make crimes statistics against gays and straights closer if they are the prevalent cause of murder (which they are not). Either way straights are still ahead in the death counter in any and all countries, no matter how homophobic or not the culture is.

      What is important and the point in this exercise is to show that being gay does not make you more likely to .be murdered or assaulted, and that there is absolutely no evidence that points otherwise.

    45. Re:I've made a decision by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Events like this are totally random and tend to be added to both groups equally.

      From the statistics I've seen, that's not true. A dead person where sexual preference couldn't have played a role is counted as a "heterosexual" death. That doesn't count equally. So I don't believe your assertion.

      Either way straights are still ahead in the death counter in any and all countries, no matter how homophobic or not the culture is.

      No, they aren't. Next you'll tell me that there has never been a suicide by car. Note, the federal government doesn't like suicide, so it's not a option on the reporting forms, so a person who decides to commit suicide by getting drunk, leaving a note, and driving into a wall or off a bridge is listed as "alcohol related" and "speed related" artificially inflating those numbers, and *never* listed in FARS as a suicide. Just like the heterosexual numbers include gays roughly equal to their concentration in the general public, and a separate count is kept when gays are killed in hate crimes. This makes gays dead much more often than heterosexuals, but with statistics people can use to prove the opposite point.

      And no, I won't take your word for it. If you want to prove your point, prove it with something more than factless assertions.

    46. Re:I've made a decision by fredprado · · Score: 1

      You probably have "seen" those statistics in your dreams then. ;)

    47. Re:I've made a decision by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Because that is the only place to see your fabricated statistics?

    48. Re:I've made a decision by fredprado · · Score: 1

      You should go to a psychiatrist, my friend. They will help you.

    49. Re:I've made a decision by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      That will help me stop pointing out your bad statistics?

    50. Re:I've made a decision by fredprado · · Score: 1

      No, quite the opposite. You will stop seeing hallucinations and will eventually be in better contact with reality. :)

    51. Re:I've made a decision by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure you are the best person to take such advice from. If it worked, why haven't you tried it? If you have tried it, it obviously didn't take.

    52. Re:I've made a decision by fredprado · · Score: 1

      Considering your current state it is not even a given that I exist at all. Just consider me one more voice in your head.

  2. OpenData by manu0601 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Come on, public data published in .xlsx...

    1. Re:OpenData by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      It's not just the closed format, but the whole formatting of the file itself. Anyone wanting to do any half-decent analysis of this data is going to have to do a fair bit of formatting before this "data" can be turned into anything useful like a CSV. The current layout is good for little more than looking at. They may as well have released it as a PDF or a chart!

    2. Re:OpenData by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      With proprietary data, you never can tell really. Compatibility is never nearly as good as advertised. The idea that government should be transparent, or that Robber Barons shouldn't be free to run amok and charge tools every 5 miles is not a new idea. Nor is it one unique to "open source fundementalists".

      You were unintentionally funny when you came up with that.

      Biff would be proud.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    3. Re:OpenData by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL yep. Just try getting Excel to sort that data.

      Fuck you Excel, where's my flying car?

    4. Re:OpenData by arielCo · · Score: 1
      --
      This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
    5. Re:OpenData by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's still a stupid, non human-readable, binary file. The opposite of UNIX philosophy.

    6. Re:OpenData by znrt · · Score: 1

      Come on, public data published in .xlsx...

      too late: http://developers.slashdot.org...

    7. Re:OpenData by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      gunzip the .ods, and you can have your human-readable file format

    8. Re:OpenData by sandbagger · · Score: 1

      Come on, you're on Slashdot and complaining that you find using Excel a hardship?

      --
      ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
    9. Re:OpenData by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      No, but my scripts sure find them a pain in the ass to parse! If you're going to spend the time to organize and release a collection of data like this, at least provide a csv version as well.

  3. Liechtenstein by Kardos · · Score: 2

    here I come!

    1. Re:Liechtenstein by purpledinoz · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not so fast! A banker was shot dead this year in Lichtenstein. Although, since it's a banker, maybe I would count this as a positive killing...

    2. Re:Liechtenstein by shrewdsheep · · Score: 3, Funny

      Carefully read the statitics: banker killings are counted negative, so that in Lichtenstein every non-banker murder is offset by a banker-killing. Research shows that indeed the net-effect is zero.

    3. Re:Liechtenstein by Cryacin · · Score: 1

      I don't think rats are counted in this statistic.

      --
      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    4. Re:Liechtenstein by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Make sure you hit the brakes as soon as you see the border marker, or you'll overshoot it and wind up in Austria or Switzerland.

    5. Re:Liechtenstein by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oregon - 1 in 41666 for murder in 2012.
      Great place but the politics are stupidly liberal.

  4. shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Different countries are well known to report their violent crime and murder numbers differently. Some countries don't count murder if it wasn't initially believed to be murder but the crime was later recategorized. Other countries just underreport. There is substantial more variation, but you get the idea - this report is misleading at best and outright lies at worst.

    Why does /. always accept these articles? We've seen this trash before, and it's always debunked. It's like dealing with the phelps family...

    1. Re:shenanigans by magamiako1 · · Score: 2

      I'm willing to bet that Western Europe and Canada numbers are actually pretty accurate. Same with the US numbers. The only places that might underreport are likely to be Russia and 3rd world countries.

      The bigger question you need to ask is why is the US so far behind its first world brethren?

    2. Re:shenanigans by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      Depends on the countries methodology on "homicide" because in one country and another the methodology aren't the same. And organizations are sloppy at going through a year or even several years worth of data to adjust it. My personal favorite was always the suicide and sexual assault numbers. Europeans love to fudge the SA numbers by reclassifying the crimes, and Japan loves to fudge suicide incidents as "not suicide."

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    3. Re:shenanigans by plover · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, because the U.N. is known for shoddy science.

      The data files include the source of the figures, generally reported by the WHO instead of the national police in those countries where the official figures may be suspect. If there are official complaints about the figures, they'll likely come from the ambassador of Bananazuela who will claim that the figures for his tourist-friendly country are too high.

      --
      John
    4. Re:shenanigans by green1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Most of the places where this is a problem are the less developed countries, ones where the data is already suspect for different reasons anyway, and where the numbers are often already high. The really enlightening bits are comparing the first world countries, all of whom have a very similar definition of murder (this is actually much better than generic"violent crime" stats where definitions do vary largely)
      What really stands out is that most of the first world countries fall in a range of 1-2 murders per 100000 people per year, except the USA which is more than double that. Always amazing to see how different the USA is than other countries that should be so similar (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, even England) and how the public opinion in the USA is so against any efforts at improving the situation (better education. Health care for all, less inequality, gun control, all the things that have proven to work in the rest of the western world)

    5. Re:shenanigans by rubycodez · · Score: 2

      not poverty, instead places where family structure has broken down and subcultures do not instill any respect for human life. I know places where poor people are not killing each other. poverty is no excuse

    6. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More guns?

    7. Re:shenanigans by mellon · · Score: 2

      No offense, but us bleeding hearts also blither on quite a bit about income inequality. I think we blither on about that a lot more than we do about gun control, actually.

    8. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      U. N. Owens is known for mass murder and a bizarre method of reporting it.

    9. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wouldn't point the blame just on guns. Part of it is that the US has a drug problem far worse than it is in other developed countries. Go to Europe, meth isn't an issue. Asia, same thing. Same with crack.

      This is why crime in the US tends to be violent and brutal rather than calculated. This is because druggies tend to not calculate anything past what to grab to turn into the fence for cash, then turn cash into meth.

    10. Re:shenanigans by green1 · · Score: 2

      If you read my post, I didn't point the blame "just at guns", in fact they were last on my list after education, health care, and inequality. However now that you bring it up,. Evidence from the rest of the world indicates that guns are a problem, not a solution. I'm not willing to say how much of an effect they have, as I believe that it is the culture, more than the firearms themselves that is the problem, the guns are just a symptom of that culture.
      Why the USA is so determined to avoid universal health care and good, accessible, education, is beyond me though, those four items I listed are the biggest differences between the USA and the rest of the western world where murder rates are less than half what they are in the USA, trying to follow those good examples set elsewhere could only help Americans, it's too bad Americans don't want the help.

    11. Re:shenanigans by green1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The US murder rate is more than double that of the rest of the western world. Despite the four points I listed being the biggest differences between your country and the other Western democracies. Your personal refusal to even consider any possible improvement in that situation is endemic of the problem that causes your chance of being murdered to be more than double that of any other western citizen.

      I'm glad you're OK with your odds, after all, you choose them.

    12. Re:shenanigans by antifoidulus · · Score: 2

      Drug use rates in east Asia are pretty low, at least due in part to geographic isolation and/or really strict enforcement. The Singapore government probably puts more people to death for drug crimes than people actually die from drugs or drug related incidents there.

      Japan being an island and South Korea for all intents and purposes being an island(their northern border isn't exactly what I would call "porous") has allowed them to strictly enforce drug imports because there are very very few places where an individual can get into the country. In addition to being paranoid about "organic" drugs(opium, cocaine etc) getting into the country, they also crack down on manufactured drugs like meth, to an almost draconian extent. For instance in Japan Nyquil and it's ilk are illegal simply because it can be used as an ingredient in meth, which sucks when you have a cold because Japanese cold medication sucks in my opinion....

    13. Re:shenanigans by arielCo · · Score: 2

      The Venezuelan government hasn't published violence statistics for years, so NGOs and journalists query the morgues every week. But that doesn't stop the nomenklatura from denouncing the state governed by the most prominent opposition candidate as having "the most murders" (it's not clear, and not too relevant, whether they mean count or rate).

      --
      This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
    14. Re:shenanigans by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have more of a problem with you cherry picking Canada, Australia, NZ, and England, despite those countries having very little in common with the U.S. and causes for violent crime.

      The U.S. falls into the category of large, moderately urbanized countries with large open borders to less industrialized countries, high wealth and wealth disparity, and ethnically diverse populations. Most of the western world is not that way at all, and those properties breed the root cause of the majority of violent crime in those countries, which is the illegal drug trade.

      Countries that share those features include Russia, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and China. Surprise, surprise, those other countries are all at least or much worse off then the U.S. is, despite some having the strictest gun ownership laws in the world (Russia), all having socialized healthcare, and the US. Actually having a pretty good education system for most of the country (not underserved inner-city areas) when reported the same way other countries are.

      China is the outlier, in that it does not have either high violent crime rates or a violent drug trade, but my theory is that this is because the vast majority of the country lives in squalor and acts as a buffer to help shield the cities, and those cities have their crime rates dilutes by the shield.

      Simple facts are that gun control reduces gun crime but increase violent crime. Education and healthcare raise the standard of living, but don't provide disincentive for crime in the drug trade. You are right about inequality as a facet of this.

      --
      while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    15. Re:shenanigans by green1 · · Score: 2, Funny

      My bad, I'll stop confusing the USA with a first world country.

    16. Re:shenanigans by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 3, Funny

      Guns don't kill people. Gun-obsessed people kill people.

      (I suspect the high velocity lumps of lead may play a part too.)

      --
      Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
    17. Re:shenanigans by Jiro · · Score: 2

      The US has inner cities with high crime rates that skew the average, Not only are these inner cities majority black, which makes these statistics very politically incorrect, they also have the strictest gun laws in the country.

      If you don't live in one of those places (whatever your skin color), you don't really need to worry about the "high USA crime rate", And we don't have universal health care outside them any more than we do in them, either.

    18. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The bigger question you need to ask is why is the US so far behind its first world brethren?

      Guns, lots of them!

    19. Re:shenanigans by Loki_1929 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly, which is why you always see mass shootings at gun shows, gun stores, and gun ranges where there's lot of guns, lots of ammunition, and lots of gun-obsessed people.

      Thankfully, there are some places where that sort of thing isn't tolerated, like schools, malls, and US Postal offices. Ahh yes, gun-free zones, where violence is a thing of the past.

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    20. Re:shenanigans by quenda · · Score: 1

      You can speculate on the root cause of murder, but simple demographic data explains the different numbers between the US and other developed countries.

      The fact is that everywhere, homicide rates differ dramatically by age, gender, race and ethnicity. Some countries show bigger variation than the US does.
      If you control for those variables, the difference mostly goes away.
      e.g. compare data for whites of the same age and gender to Western Europe, US Hispanics to Latin America, or African Americans to Africans, and the US data does not look so different.

      I don't see why this fact should give rise to cries of racism, when it is just as much sexist and ageist.

    21. Re:shenanigans by epyT-R · · Score: 2

      or we could decriminalize drugs and let the users kill themselves quietly with their habit.. There would be no need for them to rob anyone.

    22. Re:shenanigans by lordholm · · Score: 1

      There has been research into differences between US states. Some of them, predominantly the one sharing a border with Canada have murder rates similar to Europe.

      This has among other things been attributed to the more prevalent honour-culture in the southern part of the US (which has been experimentally validated).

      --
      "Civis Europaeus sum!"
    23. Re:shenanigans by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      It's easier to govern countries that are basically monocultures. Socialism works better when the average citizen fits in the same square hole as the next. The US is not like that. The irony is that it's usually western europeans who dump on americans for being 'intolerant' of 'diversity' when said europeans have never lived it.

    24. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everyone in the US can buy and play around with an fireweapon, while that's not allowed in "safer" country's like those in western Europe?

      Just an tought...

    25. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gun-free zones do not much good if everyone can have an gun in his/hers/it's drawer hm?

      If nobody is allowed to have a gun that easy, you do not even need gun-free zones...

    26. Re:shenanigans by MoreThanThen · · Score: 1

      "worse off then the U.S"

      Why can't spell 'than', it's not a difficult word to spell.

    27. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More guns?

      Being a European I don't care much for the US gun control debate but I would like to point out that stricter gun control doesn't necessarily mean less guns.
      I live in a nation with very strict gun control but I am pretty sure we have more guns per person than the US.
      Part of the gun control involves a requirement to own a proper gun cabinet/safe to lock away the gun in when you aren't using it/maintaining it.
      Apart from inspecting that you have one installed no-one will ever make sure that you use it. The big thing is that if you have one at home the step to using it isn't that big.
      If leaving your gun unsupervised is a crime then it makes it much harder for guns to get its own legs or to fall in the hands of a suicidal teenager or whatever.
      (No school shootings in known history yet, fingers crossed.)

    28. Re:shenanigans by dave420 · · Score: 1

      Very droll, however you do see far more mass shootings in the US than any other developed country in the world by far. So I don't think you are as correct as you seem to wish to think you are. To paraphrase Shakespeare: Something is rotten in the states of America.

    29. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The US murder rate is more than double that of the rest of the western world. Despite the four points I listed being the biggest differences between your country and the other Western democracies. Your personal refusal to even consider any possible improvement in that situation is endemic of the problem that causes your chance of being murdered to be more than double that of any other western citizen.

      I'm glad you're OK with your odds, after all, you choose them.

      Unless the GP is:
      1. Black
      2. Lives in LA, Chicago, or NY

      Then his odds of being murdered are equal to or less than your "other Western democracies". The US has small, dense pockets of high violence and murder, while the rest of the country is quite safe. Also note those same areas have the most cops, and most strict gun control.

    30. Re:shenanigans by Loki_1929 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wait a moment, are you saying that there are people who might ignore the gun-free zone signs and carry a gun anyway? What kind of person would even think of doing such a thing?

      But your point is well taken. I think the best way to go is to stop everyone but the police and the military from carrying guns, just like they do in Mexico. Then we could enjoy Mexico's legendarily low violent crime rate right here in the United States.

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    31. Re:shenanigans by dave420 · · Score: 0

      Put down the flag, read more, and you'll see why you are incredibly wrong. You are peddling falsehoods in some vain attempt to make the US seem less like the strange beast it is. You do realise if everyone adopted your tactic, any intrinsic problems in the US would never be solved, as everyone would gather together to waive their hands about to try to deflect the problem. Every single one of your points is factually incorrect. But you seem to think it's an accurate portrayal of reality, and so the insanity continues. Get a grip, man.

    32. Re:shenanigans by dave420 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You have no evidence for that - it's just a nice excuse to make you think that the US isn't as messed up as it is. You also seem to be woefully ill-informed of the diversity in many places in Europe which rivals (or beats) the diversity in many violence-soaked places in the US. So to recap: you are making excuses for your country based on nonsense, in some childish attempt to not have to think about the intrinsic issues in the US which makes it one of the most dangerous countries in the developed world. You do realise you, and those who think like you, are causing harm to the US, right? As you gladly dismiss any criticism as being European propaganda, ensuring the harm continues unabated, just so you can feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. You're clearly an intelligent person, so I have no idea what happened to you to skew your brain this way.

    33. Re:shenanigans by petes_PoV · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You'll never get americans to give up their guns: they're all too afraid. What are they so scared of? Yup, all the (other) people with guns. The comments about gun shops and firing ranges being the "safest" places demonstrates this very well. The gun-owners feel safest when surrounded by guns. However when they are out in the big, nasty, world they feel insecure that other people might have weapons they can't see, so the urge to protect themselves becomes very strong.

      Obviously, if nobody in the USA had a gun, this level of fear should be reduced, but it's irrational and doesn't work like that. Hence they all keep their guns and that induces more fear - so they feel the need for more and bigger guns, just as a sort of "safety blanket" (as almost none of them are ever fired in the real world) - which, of course, escalates the problem.

      It's all because they're all so scared of each other.

      --
      politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
    34. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Japan is also known to fudge mafia assassinations as suicide, such as that one case of the man who after committing suicide, chopped off his own penis and got dragged to another room by himself.

    35. Re:shenanigans by Stuarticus · · Score: 2

      Simple facts are that gun control reduces gun crime but increase violent crime.

      Simple facts sound rather questionable to me. Your argument about the unique circumstances is specious as well. The biggest problem your borders have is leaking guns to other countries.

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    36. Re:shenanigans by Stuarticus · · Score: 2

      Can't wait for the great marijuana death wave that's coming, I take it?

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    37. Re:shenanigans by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

      You know what he's basically trying to say is "it's the blacks/latinos who cause all the trouble", he's just attempting some linguistic gymnastics by blaming it on diversity, racism never dies.

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    38. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or in the UK where we have... oh one school shooting back when guns were allowed.

    39. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I think the best way to go is to stop everyone but the police and the military from carrying guns, just like they do in Mexico.

      Or pretty much every Western European country. How do their murder rates compare to the US again?

    40. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Simple facts are that gun control reduces gun crime but increase violent crime.

      [citation needed]

    41. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The US has small, dense pockets of high violence and murder, while the rest of the country is quite safe.

      So does every other Western democracy. Yet their murder rates are still much lower.

      Are you really so arrogant and misguided that you believe the US has a monopoly on inner city slums?

    42. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      yeah, because the USA is a horrible, horrible country, just like Mexico. your gun is the only thing that protects you from your corrupt official government and the effectively ruling mafias. good thing you have your underground bunker with its huge reserve of jerky and beans!

      these tacit admissions that the USA is a third-world country always give me chuckles...

    43. Re:shenanigans by Linzer · · Score: 1

      Healthcare (...) is available for all. It does not come cheap

      You understand that the second statement might be perceived as conflicting with the first one. Or maybe plain cynical.

      Caviar is available for all, too.

      --
      Gravitation is a theory, not a fact.
    44. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't doubt your being sincere... But you might consider a suggestion: "socialism" is not a suitable term for "everything to the left of US mainstream", which is quite a bit off to the right compared to most of the rest of the planet.

      I mean, you can call things whatever you please, of course, but I think it's less then helpful and blurs the distinction between quite different schools of thought among centrist and leftist circles.

      And as to your charge that western europe is unacustomed to diversity -- clearly you've never visited.

    45. Re:shenanigans by fellip_nectar · · Score: 2

      One of the best arguments for gun control is embodied in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial going on in South Africa right now. Thank to guns, he was able to kill his girlfriend through a closed door. His defence is basically that he mistook his girlfriend for a potentially armed intruder. Irregardless of the outcome of the trial, we may never know for sure whether his claims are truthful or not.

      Now take away the gun. Although it would still have been possible for Pistorius to have killed his girlfriend, you can be certain that this was his intent.

      --
      Worst. Signature. Ever.
    46. Re:shenanigans by C0R1D4N · · Score: 1

      The biggest problem is integration. Where minorities are integrated with the white population (East Asians, Arabs and Indians for example) their children thrive just as well as white children. When the population is split off into its own communities (Blacks, Hispanics, orthodox religious) not so much. When I visited London last year with my (gay) husband I never once feared for my safety near a minority. If I did the same in NYC, even parts of Manhattan, there would be at least a little unease.

      It was easier in England for them to integrate their minorities (having fewer of them) but it really is the key to success.

      There's basically two choices, give them a state to call their own and let their culture persist there, or fully integrate them by spreading out the mix.

    47. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are also countries that don't include murder if it was performed by the state.

    48. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, St. Louis, etc ARE third world.

    49. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gun obsessed people do not want to kill their brother in arms. After all other gun owners are people unlike those filthy non gun owners.

    50. Re:shenanigans by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 1

      The rates for the USA are 4.7, the same as Latvia (Semi stable, recently independent from USSR), Yemen (Terrorist training ground), Niger ( lowest-ranked in the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI) ... also until recently the Ukraine

      Why does the USA consistently have the same murder rate as semi stable, struggling economies ...?

      --
      Puteulanus fenestra mortis
    51. Re:shenanigans by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 1

      That post was written on my phone's keyboard, which auto corrects words into whatever it feels like. I probably typed 'thwn' or 'thsn', both of which autocorrect to 'then' instead of than. If I didn't notice it while watching the keyboard, it would not have gotten fixed..

      --
      while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    52. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not sure why you think Canada and Oz (nor the others) are "cherry picked". All three countries are rich moderately urbanized (not to mention often geopolitically and idealogically alligned relative to say Russia, Brazil or China).

      Moreover, while Canada and Oz don't share a large border with a less industrialized country I'm not sure why think that should matter. For example if the underlying assumption is that having such a border results in having a larger immegrant (foreign born) population it turns out the opposite is true for these countries. While the US foreign born population is around 15%, Oz and Canada have closer 27% and 20% respectively. More generally percentage of immegrants in rich countries does not seem correlate well with homocide rate. E.g. Switzerland has 30% immigrants but 0.7 homocide rate (US has 4.8). N.Z. has 25.1% immegrants and 0.9 homocide rate.

      In fact, even leaving out being a rich "western" country, having a large immegrant population still doesn't always correlate too well with high homocide rates. E.g. Hong Kong has 38.9% immigrants but 0.2 homocide rate. Jordan (a country sharing a large land border with a warzone) has 40% immegrants and 1.2 homocide rate. Oman has about 24% immigrants and 0.7 homocide rate.

      For me to understand the role (or lack there of) of the land border to Mexico it would be interesting to see statistics on the murder rates for (or at least perpetrated by) different demographic groups in the US. E.g. how much does the US's homocide rate come from hispanic immigrants compared to african americans. If it's similar (or skewed towards african americans) then that indicates the land border (only relevant to the hispanic population) has less impact then socio-economic status (a trate shared evenly by the two populations).

    53. Re:shenanigans by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 1

      Maybe the problem is that you don't know which countries are first world countries.

      --
      while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    54. Re:shenanigans by TapeCutter · · Score: 2

      I think the best way to go is to stop everyone but the police and the military from carrying guns, just like they do in Mexico.

      That's odd, I haven't noticed an increase in local warlords since we implemented similar hand gun laws here in Oz about 25yrs ago. It's definitely a cultural thing, hand guns have never been popular in Oz or the UK. Even when they were legal if you claimed you needed a gun to protect yourself you were seen by "polite society" as a either thug or a coward, probably both. This is also reflected in Australian law since "self defence" is no longer a valid reason to own a gun, "hunting" and "sport" are ok. Under the heading of "sport" you can own a handgun for target shooting, provided you keep it at the range, or submit to "surprise" inspections of your home armoury by the cops.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    55. Re:shenanigans by Entropius · · Score: 1

      Mod +1, inconvenient but true.

    56. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      At less than 15% of the population, blacks are known to be responsible for more than 1/3 of all murders committed between 2000 and 2010, according to the WSJ Murder in America statistics (which leaves out Florida for some reason). There are a significant number of killers of "unknown race", of which a significant number can be statistically assumed to be black. I'm not sure how to linguistically vault over that.

      While you might call me racist over the internet for even mentioning this, it seems that this is a way to target anti-crime efforts. The implementation of those efforts can be racist (stop and frisk) or not (after school programs targeting at-risk youth), but spending equal amounts of effort to prevent crime in a white neighborhood and a black neighborhood in the US is an inappropriate use of resources.

    57. Re:shenanigans by Entropius · · Score: 2

      The US is not a first-world country, nor is it a third-world country. It's a first-world country with pockets of third-world society in it: the inner cities of Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore, Chicago, and the like. Grandparent's odds of being killed, assuming he lives outside of these places, are rather similar to what they would be in Europe. (I used to live in inner-city Baltimore -- not the worst part of the city, but a pretty bad one, the sort where you have to shoo the junkies out of your car so you can use it sometime. Actually, it was my roommate who had to shoo the junkie out of her car. I had to shoo a crackhead out of mine in Washington DC, though.)

      Americans, for better or for worse, have come to accept crime in those places. Y'know the horrible Newtown school shooting? That many people get killed every few weeks in Baltimore and it doesn't make the news. The US is a very pluralistic country; we have lots of mini-cultures and mini-societies embedded in it with very different demographics and crime statistics.

      So grandparent is probably perfectly fine with his odds, since they're similar to yours.

    58. Re:shenanigans by TapeCutter · · Score: 2

      when said europeans have never lived it.

      You do realise there are 27 nations in the EU, dozens of different languages and hundreds if not thousands of provinces, all of whom have been at war with each other for at least the last 2000yrs. Agree the US is far more diverse than most non-American's realise but it's diversity was inherited from Europe, not only via the early settlers, but also the gold rush days, and the two world wars.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    59. Re:shenanigans by Entropius · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The difference is that the ethnic diversity in Europe looks different than it does in the US: in Europe, it's because of immigration. Folks generally don't cross an ocean to then shit on the society they've come to join. Sure enough there's really not that much violence in most immigrant communities in the US. I used to live in the slums of Baltimore, and finally moved to a new apartment in DC. I got to the laundry room and saw a lady in there speaking Spanish to her daughter, and thought "Alrighty, if the immigrants have come here, this is a decent place." I was right.

      But the highest crime rate in the US is in the black enclaves in the inner cities. That population was never an immigrant community; it's the descendants of former slaves. We (the American whites) did horrible things to them, and then after emancipation continued to do horrible things to them in part of the country while not really doing enough to facilitate the integration of the liberated slaves and their descendants into society. By the time we passed the Civil Rights Act there were endemic social problems in the US black community, to the point that there's a long and very respectful Department of Labor study into them (the Moynihan Report).

      So now in the US those black enclaves have a sky-high murder rate, and the rest of the country has a pretty low one (broadly similar to Europe's). Why? A whole constellation of historical and cultural reasons, many of them traceable back to horrid racism years ago. Should we still blame whitey for the problems? Is it slavery's fault that kids in the ghetto kill each other for silly reasons and don't want to learn to read and write? I dunno.

      But saying simply "Europe has diversity too" misses the point: the non-white folks in Europe are there because they came there and wanted to be European, for the most part. (This is pretty similar to Asian-Americans, a group with a low crime rate.) That has vastly different cultural effects than hauling people's ancestors over in chains and wrecking their society.

    60. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you are wrong. Many killings are killing your own kind. Most homicides are not random "hate" crimes. They come from interaction with someone that has gone wrong and escalated. Bad drug deals, sleeping with their wife, arguments getting out of control maybe with substance abuse involved, disrespected somehow and payback, people in the general area where they live etc. You claim you feel unsafe and are worried about being murdered in Manhattan? That is a complete joke.

      I live in northern VA with a large illegal immigrant population. They mainly kill and fight amongst themselves.

    61. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i get your point, and do not disagree...
      but, just recently, had a kid go into a local gun store, says 'heh, let me see that shotgun there...'
      proceeds to take a shell out of his pocket, load it up, and blow his own brains out...
      (the clerk pulled their gun immediately, thinking -justifiably- that it was probably some sort of robbery situation, but before they did anything, they kid shot himself...)
      further, guns themselves have such value, gun collections become a LURE for robbers and such...

    62. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Until these figure are adjusted to eliminate "gang-on-gang" or "criminal-on-criminal" figures... it will be difficult or impossible for regular folks to really give a d_mn.
      When a gang member dies - the sun shines brighter and angels sing in harmony. It's only when they shoot "civilians" that one should call it "murder".
      How bout this: take the american figures and filter out all cases where the victim is a criminal or gang member or drug traffiker (buying or selling).
      Then you'll have a statistic that real/regular people can try and use. (and it's a very very low number). As it turns out - the circle of life just plain works... and for all the dying that happens - a whole lot of living happens too.

    63. Re:shenanigans by green1 · · Score: 2

      And yet the simple solutions to these problems are ignored and shunned by americans. "Blacks" kill more people because they are on average poorer, with less access to a quality education and limited access to health care (three of the top 4 items I listed that are different in the USA from the rest of the developed world)

      "preventing crime" does NOT mean more cops or more guns, it does not mean more laws, or "tough on crime" legislation, it means getting to the root of the problems and solving those.

    64. Re:shenanigans by green1 · · Score: 1

      But god forbid (sometimes literally) that you do anything to solve these issues by helping make education and healthcare more accessible to the poor, or work on the huge income inequality problems, or limit access to firearms...

    65. Re:shenanigans by green1 · · Score: 2

      It wasn't me who compared the USA to China, Mexico, and Russia, countries with massive social problems, including poverty like you have never seen or experienced.

      I wanted to give the USA the benefit of the doubt and compare them to countries with very similar demographics, diversity, and physical characteristics. You decided that was too much to aspire to, and that the USA should be content because it's better then China, Mexico, and Russia. Use whatever terms you want to describe it, but I think you could aim higher.

      You talk about diversity, Canada and many parts of Europe are just as diverse as the US, the difference lies in less of an "us vs them" mentality (there are no "african-canadians" "italian-canadians" etc, they're all just Canadian)

      You talk about large geography. Canada and Australia both have that covered.
      You talk about urban density. Europe has you beat.
      You talk about rural areas. Canada and Australia have you beat.
      You talk about illegal immigrants from poor nations adjacent. Australia has a huge problem here with boatloads of people trying to sneak in from nearby Asian countries, Much of europe shares borders with countries rife with poverty.

      You're making excuses because you don't want to fix your mess.

    66. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Has anyone studied whether it is more shootings per capita or just more shootings in total. I do not have that answer.

      On another front, violence is not restricted to the use of guns. We just had a mass-stabbing at a school, and hasn't China had a few 'stabbing incidents' in the last 12 months?

    67. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On a previous /. thread that devolved into gun control, people were touting about how Venezuela had its crime rate drop by 1/1000 because of the ban enacted removing private ownership of firearms.

      However, I have never seen any concrete numbers backing that figure up...

      IMHO, the gun problem is a symptom to a greater issue. Europe has a lot of firearm ownership, but the UK and Germany have a top tier police force with extensive training (I'd say the average German police officer has the equivalent of a Master's degree in criminal justice.) English officers spend a lot of time with hand to hand practice.

      I'd say change the culture, and the firearm issue pretty much go away by itself. If Hollywood makes it gauche to tote a .40, the gun problem in the US would be solved. However, gun control does a very good job at splitting the population into two, bickering sides, so it is kept as a wedge issue.

    68. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly, which is why you always see mass shootings at gun shows, gun stores, and gun ranges where there's lot of guns, lots of ammunition, and lots of gun-obsessed people.

      Thankfully, there are some places where that sort of thing isn't tolerated, like schools, malls, and US Postal offices. Ahh yes, gun-free zones, where violence is a thing of the past.

      Well, there have been two recent mass shootings on army bases.

      So many gun nuts seem to think if we give everyone a gun and train them to use it, we could all protect ourselves. They'd like to arm our school teachers to prevent school shootings.

      The reality is that it doesn't work that way. The guns being brought into the schools to "protect" the students would be a bigger threat than the statistically unlikely outside attacker is.

    69. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have more of a problem with you cherry picking Canada, Australia, NZ, and England, despite those countries having very little in common with the U.S. and causes for violent crime..

      No high school geography? Similarity in North America runs north & south, not easy and west. New York State & Ontario have way more in common with each other then they do with California and British Columbia.

    70. Re:shenanigans by daem0n1x · · Score: 1

      It would be great it if your excuses were backed by real data and not allegations. Care to show your sources, please?

    71. Re:shenanigans by daem0n1x · · Score: 1

      Can't wait for the great marijuana death wave that's coming, I take it?

      Me too. I'm so tired of those marijuana junkies robbing people to feed their addiction...

    72. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >

      But saying simply "Europe has diversity too" misses the point: the non-white folks in Europe are there because they came there and wanted to be European, for the most part. (This is pretty similar to Asian-Americans, a group with a low crime rate.) That has vastly different cultural effects than hauling people's ancestors over in chains and wrecking their society.

      Bullshit. I'm European and that's one of the dumbest misconceptions about immigration to Europe that I've ever come across. Immigrants in European countries try very hard not to integrate and have plans to return to their countries of origin "when the situation improves" (I know immigrants who have had such plans for 30+ years). Since they haven't come for the same reason as people who choose to work abroad for the experience, I wouldn't say that their communities are expat communities but there is no equivalent for settled immigrants like there are e.g. "Iranian Americans" - only "Iranian people who live in Europe (at the moment)". Many (most?) haven't exactly had any choice either, they've gone wherever they've been able to get when fleeing wars and famine. And just in case my post seems racist or anti-immigration: I'm not racist or against immigration (especially since I know how bad the age distribution of the European population is - more and more seniors per each working age citizen) but acknowledge that there are problems and you seem to be unaware of that. I would attribute the lower murder rates to a more extensive social safety net. When it's impossible to completely fall through the cracks, it's harder to justify to yourself that you can engage in crime because you "must in order to survive". If the system ensures a roof over your head (not just a homeless shelter but an apartment) and food on the table, it means that you have some dignity left and want to maintain it by not resorting to crime.

    73. Re:shenanigans by Loki_1929 · · Score: 1

      submit to "surprise" inspections of your home armoury by the cops.

      Funny how most gun control advocates in the US will swear up and down that this kind of fascist crap isn't part of their agenda. The gun rights crowd gets called paranoid for even suggesting it as a future possibility.

      If you don't want to own guns, that's fine and I honestly have no problem at all with someone making that personal decision. Where I draw the line is when someone tries to make that decision for me. Whether or not I actually do own or want to own any firearms is my business and mine alone. If one accepts that self-defense is a basic human right, one must also accept that the tools necessary to exercise that right are intrinsically and inseparably linked. God/nature/whatever does not provide the average person (in particular, women and children, but applicably to all) the means for self defense against hardened violent criminals, those on stimulant drugs such as cocaine, PCP, etc, and those who through some mental defect have become uncontrollably violent. God/nature/whatever also does not provide the average person the means for self defense against groups of violent attackers or those using tools of their own (be they guns, knives, hammers, baseball bats, or sharp sticks). Lastly (and of course what everyone will jump on as soon as it's mentioned), God/nature/whatever does not provide anyone with the means for resisting a tyrannical government which has violated the rights of its citizens and begun treating them as subjects or slaves.

      From my perspective, a society which bars average, decent, law-abiding people from obtaining the best available means of defense against anyone or any group meaning to do them or other innocent people harm has violated one of the fundamental justifications for having government: defense of peoples' rights. I completely understand that many if not most in some societies (such as in the UK, Australia, and some others) decided as a group that they didn't want guns around anymore. However, some invariably would prefer (and no doubt some actually do - at great personal risk) to keep guns around for self defense. They have a natural/God-given right to do so and no law passed by any number of people in the society can take away that right.

      If all but one vote away basic, fundamental human rights, this remains the essence of the tyranny of the majority. It is three foxes and a hen voting on what's for dinner. It is always wrong and never justifiable and no government should be allowed to do it as it is a violation of the sole justification for the existence of government.

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    74. Re:shenanigans by Tyndmyr · · Score: 2

      Uh, cherry picking is cherry picking regardless of which cherries are picked. If you want any statistical validity, you have to compare to the entire dataset. Gun ownership, across countries as a whole, is not a great indicator of violence. Norway, for instance, has a pretty fair level of gun ownership, and very low violence rates. When there's a severe lack of correlation, but a large range in the trait you are trying to find a cause for, it appears obvious that one is looking at the wrong factor.

      --
      Support more choices in goverment-Vote 3rd party.
    75. Re:shenanigans by Tyndmyr · · Score: 1

      Your comment that they are afraid of other people with guns does not mesh particularly well with the statement that they feel safest when surrounded by guns. Perhaps you might consider exploring the idea that Americans do not have universal desires and fears.

      --
      Support more choices in goverment-Vote 3rd party.
    76. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And when we abolished slavery, we were stuck with our former slaves. When European countries grossly violated human rights, they ceded their African colonies.

    77. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I think the best way to go is to stop everyone but the police and the military from carrying guns"

      WHOA!! Stop right there! Why would the police need guns? If it is illegal to own guns, and therefore nobody owns them, then the police don't need them either. And the military - why do they get guns? Ok, in a war zone, I get it, but why in the US? The military is prohibited from taking any sort of action on US soil, so let's keep them unarmed until they get overseas. That should solve ALL our gun problems.

      A lot of weapons are taken from police, or lost by police, so if you take away their guns, you take away a source of illegal guns for perpetrators. Same holds for the military.

      That should fix it! NOBODY can have a gun in the US! Problem solved!

      The above is only partly tongue-in-cheek.

    78. Re:shenanigans by mellon · · Score: 1

      How does that contradict what the previous poster said? Segregation is a bad idea. Your anecdote supports that conclusion.

    79. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or in the UK where we have... oh one school shooting back when guns were allowed.

      Ok, just one shooting.

      How many bombings in Ireland a few years back?

      BUT THEY DID NOT USE THEM EVIL GUNS!!!!

      Yeah. Killing is killing.

      And it's not the guns that kill. That, or all of mine are defective, as NONE of my guns have ever killed ANYTHING (unless you count paper targets). Well, ok, I have a few old war surplus guns that MAY have killed someone many years ago, but none of it under my watch, and I don't see that changing. But I should give them up why?

    80. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, criminals and/or mentally unstable people kill people often due the meds that they've been taking. Check out ssristories.org for more info.

    81. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quick questions -

      How does a 100-pound woman defend herself against a 250-pound attacker?

      How does a frail 75-year-old person defend themselves agains a strong 25-year-old attacker?

      These inequalities are the biggest problem to solve.

      Somebody said it best - "God did not make men equal. Colonel Colt did.". Truer words were never spoken. THAT is why guns are needed.

    82. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you mean warlords, are you referring to the bikie gangs and other various organized criminal gangs. Most "polite society" are the well to do shielded from the rif-raf by distance and the police so what they think sucks for the common man. There are lots of Aussie gun owners who will disagree with you about hand guns not ever being popular.

    83. Re:shenanigans by 0rx · · Score: 0

      Only if you've never visited the third world.

    84. Re:shenanigans by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      They have a natural/God-given right to do so and no law passed by any number of people in the society can take away that right.

      As I said it's a cultural thing, whether you believe it or not the vast majority of Aussies would strongly disagree with your statement as would the citizens of many (but not all) EU countries.

      It may also surprise you that the laws here in Oz were promoted and enacted by John Howard who was the most conservative right wing prime minister we've had since the 60's. There is no discernible left/right divide over gun laws and socialised health in Oz, decades of surveys consistently report 80+% of the population support both initiatives (which is why the right wing embraced socialised health as a "God-given right" back in the 80's).

      Disclaimer: A close relative of mine owned a hand gun collection of about 30 pieces under these laws for about 10yrs, he had a safe concreted into the floor, he had the cops knock and ask to look about 2-3 times in those 10yrs. None of this particularly bothered him, what caused him to sell his collection to a licensed dealer was his eldest son's heroine addiction.

      Personally I don't see random inspections of private armouries as "tyranny" any more than I see random breath test as "tyranny", I actually see those two things as protecting MY right not to be killed/maimed by a drunk with a car/gun.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    85. Re:shenanigans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The OP seems to think everyone merging together eliminates discrimination and therefore eliminates murder. Discrimination and any segregation is not why a vast majority of people are being murdered. People hang out with people they like and are familiar with. Skin color and ethnicity are factors but.. On average, a drug dealer middle school drop out from a broken home will have a larger criminal record and hangs around scum similar to himself. He has less to lose and does not take full responsibility, understand, or care much about his actions. Segregation plays almost no role in this. Segregation has no bearing on the aforementioned drug dealer to get him stepping away from what he knows and suddenly changing his ways and now he playing golf with the some C levels or building a fence for someone in his church group on the weekend.

    86. Re:shenanigans by volmtech · · Score: 1

      The US problem is African Americans. No other country has them. In trying to make amends for Jim Crow laws and other discrimination the Black community has been ravaged. Drug laws and welfare checks have fractured their families. I worked with a very sweet black woman. Her three sons and her brother were all doing hard time in prison because of drug and gang activity. I remember in the early sixty's riding with my farm owner father down into "colored town" to talk to some of his workers. I felt safe, there weren't unemployed young men hanging around, they all had jobs. If any violence happened it was because of drinking and gamboling or a woman, then the knives came out. The object was to see who could cut the other worse, they didn't try to kill the other guy.

    87. Re:shenanigans by RoLi · · Score: 1

      I don't see why this fact should give rise to cries of racism, when it is just as much sexist and ageist.

      This is because on TV-shows (doesn't matter if you watch CSI, Monk, Columbo or anything else), pretty close to 100% of the murderers are middle-aged, well-off, white males. (in rare instances it may also be a well-off white woman)

      People who are raised by the TV are believing this as reality. They are looking at this day-in and day-out year after year - of course they will think it is racism when you contradict that.

    88. Re:shenanigans by RoLi · · Score: 1

      In Switzerland ever adult male (who was in the army, which is most of them) has a government-issued rifle in his own home. Bear in mind, that's a real automatic military rifle and not some "civilian" semi-automatic.

      Murder-rate: 0.6 to 0.7 (2007-2011), lower than most European countries.

    89. Re:shenanigans by strikethree · · Score: 1

      You'll never get americans to give up their guns: they're all too afraid.

      It is clear that you are the one who is afraid. You are afraid of other people possessing guns. It would appear that you think that getting rid of guns will reduce gun violence (which is what you are terrified of). It is possible that gun violence may be reduced by telling criminals that they can no longer own guns and that all law abiding citizens will now be unarmed... but that is not the way I would bet.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  5. Singapore by Camembert · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have lived 2 years in Singapore, and indeed it is a tremendously safe place. Nobody worries about taking a shortcut through an alley, something not done in most western cities. It does mean that my local friends were often uncomfortable when traveling abroad, all countries seem dangerous after you've experienced Singapore.

    It may not be a democracy, but we have to admit, they do a lot of things RIGHT. It is a pleasure to live there, as long as you have no political ambitions.

    1. Re:Singapore by plover · · Score: 2

      Singapore, or as William Gibson put it: Disneyland with the death penalty.

      --
      John
    2. Re:Singapore by MildlyTangy · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      It is a pleasure to live there, as long as you have no political ambitions.

      And as long as you absolutely hate chewing gum.

      Also, dont go there if you have no problems committing the heinous and abhorrent crime of "jay walking".

      Actually, make sure you dont walk around your house naked while over there. Thats illegal too.

      Also, realise that hugging without permission is highly illegal.

      Also, be *very* careful if you dont beleive the local religion. Sedition is a very serious crime in Singapore.

      Come to think of it, if you are a westerner, just stay away, period.

    3. Re:Singapore by clarkkent09 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Draconian punishments for even minor offenses will make a place safe, doesn't mean that they are doing it right.

        If we were doing a 10th of what they do (mandatory capital punishment for possession of 15g of heroin, heavy whipping for graffiti, 3 months in prison plus whipping as a mandatory minimum sentence for foreigners overstaying their visa etc) the same people who admire their low crime rate would be calling it fascism.

      --
      Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
    4. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I live in a top 20 (population) major US city and I walk through the alley all the time, regardless of the time of day, and I feel completely safe and I have never had any issues at all. Who knew people were afraid to walk down alleys? Not me.

    5. Re:Singapore by Camembert · · Score: 1

      It was an example. What I want to say is that it is very difficult in Singapore to find a dangerous area. The most "seedy" place is probably the Geylang district, yet it is very safe as well. I have been in multiple cities, originally I am European, but have travelled to many cities all around the globe. The general safety and quality impression in Singapore is truly remarkable. In these two elements, Singapore and Tokyo are both excellent.

    6. Re:Singapore by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Insightful

      it's a city state

      the policies that work for one small rich densely populated tightly controlled area does not apply to large areas of rural and urban, rich and poor

      singapore offers no lessons about how to run real countries

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    7. Re:Singapore by Camembert · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Look, I am a normal dude who doesn't involve in criminal activities. Life is good then in Singapore.
      If you think you can have a career in drug dealing, then you would indeed be very, very dumb to try that in Singapore. The result is that the city state is visibly suffering far less from drug abuse issues than nearly any other city.
      And indeed, neither the government, NOR THE LOCALS, are fond of graffiti. If you want to be an asshole and try it anyway, well you know the risk associated.
      And yes, even the locals call it a "fine" city as their are fines for a lot of misdemeanors, yet the fine system did change behaviour. As an amusing example, if I am remembering well, you can have a fine for not flushing in a public toilet. This had an effect, you have to keep in mind the poor uncultivated beginnings of Singapore.
      Currently the behaviour of most everyone is changed, nobody even wonders if they should apply basic hygienic procedures.
      I agree that whipping is draconian and overkill towards foreigners overstaying their work visum. It is luckily enough of a deterrent to strongly discourage the practice.

      In general however it is not at all a fascist police state. I have lived there, I experienced it. I would call the non-democratic government rather a kind of "enlightened despotism", and I (and my fellow expats back then) had to admit that they did a lot of things very, very well indeed.

      Interestingly, Singapore in the 1980s was the model for Deng Xiaoping who during a visit noticed how you can have good prosperity and strong government influence together. This is how he started the reforms that made China into the economic powerhouse that it is now.

    8. Re:Singapore by quantaman · · Score: 1

      Singapore has 13.8 executions per 100,000, which is more than the 12.5 murders per 100,000 in Africa (though I don't know the execution rate in Africa).

      Sure the executed Singaporeans have (generally) broken the law, but how many murder victims are killed because they're involved with crime? And if you can blame someone for getting caught up with a gang that pressures them to commit crime then why can't you blame someone for remaining with a violent spouse who might harm them?

      I'm not sure I'd feel much safer there after all.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    9. Re:Singapore by Camembert · · Score: 1

      I partly agree, yet China is gradually implementing a Singapore-like model throughout the country with considerable economic success, but I agree that safety and general well being are far from the Singapore model at the moment.

    10. Re:Singapore by green1 · · Score: 0

      You could check with the rest of the western world though that have a murder rate less than half of that in the US despite large rural areas, dense urban areas, rich people, and poor people. Seems everyone except America can figure this out to some extent, maybe see what the rest of the western world does differently than the US (most likely accessible education, universal health care, less inequality, and that dreaded gun control)

    11. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And as long as you absolutely hate chewing gum.

      Chewing gum can now be legally obtained from pharmacies.

      Also, dont go there if you have no problems committing the heinous and abhorrent crime of "jay walking".

      The police force mostly doesn't give a fuck. Unless you get out of your way to get their attention. And/or, you're an idiot.

      Actually, make sure you dont walk around your house naked while over there. Thats illegal too.

      Only if you can be seen from outside. I'm typing this sans pants.

      Also, realise that hugging without permission is highly illegal.

      You're an idiot.

      Also, be *very* careful if you dont beleive the local religion. Sedition is a very serious crime in Singapore.

      Which one would that be? Also, check your definition of sedition.

      Come to think of it, if you are a westerner, just stay away, period.

      Come to think of it, if you are MildlyTangy, just stay away, period.

    12. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Lo Pan:

      Indeed!

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Little_India_riot

    13. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, is not safe, you are two or three times more likely to be killed than in most of Europe. Sure, murder rate is low, but Singapore per-capita execution rate is 13.8 death per 100,000 population. Compare that to the 0.8 murders per 100,000 population at Spain or Denmark.

      I wonder what else you think they do right, besides jailing homosexuals or killing drug users.

    14. Re:Singapore by Nemyst · · Score: 1

      Look, I am a normal dude who doesn't involve in criminal activities. Life is good then in Singapore.

      First, they came for...

    15. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Draconian punishments for even minor offenses will make a place safe,...

      There are many major differences between Singapore and a country like the USA. For example, 85% of the people in Singapore live in government-owned apartment buildings and public transportation is pervasive - with only 12 cars per 100 people. For comparison, the USA has about 80 motor vehicles per 100 people).

      It's an interesting question which differences are most responsible for the relatively low crime rate: it's not necessarily the punishments.

    16. Re:Singapore by Camembert · · Score: 1

      Let us put things in perspective.These unfortunate riots were very exceptional. It has been more than 20 years since Singapore experienced something similar.

    17. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find it amusing that after living many years in the UK, I never once saw a violent crime. However, within the first two years of living in Singapore, I witnessed a murder in Changi Village just a few feet away from me. Swings and roundabouts.

    18. Re:Singapore by Camembert · · Score: 1

      Again, if you are into drugs, then it is best to stay away. Everyone in Signapore, not just the government, prefers you being not in their country.
      Honestly, what is bad about that? Drugs are linked to increased criminal activity. The city state successfully scared off the smugglers.Perhaps the USA should take an example in this matter instead.

      Regarding "jailing homosexuals", you are plain wrong. There are a good number of lbgt people in the city. It is true, very unfortunately it is still somewhere in the laws that it is forbidden, but to my knowledge it is only referred to in case of rape, paedophile misdeeds and the like, making the related punishment heavier. The city is not persuciting the lbgt community.

      And your statistics are ridiculous, if you do not indulge in obviously criminal activities you will not get executed.

      What is so difficult about leading a normal, non-criminal lifestyle?

    19. Re:Singapore by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      The definition gets fuzzy when those defining 'crime' get to change it arbitrarily.

    20. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Call it draconian if you want, but to everyone that doesn't break the law, Singapore is awesome. I lived there for three years myself and loved it and never had any problems because I obeyed the law.

      Yes, there is the possibility that they could change policies arbitrarily, but so far (~50 years), the leaders have been encouraging nothing but standard good principles and family values.

    21. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It does offer lessons about how to run small states or large cities. I'd rather live in Singapore than Detroit and would be comfortable under those rules of engagement.

      I don't do smack, I'm not a vandal, and I don't overstay my passport anywhere I travel because a country that doesn't belong to me doesn't belong to me.

      I worked with a couple of Lockheed tech reps who were so happy in Singapore they stayed many years and brought their families, who also loved the place. They only returned to the US on retirement.

      It may not fit US traditions, but there are many ways to peace and prosperity. Exclusivity is one of them. If you share everything you have with everyone you'll have nothing and "righteousness" won't feed your family, hence Singapores strict immigration rules. This logic is recognized in nautical law, where full lifeboats are not obliged to take on excess passengers such that they sink.

    22. Re:Singapore by jma05 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      > Draconian punishments for even minor offenses will make a place safe, doesn't mean that they are doing it right.

      Incarceration rates per 100K
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Singapore: 230
      US: 716

      Capital punishment:
      It was true that a couple of decades ago, they did this a lot (ranked 2nd then). Now they seem to be doing it 5 - 10 times less.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      4 were executed in 2011. None in 2010.

    23. Re:Singapore by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      But still, no democracy. Japan is pretty safe. Maybe not quite as safe as Singapore on paper, but a woman can certainly walk down dark alleys at night without fear there too. Yet, they have a democracy and are not a police state. So, I think Singapore could improve.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    24. Re:Singapore by JanneM · · Score: 1

      So what about Japan then? That's a large, heavily populated country with both huge urban conglomerates and a sparsely populated countryside. Or Sweden, about the same size, with a diverse mix of cultures.

      Of course, there's relatively small income equality in both cases. it would be intereting to see how income inequality correlates with murder rate in general. I wouldn't be too surprised if it turns out to be as important as, or even more important than, average income itself.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    25. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could check with the rest of the western world though that have a murder rate less than half of that in the US despite large rural areas, dense urban areas, rich people, and poor people. Seems everyone except America can figure this out to some extent, maybe see what the rest of the western world does differently than the US (most likely accessible education, universal health care, less inequality, and that dreaded gun control)

      As I noted to your post above, the answer is both obvious and very politically incorrect:

      90% of US murders are committed by blacks against blacks, in urban areas where guns are completely banned. Your pie-in-the-sky ideas do not apply to a group of people that celibrate "thug culture".

      Please note that I am not racist, and work with large numbers of minotities. One of my best bosses in recent years was black. But I can also read the statistics put out by the CDC about murder rates with regard to age and race. The vast majority of both perpetrators and victims are black males age 15-35, in urban areas.

      This will not be solved by "accessible education, universal health care, less inequality, and that dreaded gun control". It will only be solved when black community leaders condemn such behaivior, and the community returns to family structures instead of gangs. Sadly, the most black leaders and polititians are too busy playing the race card and exploiting other blacks for their own gain.

    26. Re:Singapore by Ceryx · · Score: 1

      Japanese murder rates tend to be misreported or swept under the rug to boost Japan's image. That said, a lot of the killings are inter-family. 50 year old sons killing 80 year old parents and the like.

    27. Re:Singapore by Camembert · · Score: 2

      Look, I agree with the principle about democracy. However, living there I began to change my mind, perhaps democracy is not as good for the population as enlightened despotism like in Singapore. I originte from Belgium where so many issues and projects simply get stuck in endless politicall squabbles. Not so in Singapore which is run like an efficient company. You have to live there to appreciate it.

    28. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't actually need gun control that much. Education, health care, and equality will do just fine. Sure, gun control will help, but once you take away the causes for homicide, the availability of the means becomes much less of an issue. Just look at Switzerland and Finland, who rank at 4th and 5th in gun ownership respectively but have no problems with homicides.

    29. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody worries about taking a shortcut through an alley, something not done in most western cities.

      Maybe you meant to say American cities? I've been to many cities in Europe and I always walk through alleys. I haven't been assaulted or felt in danger once. The US are different, it's a society that fetishizes and cultivates violence, which affects the whole continent (e.g. Central American gangs were founded in the US).

    30. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I never feel safe visiting a country with the death penalty. There is the constant nagging fear that a mistrial or a setup could get you killed. I really hate it.

    31. Re:Singapore by Camembert · · Score: 1

      Your point being?

    32. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably mainly less glorification of violence, more sensible and constructive justice policies and rehabilitation programmes and much better education.

      I don't think gun control is the issue, although it can help. Even in European countries that have as many guns per capita as the U.S., murders rates are several times lower. I also don't buy the inequality argument: many countries have far more inequality than the U.S. without the American murder rate. The real issue is that becoming a criminal seems 'unavoidable' or even an admirable goal for many young Americans and they see violence as something that is normal and good. What is needed is good education, decriminalisation of minor drug offences and policies that emphasise rehabilitation rather than mere punishment. A criminal might not commit crimes while in jail, but chances are he's only become a harder criminal when he comes out, unless you specifically work to prevent that from happening. In that respect, the U.S. can learn a lot from other countries.

    33. Re:Singapore by Camembert · · Score: 1

      It was a figure of speech. I meant, it is very difficult to find a dangerous area in Singapore. The most seedy place is probably Geylang and it is still very safe. There are areas in for example Brussels and Paris (both are otherwise nice cities) where I prefer not to walk at night. Probably nothing would happen, but the feeling of being less safe is palpably there.

    34. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know what the US does, but what Spain does is to pay the criminals and delinquents a hefty sum and put them in positions of power, they also give them free housing, and avoiding like the plague to put them into jail no matter what they do, which makes small and big crimes legal in practice as there are no consequences.

      Our ex-president publicly called it "politics for peace", after legalizing a political party of well-known terrorists and giving them access both to government money and all housing addresses of their political opponents.

      There are fewer murders, but it's because criminals face no opposition and are free to do whatever they please without worries.

      Note that Spain is one of the most socialist countries in Europe, alongisde with failed states such as Greece and Chipre, which are also the ones impacted the hardest by economic crysis because the money used to rescue business simply disappears.

    35. Re:Singapore by Camembert · · Score: 1

      Indeed, street criminality is very low. Tokyo is a pleasure to walk around at night. There may be relatively dangerous areas that I am not aware of, but not at all on the level of certain american cities.

    36. Re:Singapore by Camembert · · Score: 1

      True, but in Sg there is no indication that they do.

    37. Re:Singapore by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

      Nowhere in the wikipedia article you "cite" does it say that, here is a more informative source for the execution rate: http://www.deathpenaltyworldwi....

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    38. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's something to be said for the efficiency of a good whipping (or caning, as they call it, since it involves being beaten with a cane) in place of prison time, or a monetary fine.
      First of all, it's done with immediately. No costly incarceration or the unavailability of a potentially productive member of society.
      Secondly, it hurts rich and poor alike. No brushing it off as "cost of doing business", and it won't take bread off a poor person's plate.
      Thirdly, it's much more humiliating than a fine. You're bound to remember that experience much more vividly.

      I'm not saying there are no drawbacks to physical punishment, but for small crimes I do think a few whips are better than the way we're handling it now in the western world. At least it seems to work quite well for Singapore and Malaysia, even if it seems they go a bit overboard with the application.

    39. Re:Singapore by Tom · · Score: 0

      Even in European countries that have as many guns per capita as the U.S., murders rates are several times lower.

      That's because our attitude to guns is different. Ownership is a secondary concern.

      For example, in Switzerland pretty much every adult male owns a weapon. Locked away in a gun cabinet, intended for defense of the country in case it ever gets invaded.

      Europeans, even where gun ownership is common, don't have the "gun culture" of the US. It doesn't have the same level of cool to go into the woods and shoot some rounds. There's a lot less presence of them in the public, it's not as easy to buy one (can't get them at WalMart), etc.

      Basically, we're adults who handle guns, americans are kids who play with guns. The results are roughly what you'd expect from these two scenarios.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    40. Re:Singapore by jma05 · · Score: 1

      > 90% of US murders are committed by blacks against blacks

      That's not true. I think you are confusing total homicide rate with intra-racial homicide rate.
      "93% of black victims murdered by blacks"

      The actual figure is 52%.
      "According to the US Department of Justice, blacks accounted for 52.5% of homicide offenders from 1980 to 2008, with whites 45.3% and Native Americans and Asians 2.2%"

      That said, homicide rate in African-Americans is still very high - "The offending rate for blacks was almost 8 times higher than whites, and the victim rate 6 times higher".

      Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    41. Re:Singapore by 3.5+stripes · · Score: 2

      It will be solved when the US legalizes drugs, and stops putting people in jail (coincidentally breaking up families, something highly correlated with children becoming criminals later in life) for non violent crime. The whole stigma associated with having been incarcerated means even if they served their time (with actual violent nasty people) even for something nonviolent, they will have an incredibly hard time finding gainful employment afterwards.

      This problem lies squarely on the hypocritical protestant morals and latent racism inherent in the US justice and legislative apparatus. Blacks are much more likely to go to prison for possession of controlled substances compared to whites, and then having served their time, end up being permanently excluded from having any sort of normal life.

      The war on some drugs is the single worst policy ever implemented in the US, but it is an awfully effective tool for oppressing minorities and the poor.

      --


      He tried to kill me with a forklift!
    42. Re:Singapore by 3.5+stripes · · Score: 1

      Illegal drugs are linked to criminal activities. For some reason, a substance that should cost cents to the ounce having huge markups due to it being forced into a black market attracts criminals.. who knew?

      --


      He tried to kill me with a forklift!
    43. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I live in a European city of 100k people that is part of a larger agglomeration of 7M people and no one here worries about walking through alleys either.
      By the way, what struck me the most about the statistics was that even in Honduras (the worst on the list) you only have a chance of getting killed of 1 per mil. It seems to me like we've got worse problems than murder.
      Wondering what the rate is in my own country, I followed the link to the data. (Why does the UNODC use .xlsx files?) Well, I may be three times as likely to get done in as I would be in Singapore, but when the chance is so small it hardly matters.

    44. Re:Singapore by jma05 · · Score: 1

      First, they came for... what?

      There is no progressive erosion of civil liberties (as you would understand them in US) in Singapore AFAIK. To lose something gradually, you first have to have it. They were always like this and did not get worse.

    45. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spain is a monarchy. There is a prime minister but no president. Do you even have any connection to Spain? If you do, how can you make such a mistake?

    46. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So that proves that the U.S. is even more extreme in Singapore and that apparently, that does not work. For comparison:

      Finland: 60
      France: 101
      Germany: 80
      Sweden: 67

      None of these countries even have the death penalty.

    47. Re:Singapore by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 1

      Iceland almost manages to be the same at 0.2, and be a democracy ...

      --
      Puteulanus fenestra mortis
    48. Re:Singapore by Bongo · · Score: 1

      Pinker's The Better Angels of our Nature mentioned some research: they sent a job application letter to employers, the letter said something like, "... one more thing, I feel you should know that I once committed a murder. The situation was that I was in a bar, and a guy wouldn't stop so we took it outside, and suddenly he had a knife, and I defended myself." They reported that employers in the south of USA were sympathetic to him and even invited him to pop in if he was even in town. In the north of USA, they were not sympathetic. A second letter, where the story was that "I stole a car, blah, because I was poor" got sympathy in the north, and none in the south. The researchers also note that the murder rate goes down the further north you go, even before you actually cross into Canada. So yes, people kill people, the gun helps, but a man's code of honour which says he should stand his ground, really helps.

      It is like comparing Switzerland and Pakistan. Real men don't compromise, and a bloodbath ensues.

    49. Re:Singapore by EuclideanSilence · · Score: 1

      Japan should never be used a comparison for any statistic. Japan is a country that existed for thousands of years in isolation, only opening up to foreign trade for the last couple hundred years. They have around 98% ethnic purity. Their language is unique, their beliefs are unique, there is no other place in the world with similar social expectations. They have 2 dominant religions that have (and with 1 exception due to an emperor, always have) existed in complete peace with each other. Japan is so unique that any correlation between them and the rest of the world is actually intriguing. To try to find significance to a single statistical difference is practically impossible.

    50. Re:Singapore by EuclideanSilence · · Score: 1

      Did you ever try to do something significant? Run a company, run a political party, publish a popular newspaper, build a marvel of engineering? To call a legal system unobtrusive, it requires more than insignificant people not being bothered by legalities. A legal system should also not hinder those make progress for humanity. If the defense against a legal system is to be a serf, then to hell with it.

    51. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WARNING! Clueless eurotrash faggot detected.

    52. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Until you're falsely accused of a crime that gets you whipped or executed. Good luck in Singapore.

    53. Re:Singapore by Kojiro+Ganryu+Sasaki · · Score: 1

      So in nazi germany, don't be a jew?

    54. Re:Singapore by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      Nowhere in the wikipedia article you "cite" does it say that

      ..except for where it gives the 13.8 figure right away in the second sentence of the article, and references it as a number estimated by the United Nations.

      "The city-state had the second highest per-capita execution rate in the world between 1994 and 1999, estimated by the United Nations to be 13.83 executions annually per hundred thousand of population during that period."
      You are completely worthless if you cant even find shit right at the top when looking at a reference. Seriously. Fucking. Worthless.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    55. Re:Singapore by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

      You are the one quoting 20 year old statistics, nowhere does it say the current rate, which is what you imply in your idiotic comment.

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    56. Re:Singapore by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      Singapore has 13.8 executions per 100,000 [wikipedia.org], which is more than the 12.5 murders per 100,000 in Africa (though I don't know the execution rate in Africa).

      You are posting a link to wikipedia, which actually contradicts what you are saying. In the last 8 years, there have been 52 executions, or 6.5 on average per year. The population is about 5.3 million, which makes it about 0.12 executions per 100,000 per year, less than one percent of what you are saying. So were you just reckless with the truth, bad at maths, or trying to badmouth the country?

    57. Re:Singapore by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      ..except for where it gives the 13.8 figure right away in the second sentence of the article, and references it as a number estimated by the United Nations.

      That's why you read things on wikipedia _carefully_. The number refers to the 1990's. And even though the number of executions was significantly higher back then, a little bit of maths with the data in the rest of the article shows this is still way off.

    58. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The tourism board might point to Berlin.

      "Try Berlin. We have a murder rate of 1/100.000 and it's in steady decline. Only 35 murders in 2011"

      Of course there are lots of cities with murder rates in that range or lower : Bucharest, Jakarta, Seoul, Tokyo(0.2!!), Mumbai, Madrid, Lisabon or Auckland.

      New York City, the most populous city in the US, has some higher chances of getting whacked. 5.1/100.000 . Or Sao Paolo with 14.1 (in decline thankfully), or Panama City (monstrous 53.1/100k in 2012) and San Salvador (52.2 down from 89.9 a year earlier).

      1.0 cities. There's a new meme.

    59. Re:Singapore by operagost · · Score: 1

      You're OK as long as you don't cross the local crime bosses.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    60. Re:Singapore by operagost · · Score: 1

      We've always been at war with Eastasia.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    61. Re:Singapore by operagost · · Score: 1

      So if you rape, your penalty is higher if you're gay? Sounds like persecution to me. That's the definition of unequal protection under the law.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    62. Re:Singapore by quantaman · · Score: 1

      Honestly I was being slightly lazy, taking the only per capita figure in the article.

      I'll say I'm a bit suspicious how the figures vanish for the last several years until 2003 when Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong told the BBC in September 2003 that he believed there were "in the region of about 70 to 80" hangings in 2003. Two days later he retracted his statement, saying the number was in fact ten.

      Though I admit it would be very hard for them to hide executions (and there doesn't appear any evidence they did other than that misquote)

      --
      I stole this Sig
    63. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But it would certainly reduce the prison population if those punishments were handed out for drug possession crimes. No use putting the people overstaying a visa in prison. Cane them and deport them back to their country of origin.

    64. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If we were doing a 10th of what they do ... the same people who admire their low crime rate would be calling it fascism.

      Did you think Singapore was a democracy?
      Do you know how many people are in the opposition party?

      At the 1991 general election, the party's best ever performance ever, two further SDP members were elected to Parliament - (Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen), giving the party a total of three MPs.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Democratic_Party
      More importantly, do you know WHY so few make it into opposition? (Hint: it ain't pleasant running against the main party)

    65. Re:Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if you do not indulge in obviously criminal activities you will not get executed

      And there's the problem: how does one define 'obvious criminal activity' ?

      Is it running for opposition ?

    66. Re:Singapore by jma05 · · Score: 1

      That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. We all read 1984. You don't seem to understand when to apply it. That also goes to the poster with Niemoller quote above.

      I suggest you actually read about Singapore. They have the finest schools in the world and have the most well educated and most well informed public – by objective metrics. They have highest levels of Internet access with no political censorship. They don't have a problem of propaganda. Its not even relevant for a small multicultural city state (with heavy international traffic, no less) that Singapore is. I'd say Singaporeans know world history and world affairs a lot better than citizens of any country, including your own. You should leave your cliches at the door while discussing Singapore. You could not have picked a worse target. If I knew how to get a job there, I would move there.

  6. So to summarise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dangerous places in descending order:

    [Places where there are wars or massive corruption]
    America
    [The rest of the world].

    1. Re:So to summarise by green1 · · Score: 1

      Afghanistan actually was doing better than the USA until 2012. And Iran is still better. As is Egypt. So I'm actually thinking it's more like:
      [Places where there are wars or massive corruption, including the USA]
      [The rest of the world]

      Too bad Americans fight tooth and nail against anything that could help improve their odds. (Education, health care, income equality, gun control)

  7. Brazilian rates by esperto · · Score: 2

    It is sad as a brazilian to see that we are less than 3% of global population and yet we are responsable for 11% of all murders worldwide (eleven-fucking-percent!!), and I would gess that this number may well be higher because there are a lot of people that just go missing and either there is no one to report it or the police just don't give a damn. We may not be as beligerant as the US or Russia, but we are very agressive against ourselves. And this is only for murders, don't even count violent death in traffic, which would probably double the amount of deaths. :(

    1. Re:Brazilian rates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, you brazilians...

  8. Next, be a woman by rossdee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A women may be less likely to be murdered but more likely to be raped.

    1. Re:Next, be a woman by green1 · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Rape is a horrible, horrible crime. But for all of that, the victim, can live a full and normal life after the fact. A Murder victim, by definition, can not. There are however some good reasons for studying murder rates specifically. Many crimes are reported very differently from one jurisdiction to the next, making comparison extremely difficult, rape is actually very difficult that way because in many of the worst places for it the reporting would show almost no cases due to lack of reportjng, or in some cases lack of an actual crime in that jurisdiction's system of laws. murder is much less prone to this issue. The same problem shows up for "violent crime" some places consider the mere possession of a weapon during a crime to make it "violent" others require the use of the weapon, others require an actual injury, others will only classify one or two specific crimes in the category at all.
      Using murder rate as a proxy for violence in general has it's flaws, but it is still quite enlightening to look at.

    2. Re:Next, be a woman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Relevant, how?

    3. Re:Next, be a woman by quantaman · · Score: 1

      Best to be an expert cross-dresser who can choose the safest gender for the occasion.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    4. Re:Next, be a woman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can't rape the willing.

    5. Re:Next, be a woman by Nephandus · · Score: 1

      Not if you count "forced to penetrate". They don't even count non-vaginal penetration in my state. Your assumption's based on intentionally skewed definitions attempting to bury male victims, but what's new?

      --
      "A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."
    6. Re:Next, be a woman by Nephandus · · Score: 1

      Silly, feminists make it quite clear. Rape victims are better off dead. They just don't like it when you say it that way...

      --
      "A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."
    7. Re:Next, be a woman by Xest · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Rape is a horrible, horrible crime. But for all of that, the victim, can live a full and normal life after the fact."

      No, no they can't. Some women recover okay, but others find themselves with a lifelong trauma that leaves them unable to form healthy relationships, leaves them scared to leave their homes, and then others just outright commit suicide. Pretending it's something that just happens and then that's it, it's over and you carry on as normal is probably one of the most stupid things I've ever seen modded up on Slashdot. I'm not sure if you just have no understanding of rape whatsoever and are completely out of depth on this topic, or if you just phrased your post incredibly poorly and unintentionally trivialised it as a result, but either way you really couldn't be more wrong in the way it's written. The very fact a non-negligible number of victims commit suicide implies that for some of them they'd actually rather be dead than have to deal with the aftermath of being raped.

      I understand that by definition murder means no ifs, no buts, there's no life afterwards, but for some victims the experience and aftermath of being raped was literally worse than death for them so you cannot just simplistically say that it's not worse than murder. That depends entirely on the victim, and what happened to them - it's so dependent on the case in question. For example, I'd have a hard time buying the idea that the murder of a 70 year old man who lived a full life and who had terminal cancer and only 6 months to live is somehow worse for the victim than a woman that's had to live her life with non-stop memories, clinical depression, and constant reminders of being repeatedly raped by a family member when she was a kid. I know without a doubt which victim I'd rather be.

      In contrast, a girl who slept with a guy and then changed her mind afterwards and then decided to cry rape, and lived in a country where that is legally acceptable to do so (Hi Sweden), probably wont have the slightest bit of trauma to suffer at all other than maybe a bit of regret about sleeping with "that guy". But these sorts of nuances just aren't born out in the statistics, so you just cannot simply say "Well, rape is not as bad as murder because you can just live a normal life afterwards" - no, just no. Stamp that idea out right the fuck now, it's so utterly wrong.

    8. Re:Next, be a woman by InsultsByThePound · · Score: 1

      More men than women raped in the US: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

    9. Re:Next, be a woman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously, you're not suggesting we apply subjective reasoning when dealing with human behavior. On Slashdot? Are you Mad?

    10. Re:Next, be a woman by anss123 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, no they can't..

      "Can" in this context does not mean "will". Yes, there are rape victims that kill themselves, but he's not saying anything against that.

      I'd have a hard time buying the idea that the murder of a 70 year old man who lived a full life and who had terminal cancer and only 6 months to live is somehow worse for the victim than a woman that's had to live her life with non-stop memories

      A rather contrived scenario. I too know without a doubt which victim I'd rather be. And that's alive, thank you very much, don't pick for me.

      In contrast, a girl who slept with a guy and then changed her mind afterwards and then decided to cry rape, and lived in a country where that is legally acceptable to do so (Hi Sweden), probably wont have the slightest bit of trauma to suffer at all other than maybe a bit of regret about sleeping with "that guy"

      Research have shown that people can suffer trauma from make-belief fantasies. Conversely people can be brutally abused and not suffer any trauma at all. People are complex, yes.

      "Well, rape is not as bad as murder because you can just live a normal life afterwards" - no, just no. Stamp that idea out right the fuck now, it's so utterly wrong.

      No it's utterly right. In fact, attitudes like these causes trauma in rape victims. Believing themselves to be damaged goods and worthless.

    11. Re:Next, be a woman by SwedishPenguin · · Score: 1

      I largely agree with your post, but really what you're saying about Sweden is woefully incorrect. There have been many highly publicized cases of obvious rape where the perpetrators have been acquitted with the motivation that it wasn't "obvious" enough that the victim was not in on it. Enough so that there is debate about enacting new laws to deal with the problem. I admire what Assange has done for the world, but don't take his characterization of Sweden to be the truth without doing some research of your own.

    12. Re:Next, be a woman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could make that claim about trauma following any violent crime. It's horrible, but putting it on the same level as murder is disingenuous at best.
      Dead is dead.

    13. Re:Next, be a woman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hi Julian.

    14. Re:Next, be a woman by Xest · · Score: 0

      "A rather contrived scenario. I too know without a doubt which victim I'd rather be. And that's alive, thank you very much, don't pick for me."

      So no one old has ever been murdered shortly before they'd have died anyway? No one has ever been a victim of abuse? It's called an example, the example bit of the sentence in question would be a giveaway to most people, it highlights the fallacy of the argument that it'd always be better to be raped than murdered. It's quite normal for a proof by counter-example to provide an obvious counter-example, that's kind of the fucking point. Your complete lack of understanding of the trauma of something like rape highlights how utterly out of touch you are with modern understanding of mental health issues. Again, if you're so tortured by such an event that you kill yourself, then for many such victims it's not a choice between being killed, and being alive, it's a choice between being killed, and being so mentally tortured by the event that you end up killing yourself anyway. If you really think that being killed is better than being tortured before dying anyway then you really have lost all touch with reality.

      "No it's utterly right. In fact, attitudes like these causes trauma in rape victims. Believing themselves to be damaged goods and worthless."

      This statement alone says that you're so far out of your depth here that you shouldn't even be bothering to try and play armchair internet devils advocate on this subject. If you think all there is to deal with rape trauma is to pretend that everything's fine then you really do have absolutely no clue.

      Feelings of worthlessness are simply related to depression and something that affects people who are both victims of rape, and non victims alike. Dealing with that has really no impact on dealing with the memories of being assaulted and the inherent fears of various things ranging widely from loneliness, to other people depending on the victim and the crime in question. Those problems are going to persist - you can't just make them go away with kind words, you can't simply pretend that everyone will be able to live a normal life after such an event - that just builds a society where we don't talk about it and blame the victim if they're acting a bit weird for a day. If they're feeling down one day it's obviously their own fault because I mean, they're just living a normal life now like everyone else right? Obviously it can't possibly be to do with what happened to them, I mean, they're over that we told them it'll all be fine and they'll live normally like everyone else!

      As a society we're past this, you're living in the past, with a now thankfully terribly outdated view of what impact rape has on victims, and how we should deal with it. Your trivialisation of the impacts on victims belong in the past, please leave them there.

    15. Re:Next, be a woman by Xest · · Score: 1

      Yes, I was probably being a bit unfairly facetious there :)

      For what it's worth I suspect it's a debate we'll be having in the UK soon, there have been a string of high profile prosecutions of historic abuse against high profile celebrities that have failed because it's so hard to prove such an event so long after the fact.

      Ultimately this long after the only evidence you can get is circumstantial, and this is why the cases are persistently failing. Despite the fact it's hard to reconcile how multiple victims who have never met can provide non-conflicting accounts of intimate personal details with innocence it's trivial for the defence to simply argue that as a high profile celebrity they're just a victim of money grabbers at which point the jury simply can't possibly accept that the beyond reasonable doubt test has been achieved, hence the innocence ruling. Normally, DNA evidence would swing it in favour of a guilty verdict but in the absence of that 20, 30, 40, in some cases even 50 or more years after the fact what can they do? There seems a reasonable chance at least some of these people are still guilty but how do you prove it beyond reasonable doubt so long after the fact?

      Of course then the flip side is that the beyond reasonable doubt test is extremely important, so what do you do? What options are being suggested in Sweden for getting the balance right?

    16. Re:Next, be a woman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Being physically attacked in any way - sexually or not - can be traumatising. I was randomly assaulted on the streets of a not-usually-dangerous city a few years ago - and, although they didn't do any serious physical harm, I was surprised how deeply it affected me psychologically.

      That said, any experience which you undergo and survive, and choose not to kill yourself afterwards, is less bad than being murdered. That includes the vast majority of rapes, and the vast majority of other assaults.

    17. Re:Next, be a woman by green1 · · Score: 1

      Some women recover okay, but others find themselves with a lifelong trauma that leaves them unable to form healthy relationships, leaves them scared to leave their homes, and then others just outright commit suicide. Pretending it's something that just happens and then that's it, it's over and you carry on as normal is probably one of the most stupid things I've ever seen modded up on Slashdot.

      I never once said it's something that just happens and then that's it. I said it's a horrible, horrible crime. You even agree with my point in that quote, you say that "some women recover okay". Please show me even one murder victim that has "recovered okay". I'm well aware that people (not just women!) can be highly traumatized and have massive psychological problems following a rape, and for years, or decades later, sometimes for their whole life, in fact I have met several of these people, and even provided medical care for some of them. That said, they get to do that because they are still alive. If you ask many rape victims what they were thinking during the rape it is frequently along the lines of "please don't kill me!"

      I think rape is one of the worst crimes possible. But it is not murder, and considering it as such does nobody any favours.

    18. Re:Next, be a woman by anss123 · · Score: 1

      So no one old has ever been murdered shortly before they'd have died anyway?

      You're comparing rape with a killing someone on their death bed. Sure, people have been killed right before they would have died, but that does not make rape worse than murder. By that logic you can say that bullying and teasing is as bad as murder, because there are people that would rather die than be bullied.

      If I was lying on my deathbed in great agony and a man came in and gave me the choice of rape/murder, I'd pick murder. So yes, it's possible to think up scenarios where murder is the lesser evil. But it's contrived. People generally aren't raped on the deathbed. Instead it's, say, between a man raping or killing your teenage daughter. In the former she "may" kill herself, while in the latter she "can't" get her life back in order because she's dead. I.e. rape is the lesser evil.

      Those problems are going to persist - you can't just make them go away with kind words, you can't simply pretend that everyone will be able to live a normal life after such an event - that just builds a society where we don't talk about it and blame the victim if they're acting a bit weird for a day.

      I think you're misunderstanding me. I'm not saying that one should blame the victim of rape or not talk about it. Saying murder is worse than rape is not victim blaming.

      Your trivialisation of the impacts on victims belong in the past, please leave them there.

      Rape isn't trivial, but implying that people should just as well be dead because they were raped pisses me off. People have killed themselves over such attitudes.

    19. Re:Next, be a woman by Xest · · Score: 1

      "You're comparing rape with a killing someone on their death bed. Sure, people have been killed right before they would have died, but that does not make rape worse than murder. By that logic you can say that bullying and teasing is as bad as murder, because there are people that would rather die than be bullied. "

      You're taking my example and implying I'm claiming some kind of generalisation, which is complete nonsense - you're building an argument against a point I never even made. My point was simply that you can't generalise and say that murder is always worse than rape, which is nonsense.

      My point is simply that these things occur on a spectrum - there are murders that are brutal and unwanted like the killing of a young boy for some sick thrill, and there are murders where the victim was on the edge of suicide anyway so would barely even care that their life was about to end.

      Similarly there are rapes, that are questionable to even classify as rape at one end, and brutal ones involving gangs, and possible death at the end of it to boot.

      These spectrums overlap - there are some rapes that are worse for the victims than some murders, hence why I do not believe we can make the blanket claim that murder is always worse than rape.

      "I think you're misunderstanding me. I'm not saying that one should blame the victim of rape or not talk about it. Saying murder is worse than rape is not victim blaming."

      No, but it does trivialise it for some victims - i.e. those who would rather just be dead as a result of it anyway, try telling them "Oh well, at least you weren't murdered", don't be surprised if they tell you they wish they had been and genuinely mean it.

      "Rape isn't trivial, but implying that people should just as well be dead because they were raped pisses me off."

      I don't know where you even got that from, it's not even close to anything I said. Stating that some victims will feel that way is not the same as stating that victims should feel that way.

    20. Re:Next, be a woman by Xest · · Score: 1

      I don't disagree with anything you're saying here for what it's worth, but I don't think your original post came off well - it has the implication that rape is always more trivial than murder, but some victims will always feel that is not the case, and in my opinion, understandably so.

    21. Re:Next, be a woman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So a compassionate rapist would be sure to kill their victims? Is that what I'm hearing?

    22. Re:Next, be a woman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go read all the comments on the Google/girls/STEM discussion from a day or two back. They're 90% guys saying that there's no impediments to girls being in STEM, so they must not want to be.

      That tells me 90% of Slashdot is unable to understand the impact of emotional trauma on others, especially emotional trauma on women. (By "trauma", I don't just mean violent trauma like rape, but also consistent peer/parent/teacher pressure due to ingrained biases.)

      People who, personally, can shake off emotional baggage, and thus think everyone else can/should be able to as well, have a clinical term: narcissists. Informally I also think there is a strong correlation with being libertarian.

    23. Re:Next, be a woman by anss123 · · Score: 1

      My point was simply that you can't generalise

      My point is that you can generalise. I.e. that green1's statment was correct.

      "Oh well, at least you weren't murdered"

      I'd say "I'm glad you're alive," instead of "Oh you survived, too bad, your life will suck from now on."

      Stating that some victims will feel that way is not the same as stating that victims should feel that way.

      No, but stating that rape is as bad as murder will make some victims feel that way.

    24. Re:Next, be a woman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The very fact a non-negligible number of victims commit suicide implies that for some of them they'd actually rather be dead than have to deal with the aftermath of being raped.

      I understand that by definition murder means no ifs, no buts, there's no life afterwards, but for some victims the experience and aftermath of being raped was literally worse than death for them so you cannot just simplistically say that it's not worse than murder.

      Don't use the word literally unless you know what it means. For your statement to be true, a rape victim that has committed suicide would have to come back from the dead and say which experience was worse than the other. And dragging in the fact that some people commit suicide after X in as an argument why X is horrible is a bad argument even if you don't make the mistake of thinking it allows a comparison with death. Some people commit suicide if they lose their job or get dumped (or like the German multimillionaire that committed suicide when he lost half his fortune and only had ~50M€ left). It's never* a rational decision and irrational acts by people says very little about the inherent badness of what they've gone through.

      *) I guess it can be rational if you're in such a situation that you know with certainty you'll die soon but can avoid suffering, if you do it yourself but is it really a decision to commit suicide when you would prefer to continue living but that option is not available.

    25. Re:Next, be a woman by Xest · · Score: 1

      "My point is that you can generalise. I.e. that green1's statment was correct."

      Then you are talking shit, you are actually saying that murder of someone who wants to die anyway is worse for the victim than being gang raped repeatedly for many years or some other extreme scenario. If you're saying what you're saying you're saying then the extremity of any example I provide is not irrelevant in proving what utter nonsense you are talking, any such example if realistic (it is, both these things have happened and will continue to happen somewhere in this world) is proof by counter-example that your argument is incorrect. I'm sorry if you find that inconvenient to your desperate attempts to continue to be an argumentative tit for the sake of being an argumentative tit.

      "No, but stating that rape is as bad as murder will make some victims feel that way."

      Again this shows your utter disconnect between what victims actually feel and what you think they should feel and highlights how far from reality your understanding of this topic is. If you tell a victim what happened to them can indeed leave them feeling like they'd rather have just been killed then you're showing empathy with their situation - you're highlighting that you understand how they feel. Telling them well it's not as bad as being murdered so they can be thankful of that does not show empathy, it shows a complete lack of it.

      But I get it, I really do, many people on Slashdot do not have that property of empathy, and that's fine, not everyone is or need be empathetic, it's just the way they are, but let's not pretend that's representative of the population at large, or that we should be putting non-empathetic people like you in any kind of position that involves trying to help victims of crimes like rape. There is a very long way to go, but thankfully there is a massive amount of money, time and effort going towards training in police stations and hospitals across the globe in general to help train people in the need to be empathetic in the face of such issues. Thankfully your non-empathetic view of dealing with victims is a dying one, so it really doesn't matter that you think your non-empathetic view is the correct way to deal with the matter regardless of how much you may disagree.

  9. Alcohol by puddingebola · · Score: 2

    The Economist article mentions that other studies have determined that alcohol is the most common factor in murders in Australia, Finland and Sweden. Searching for more studies related, I noticed the WSJ has an interesting site called Murder in America that allows you to sort and visualize murder information http://projects.wsj.com/murder...

    1. Re:Alcohol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That database made me realise I'm 3x more likely to be killed by my wife than I would be likely to kill her.. violence against men has to stop!

    2. Re:Alcohol by mjwx · · Score: 1

      The Economist article mentions that other studies have determined that alcohol is the most common factor in murders in Australia, Finland and Sweden.

      This would not surprise me.

      Australia, Finland and Sweden don't have significant problems with gangs or ethnic violence, however we do have very big drinking cultures. Drinking lowers inhibitions and makes it easy for someone predisposed towards violence to lose their head. Please note this is no excuse, in fact an Australian court is likely to be less lenient on you for killing whilst drunk.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    3. Re:Alcohol by dave420 · · Score: 1

      "Ethnic violence"? What's that supposed to mean? Scary brown people? There's violence or there is not - the ethnicity involved doesn't magically make violence non-violent, or vice versa. If you keep peddling such nonsensical terms you are going to look like a complete ass, and quite rightly so.

    4. Re:Alcohol by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      Australia, Finland and Sweden don't have significant problems with gangs or ethnic violence, however we do have very big drinking cultures.

      Not by some statistics.

    5. Re:Alcohol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They were referring to this:

      What the UN report leaves out is one important factor in the US: about half of the perpetrators and victims of homicide are young African American males, completely out of proportion to their prevalence population; that's what accounts for most of the difference between US and other Western murder rates.

      Get off your PC high horse, the chip on your shoulder shows.

    6. Re:Alcohol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Ethnic violence" means the primary motivation for the violence stems from the recipient being a different ethnicity. There can be secondary motivations, but the specific act was carried out to extent because ethnicity played a significant role.

      Example: lynching of African Americans in the post-Civil War era of the United States. Lynching didn't occur at the same rate for all ethnicities. It was only conducted against specific ethnicities. The Caucasians still committed violence against one another, but rarely was it at the level of lynching. However, against African Americans, the decision to go with a full lynching as a public spectacle rather than a simple beating/stabbing/shooting was because of ethnicity.

      Ethnic violence does exist, although in the case of "scary brown people," the motivation has a significant portion being religion-driven.

    7. Re:Alcohol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suspect that what the parent poster refers to is the fact that at least here in Finland and Sweden people drink a lot when they drink but not necessarily a huge total - i.e. no daily alcohol consumption with every meal but instead until they pass out during weekends. Probably because alcohol is heavily taxed and thus they need to get intoxicated before they can really start consuming without thinking about the cost...

    8. Re:Alcohol by mjwx · · Score: 1

      I suspect that what the parent poster refers to is the fact that at least here in Finland and Sweden people drink a lot when they drink but not necessarily a huge total - i.e. no daily alcohol consumption with every meal but instead until they pass out during weekends. Probably because alcohol is heavily taxed and thus they need to get intoxicated before they can really start consuming without thinking about the cost...

      This,

      And thank you.

      I spoke about a drinking culture, not alcohol consumption. going out and getting rat-faced is quite socially acceptable so people tend to drink until they're properly drunk, sometimes to the point of binge drinking.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    9. Re:Alcohol by mjwx · · Score: 1

      "Ethnic violence"? What's that supposed to mean?

      Violence between different ethnic groups.

      Is it the Ethnic or the Violent words you're having trouble with.

      Not just race, but religion, culture, upbringing. Kind of like the conflict between Irish Catholics and Protestants. Countries like Australia, Sweden and Finland tend not have radically different ethnic groups that are in conflict with one another. If we compare this to a place like Iraq where you have Shiite's, Sunni's and Kurds in constant conflict.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  10. Tongue-in-cheek by GigaplexNZ · · Score: 1

    The Economist includes an intriguing 'print only interactive' (see the PDF) and has some tongue-in-cheek tips on how to avoid being slain:
    <snip>...sit back and grow older

    You're not kidding about the advice being tongue-in-cheek.

    1. Re:Tongue-in-cheek by Noughmad · · Score: 1

      There's a bullet with your nationality, gender, race, occupation and marital status on it. The trick is, sit back and grow older before it finds you.

      --
      PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
  11. People In Honduras Must by TrollstonButterbeans · · Score: 1

    Play lots of violent video games!

    --
    Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
  12. a fact not mentioned: women kill more men, too by SuperBanana · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At least in the US, women kill more men than women.

    Also, while gender issues folks are more than happy to do all sorts of mental gymnastics for other things: nobody is willing to touch "why do men commit robbery more?" with a ten foot pole because then they'd have to admit that traditional gender roles for men are still very much in place, men are judged heavily by their economic status, and men are committing crime by and large to house, feed, and clothe their families.

    Lots of assistance for single mothers out there, like WIC. Single dads? Shit outta luck.

    Guess what percentage of the US homeless population is male? Depending on the area, anywhere from 67% to 80% (NYC, for example, is 82%.) Oh, and the percentage of women in homeless shelters is higher than the percentage of homeless women total, showing women are better served.

    Male privilege, my ass.

    1. Re:a fact not mentioned: women kill more men, too by Xest · · Score: 2

      Or maybe it's simply due to the fact that men are, by nature, chemically different than women and more prone to getting involved in aggressive situations and less likely to accept a submissive role in accepting support from others?

      Pretending men end up in these situations because of some bias in society is nonsense when there are well known natural factors that make men different to women in this exact respect.

    2. Re:a fact not mentioned: women kill more men, too by u38cg · · Score: 0

      Feminists tend not to make a fuss about homeless men because homeless men don't do a lot of oppressing. But more seriously, the issues you are talking about are entirely down to a patriarchical society and expecting men to behave and exist in a certain way in order to be culturally accepted. Get rid of that and maybe men might be better off as well.

      --
      [FUCK BETA]
  13. Fixed, with better layout by arielCo · · Score: 4, Informative
    --
    This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
  14. The data in ODS, with better layout by arielCo · · Score: 1
    --
    This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
  15. I hate these numbers by holophrastic · · Score: 2

    I've said it before, so I'll say it again. These murder counts are totally useless for anyone who doesn't work in a morgue.

    I really don't worry about *all* of the murders. The vast majority of them can't possibly affect me. I want the real number of murders -- the ones of which I ought to be frightened.

    I don't care about gang-on-gang violence, I'm not in a gang. I do care about caught-in-crossfire gang-shooting victims.
    I don't care about spouses killing spouses nor parents killing children. I don't fear my spouse nor my children.

    What's left is a very small miniscule number, at least in my country, of intentional killings from random shootings, caught-in-crossfire, crazy co-workers, mistaken identities, and the like. But no one has ever presented those numbers.

    1. Re:I hate these numbers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      David Hemenway in his book, Private Guns, Public Health, does give a breakdown of the relationship, if any, between victim and perpetrator of homicide by guns in the USA. Of course, there are other means to kill; I don't know if there are any reports about the numbers on those.

      It's been years since I read his book, and it was based on crime stats from the late 1990's to early 2001's. The most likely situation was intra-family killings, husbands killing wives, wives killing husbands. I do remember reading the ratio in the general public was 60-65% were husbands killing wives, except in the black community where it was 50/50. This factoid was offered as a (not the) reason why the O.J. Simpson murder jury, which was majority black, did not believe the prosecution assertion about battered women. The idea that in the black community women don't lie down and take it, I guess.

      Back to killings within the family, after husbands killing wives, the next most common in-family killing was mothers killing sons, followed by sibling killings. Partly to make sense of this, how many mothers killing sons is there an aspect of self defense? Also, opportunity: children are more likely to be in the sole custody of the mother after a divorce, fathers are more likely to be out of the picture.

      After family came friends in Hemenway's count, followed by acquaintance. There is a blur there, but again opportunity, or time spent near or with friends, neighbors and co-workers, plus interactions with 'meaning' and entanglements.

      Last on Hemenway's count were stranger killings, but they were not rare. But the quip some have said to be single with no children may have some truth. This may be an area where different countries differ more, with robbery of strangers leading to more stranger killings. But, also, countries just differ: see Thailand leading the world, if you want to call it that, if wives amputating husband's penis's a while.

      Speculation: how many killings are unrecognized murders? No body found, or murder by slow poison--thought to be more likely a women's crimes.

      Note: Hemenway is pro-gun control. He is professor at Harvard. He uses epidemiology methods and meta-analysis. His approach to gun control would be to use scientific studies to compare crime rates, in this case shootings across different jurisdictions. Whatever your position on gun control, his numbers are impressive.

    2. Re:I hate these numbers by holophrastic · · Score: 0

      I don't read anonymous comments. If you don't value them enough to put your name to your arguments, then they aren't worth reading.

    3. Re:I hate these numbers by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      Usually, the people who whine about anonymous communication are the ones who want access to personal information so they can shut down commentary they don't like. If you cared about rational discussion, the arguments stand or fall regardless of the poster's identity.

    4. Re:I hate these numbers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't read anonymous comments. If you don't value them enough to put your name to your arguments, then they aren't worth reading.

      Everyone here has fake names. Comments should be judged on merit, not by the name associated with it.

      You didn't put your name on your posts, either, unless it says 'holophrastic' on your birth certificate.

      Your attitude is a large portion of what's wrong with slashdot.

      PS. Not original AC. I don't have a slashdot account, and don't see why I should need one, other than mods/karma, which I don't care a lick about.

    5. Re:I hate these numbers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am a fucking idiot.

      - holophrastic

    6. Re:I hate these numbers by qbast · · Score: 4, Funny

      Damn, your parents really hated you to give you name like 'holophrastic'.

    7. Re:I hate these numbers by holophrastic · · Score: 1

      Not true. I can't tell the difference between 1 anonymous coward, and 8. So I can't have a conversation with words coming from random directions.

      And what kind of crap is that "usually"? Bullshit you know why people do anything.

    8. Re:I hate these numbers by holophrastic · · Score: 0

      Still anonymous, still not reading. Don't know if you're the same anonymous or a different one.

    9. Re:I hate these numbers by holophrastic · · Score: 1

      I don't read anonymous replies. Introduce yourself, or you're not worth any conversation.

    10. Re:I hate these numbers by holophrastic · · Score: 2

      Not that it's at all relevant to this conversation, but why would you think that my parents gave me that name? Names come from many places. Seems rather narrow-minded of you to assume any single source.

    11. Re:I hate these numbers by qbast · · Score: 1

      Parents are in general source of official name. Of course you are free to sign your post with any combination of characters instead of your actual name, but then why do you have such a problem with 'Anonymous Coward'?

    12. Re:I hate these numbers by holophrastic · · Score: 1

      Wow. Ok, first: parents give most first names first. There are countless ways to change one's official name without parental consent. I'm older than 18, and have been for a while.

      Second, not all names are "official" in the sense of government-record. They are still names. Any name, by which one is known by most people, and consistently differentiated as so, is a name. The problem with "Anonymous Coward" is that it does not distinguish between individuals. For example, if everyone were named "qbast", I wouldn't know if your last two replies were both from the same one you, or different people. I can't carry on a conversation without knowing if each sentence is coming from a different person.

      In my particular case "holophrastic" is my name under both of the above scenarios. Most of the people in my life know me as holophrastic (yes I also mean real-world people), it most certainly distinguishes me from others as there are very few other holophrastic's, and I pay my provincial taxes under the name holophrastic as well, so it's as government-record as it gets.

      Does that answer your question?

    13. Re:I hate these numbers by qbast · · Score: 1

      Do you seriously pay taxes under name "holophrastic"? What country allows this?

    14. Re:I hate these numbers by holophrastic · · Score: 1

      Yes, seriously, and in all honesty, I pay taxes under "holophrastic". Every year, for the past 15 years. As for the country, I wouldn't expect any country to deny you selection of your own name. Any sequence of letters within any of the official languages ought to suffice, especially if they are linguistically pronouncible.

      What country does not allow this?

      Actually, technically it's all a lie. I pay taxes under a nine-digit number, like everyone else in my country. But "holophrastic" appears elsewhere on the form too, and that nine-digit number also maps to holophrastic in some database somewhere.

    15. Re:I hate these numbers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Posting anon just to piss you off.

      So if three different John Smiths want to have a conversation with you how do you know it's three different John Smiths? How do you know it isn't just one person? Or two?

      But you WOULD read and reply to John Smith's postings. Even though you don't know how many folks by that name are in on the conversation.

      Hmmm ...

    16. Re:I hate these numbers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (: heh, pissing me off is a valid reason!

      Regarding "John Smith", it's been 34 years, and I've never been in a room with two "John Smith"'s. I really don't care about the theorhetical scenarios. I care about the actual ones that occur in my life.

  16. rape is *the* lowest category of violent crime by SuperBanana · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A women may be less likely to be murdered but more likely to be raped.

    That's mostly because the FBI doesn't consider prison rape to be a crime; I think the estimates I hear are typically around 200,000-300,000 male prison rape victims a year, which comes close to making the rape stats 50/50. There's also very little interest in figuring out the underreporting rate for male rape victims in open society; hell, in many places it isn't even a crime for a woman to rape a man because of the way rape was defined.

    But even if you ignore all that: I'll take those odds. Rape has the lowest occurrence rate in the US of any violent crime, and not only that, it's declined the most over the last decade or two as well. Men are several times more likely to be KILLED. Last time I checked, that was worse.

    By the way: case clearance rates for female homicide victims are higher than for male homicide victims.

    You can either listen to the gender issues folks, who make it sound like violence against women is a HUGE CRISIS, or you can read the BJS statistics. Women have been, and continue to be, a protected class in the US.

    1. Re:rape is *the* lowest category of violent crime by seyyah · · Score: 1

      By the way: case clearance rates for female homicide victims are higher than for male homicide victims.

      You can either listen to the gender issues folks, who make it sound like violence against women is a HUGE CRISIS, or you can read the BJS statistics. Women have been, and continue to be, a protected class in the US.

      Want to bet that the clearance rate for female homicide victims has something to do with the fact that they disproportionally killed by people close to them?

    2. Re:rape is *the* lowest category of violent crime by jma05 · · Score: 3, Informative

      When I was in US, I was very puzzled at the lack of empathy in public discourse towards prison rape. This was especially surprising since US leads the world in incarceration rate (3.5 times the supposedly âoeevery thing is a crimeâ Singapore) - so it is not even as if prison is reserved for the worst of the worst, with non-violent offenders frequently jailed, let alone the argument of punishing as sentenced and nothing more.

      However, I don't understand your chain of reasoning. You argued that there is significant amount of rape when prisons are taken in account and then go on to say...

      > Rape has the lowest occurrence rate in the US of any violent crimeâ.
      > Men are several times more likely to be KILLED.

      Clearly not, even with just using numbers you list.

      According to Human Rights Watch though
      http://www.hrw.org/en/news/200...

      âoe4.5 percent of the state and federal prisoners surveyed reported sexual victimization in the past 12 months. Given a national prison population of 1,570,861, the BJS findings suggest that in one year alone more than 70,000 prisoners were sexually abused.â

      According to this somewhat dated stats...
      http://www.oneinfourusa.org/st...

      Rape is far, far more common compared to homicide, anywhere in the world.

      > You can either listen to the gender issues folks, who make it sound like violence against women is a HUGE CRISIS, or you can read the BJS statistics. Women have been, and continue to be, a protected class in the US.

      Yes, it has declined according to BJS. But the starting numbers are so high, that it is still considered a large problem.

    3. Re:rape is *the* lowest category of violent crime by guises · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When I was in US, I was very puzzled at the lack of empathy in public discourse towards prison rape. This was especially surprising since US leads the world in incarceration rate

      These are related statistics. They both stem from the idea that criminals, all criminals regardless of crime, are somehow different from regular folks and not deserving of compassion. It's not something that you'll ever hear explicitly stated, but implicitly when people talk about the need to be "tough on crime" and the unshakable faith that ever harsher sentences are the right approach to addressing the problem.

    4. Re:rape is *the* lowest category of violent crime by Alomex · · Score: 0

      Women have been, and continue to be, a protected class in the US.

      You got that right. I remember how we protected them from the vote, how we protected them from the work place, how we protected them when we declared that marital rape didn't exist, and how we continue to protect them by paying them at lower rates than equivalently trained and experienced males.

      Them so lucky.

    5. Re:rape is *the* lowest category of violent crime by CBravo · · Score: 1

      People in the US do not care for another. They are polite but do not care, not really. It shows when people are at their most vulnerable: No job, in prison, poor, health issues.

      --
      nosig today
    6. Re:rape is *the* lowest category of violent crime by u38cg · · Score: 1

      Once you start adjusting for exposure, women tend to be far worse off. They are not gang members or drug dealers and clearup rates are higher because it's usually their boyfriends/husbands that kill them.

      --
      [FUCK BETA]
    7. Re:rape is *the* lowest category of violent crime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As opposed to, say, Pakistan?

    8. Re:rape is *the* lowest category of violent crime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's mostly because the FBI doesn't consider prison rape to be a crime; I think the estimates I hear are typically around 200,000-300,000 male prison rape victims a year, which comes close to making the rape stats 50/50.

      IIRC the FBI only intentially gathers figures on wmen rape victims. With the few men who appear being "mistakes".

      There's also very little interest in figuring out the underreporting rate for male rape victims in open society; hell, in many places it isn't even a crime for a woman to rape a man because of the way rape was defined.

      The othere intesting thing is that you will find people claiming that there is massive underreporting, but somehow what does get reporting is an accurate demographic sample.

      You can either listen to the gender issues folks, who make it sound like violence against women is a HUGE CRISIS, or you can read the BJS statistics.

      Much the same thing happens with "domestic violence". Anothetr serious issue where propaganda is frequently at odds with reality.

    9. Re:rape is *the* lowest category of violent crime by Beyond_GoodandEvil · · Score: 1

      how we continue to protect them by paying them at lower rates than equivalently trained and experienced males. Them so lucky.
      Seeing as how they account for 8% of workplace deaths, I would say, yes they are lucky.

      --
      I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.
    10. Re:rape is *the* lowest category of violent crime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I *know*, they have it so easy, yet they keep asking for more. Soon they will want one of their kind to be elected president, forgetting how lucky they have been not have been president for the last 220 years.

  17. Lesbians in Singapore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Must have it great...

  18. offtopic? Seriously? by SuperBanana · · Score: 0

    Who moderated my comment as "offtopic"? The story is about the odds of being murdered!

    1. Re:offtopic? Seriously? by Your.Master · · Score: 2

      The story is about the odds of being murdered, and your first sentence was on topic.

      The rest was deliriously offtopic. Hence the appropriate moderation, "offtopic". If you don't want to be modded offtopic, then your post should be substantially on topic.

      To your on-topic point: I couldn't find a source to quantify your statistic in a short time, though I did find sources which explained that women are way less likely to murder non-family members than men are; and given that women are *way* more likely to have a male spouse than men are, it should not be unexpected that women murder more men than women.

      I mean really, why would we expect it to be equal? Spousal murder is a thing, and gay relationships are rare disproportionate to statistically random pairings, therefore one might expect a greater number of cross-sex murders. Really the surprising fact is therefore that men kill more men than women (which I know I've heard elsewhere as well).

    2. Re:offtopic? Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. Someone disagreed with SuperBanana's post and modded it 'offtopic' because they're a fucking facist. Simple as.

  19. what that leaves out by stenvar · · Score: 4, Informative

    What the UN report leaves out is one important factor in the US: about half of the perpetrators and victims of homicide are young African American males, completely out of proportion to their prevalence population; that's what accounts for most of the difference between US and other Western murder rates.

    Gun control isn't going to help reduce those murder rates. Nor can those murder rates be explained through racism or bias in the justice system. Until politicians get serious and address this issue, African Americans are going to continue to get killed and locked up at a frightening rate. Unfortunately, our current president has been totally ineffective in doing anything about it.

    1. Re:what that leaves out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      enlisting them to conquer and pillage the world would be the most effective solution.

    2. Re:what that leaves out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't (entirely) blame the politicians for the state of gun violence in the African American (look, just say 'black' and stop with the PC bullshit) community.

      A heck of a lot of the violence stems from the culture that many blacks find them growing up and living in. Gangs, gang-banging, talking and acting all "gansta", worshiping guns and drug use both socially and in the media. Such a lifestyle is an identify to a lot of these people, and it's reinforced consistently inside and outside of their community. GTA: San Andreas was all about this gang/thug lifestyle and it's one of the best-selling and critically acclaimed GTA games out there (not having a go at the GTA series, only demonstrating that the themes present in San Andreas are obviously seen as cool to a lot of folks, hence the reinforcement of their culture).

      Go watch The Wire (particularly season 4, which focuses on kids and their experiences with this culture) for a realistic depiction of how blacks behave and how gun violence is always going to persist, regardless of how politicians act or attempt to resolve the problem. In a word - the US is fucked up.

    3. Re:what that leaves out by Your.Master · · Score: 2

      about half of the perpetrators and victims of homicide are young African American males, completely out of proportion to their prevalence population; that's what accounts for most of the difference between US and other Western murder rates.

      That can't be true because looking at other "Western" nations (I looked at the Western Europe category, most of Northern Europe category, most of Southern Europe category, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) have about a quarter of the murder rates of the US fairly consistently over the 13 years indicated. In 2012, Canada, Finland, & Belgium are are closer to 1/3, but some are doing better than 1/5. And that was tied for the best year in the US. To be fair, that was a particularly good year for Finland and Belgium, but average for some of the other countries.

      Meanwhile, black poulation is 13%, or slightly more than 1/8th the country, so the remaining one half the population of the US has to be attenuated by 7/8. So removing the black people entirely, the US still has ~225% the murder rate of these other countries.

    4. Re:what that leaves out by erroneus · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, looks like I didn't have to say any of what I have to say. So I'll say this instead.

      Look to Louisville, KY for how bad things can get when we try to be desperately politically correct or try to sweep it all under the rug. The "teens" have formed a gang among three+ schools and have exceeded the capacity of the police there. Oddly, only a small number of arrests have been made and of those they do not fit the profile of the "teens." Meanwhile, among the terror and chaos, the mayor essentially says "shelter in place" and "be unarmed" after the police leadership came out to the people saying they could not manage this situation and could not protect the public. The FBI has come forward to open all of this up and the truth is far worse than any previous reporting.

      It's beyond control and media and others are STILL trying to cover this up. This is not the sort of thing which can simply be ignored. At some point, this sort of problem will be visible from space and people are going to have to ask some serious questions about all of this.

      It all leads to this: ignoring crime and crimina tendencies only leads to its growth and intensification. Remember Trayvon? Turns out, he would be alive if only the school police were allowed to do their job instead of suppressing information about black criminals in their schools. Had he been referred to the local police after being caught with stolen articles and "burglary tools" he might have been detailed instead of getting into a violent confrontation which resulted in his death.

      People can cook up all sorts of ways to spin this and you could be on every side of the issue. Some people generally feel "who cares!? let them kill each other off and stop trying to slow it down!" There seems to be evidence that this is precisely what is happening though the question of intent remains unanswered. And while stats say black people are far worse to each other than they are to other people, there is clear evidence that they are a danger to everyone even if it's not everyone equally.

      Smart black people generally try to make a living for themselves, raise families and do all the right things and, individually, they are great people. But somehow, in numbers, things always seem to deteriorate.

    5. Re:what that leaves out by guises · · Score: 1

      You make three completely independent statements here. The first is a statement of fact: homicides are disproportionately common among young African American males. The second is an unsupported opinion: gun control isn't going to help reduce those murder rates. The third is another opinion, though I believe this one has a certain amount of support: Nor can those murder rates be explained through racism or bias in the justice system. - It's my understanding that a disproportionate level of poverty has been shown to play a significant role in the disproportionate level of violence among African American males.

      Your claim about the insincerity of politicians and especially about our current president is way off base on this. Some politicians sure, there are some that have been very resistant to anything that might alleviate poverty, decrying handouts and claiming that the poor should be dependent on the largesse of the rich. The president has been extremely consistent though about resisting cuts that would impact the poorest Americans.

    6. Re:what that leaves out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Once you overlay the numbers for inner-city, suburban and rural populations, the minority biases mostly dissipate. That is, crime in the US is not a question of color but of poverty, gender and place of birth.

      p.s. (1) I'm not an American. (2) My statistics professor run the exercise of collecting the data and adding it all up over a 3hr class session as a real world example of data sampling from on-line government databases and biases in the real world.

    7. Re:what that leaves out by stenvar · · Score: 2

      Norway and Finland are about 2.3/100000, which is about the same rate as for non-Hispanic white Americans. And you're right that that is about twice what it is for some other countries in Western Europe, but the point is that US society as a whole isn't unreasonably homicidal (in fact, several states have murder rates of 1.1-1.8). High US murder rates are a problem of specific, small minorities, and we need to intervene in those populations if we want to reduce overall homicide rates.

      And murder rates among African Americans are indeed around 8-10 fold higher than among white Americans. They are even higher and absolutely staggering among young African American males.

    8. Re:what that leaves out by stenvar · · Score: 1

      The first is a statement of fact: homicides are disproportionately common among young African American males. The second is an unsupported opinion: gun control isn't going to help reduce those murder rates.

      Those two facts are quite related. Compared to white populations, gun ownership is actually low among African Americans, yet the homicide rate is high.

      It's my understanding that a disproportionate level of poverty has been shown to play a significant role in the disproportionate level of violence among African American males.

      There is a correlation, but nobody has shown causation. In fact, that correlation doesn't hold across nations or populations even within the US. Poverty does not explain in any way the high homicide rates among African Americans.

      Some politicians sure, there are some that have been very resistant to anything that might alleviate poverty, decrying handouts and claiming that the poor should be dependent on the largesse of the rich.

      You mean politicians who, contrary to fact and reason, keep claiming that government handouts get people out of poverty? Politicians who resist meaningful reform and who resist helping people out of poverty by painting anybody who tries as greedy and selfish? Politicians who make a career out of empty promises, ineffectual policies, and crony capitalism? Yes, that about sums up Obama and the Democrats.

      The president has been extremely consistent though about resisting cuts that would impact the poorest Americans.

      Yes, he has. And thereby he has been keeping people in poverty. And by promulgating clearly erroneous theories (poverty causes violence) that serve his economic and political agenda, he has failed to identify and address the root causes of violence in the African American community.

    9. Re:what that leaves out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      about half of the perpetrators and victims of homicide are young African American males, completely out of proportion to their prevalence population; that's what accounts for most of the difference between US and other Western murder rates.

      Meanwhile, black poulation is 13%, or slightly more than 1/8th the country, so the remaining one half the population of the US has to be attenuated by 7/8. So removing the black people entirely, the US still has ~225% the murder rate of these other countries.

      So, basically your math backs up his original statement. A demographic that makes up 13% of the population commits 50% of the murders, and without them, the U.S. rate is more than halved. Sounds like he was right.

    10. Re:what that leaves out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You make three completely independent statements here. The first is a statement of fact: homicides are disproportionately common among young African American males. The second is an unsupported opinion: gun control isn't going to help reduce those murder rates.

      All the centers of violence are in cities with strict gun control measures in place; sometimes outright bans. LA, Chicago, NY, DC, etc.

      Firearms have been largely banned in Chicago for some time; that hasn't stopped it from becoming the murder capital of the US.

      His statement is supported by real world evidence; gun control does not have an appreciable affect on murder rates.

    11. Re:what that leaves out by dbIII · · Score: 1

      So? The other places also have their "key demographic".

    12. Re:what that leaves out by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Norway and Finland are about 2.3/100000, which is about the same rate as for non-Hispanic white Americans.

      Actually, Norway's long term trend is much, much lower than that (around 0,7/100000 or so), if you look at the data. (But when a single wacko's killing spree can throw off your nation's one year homicide statistics by extra 250%, you know you live in a fairly safe country anyway, don't you?)

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    13. Re:what that leaves out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For Norway the numbers are quite misleading as they are from 2011 and contains the 77 people killed in the terror attacks on July 22nd.
      The murder rate in the preceding years was about 30+ people a year.

    14. Re:what that leaves out by stenvar · · Score: 1

      Oh, this should be interesting. Tell me: what identifiable "key demographic" in Germany, Finland, Norway, Spain, or Italy has 10x to 100x the murder rate (perpetrator or victim) of the rest of the population. I really do want to know.

    15. Re:what that leaves out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It leaves the same out for minorities in other countries. The "banlieues" in France are as dangerous as the 'hoods in the US. Obviously France doesn't have African *Americans*, but large numbers of immigrants from its former African colonies have clumped together in low-rent areas. And the effect is just the same - no-go areas for the police, poor education, high unemployment.

      Of course, gun laws in France are much stricter than those in the US, so they can't explain the similarity. But the violence amongst the white population is a lot lower in France. Gun laws work quite well in a law-abiding population. They prevent manslaughter more than murder.

    16. Re:what that leaves out by schlachter · · Score: 1

      I'd like to see what the murder rates are in the USA if you remove Hispanics and Blacks from stats. Pretty sad though, that it reinforces what we generally consider to be negative or unhealthy stereotypes as mostly valid and healthy.

      --
      My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
    17. Re:what that leaves out by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Tell me: what identifiable "key demographic"

      The poor.

    18. Re:what that leaves out by volmtech · · Score: 1

      20 years ago made friends with a man who had just moved away from East Louisville. He lived in a two story house with his wife and two children. On evening he was in the basement and here comes this large black man down the stairs. Fortunately neither one had a firearm and my friend only ended up with a couple of black eyes. The police officer (a black man) who responded to the 911 call told my friend the best thing he could do would be to move his white ass someplace else.

    19. Re:what that leaves out by stenvar · · Score: 1

      Evidence? None. You fabricate and lie.

  20. Singapore rate is actually worst than Nicaragua... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ..if you account for Capital Punishment. From Wikipedia:

    "Capital punishment is legal in Singapore. The city-state had the second highest per-capita execution rate in the world between 1994 and 1999, estimated by the United Nations to be 13.83 executions annually per hundred thousand of population during that period."

    That's right, in Singapore you are 35 times more likely to be kill by the State than murdered.

  21. In Japan and South Korea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More than half of all murder victims are female because half of them are frequently beaten by their loving boyfriends and husbands. Often it will go too far.

  22. Likelyhood of being murdered in America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually, you're eight times more likely to be murdered by a policeman than a terrorist in America.
    Google it if you don't believe me.

  23. Link to the primary source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
  24. A more complete list, but from 2004 by sivann · · Score: 1

    Here: http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Murders/Per-100%2C000-people
    This site as useful source of all types of stats.

  25. Intriguing 'print only' by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Intriguing 'print only'? That's no good - if anything calls for a killer app this does.

  26. Thanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks, a true /.er .

  27. And yet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And yet those countries that don't let their citizens roam around armed to the teeth have significantly lower murder rates than countries that do.

    But hey, don't let facts get in the way of you gun-fetish.

    1. Re:And yet... by Entropius · · Score: 2

      In the US, there is very little correlation between gun ownership and murder rate. Many states like New Hampshire and Utah have very liberal (=loose) gun laws and not much murder. Others like Mississippi have loose gun laws and lots of murder; still others like Washington DC have very restrictive gun laws and lots of murder.

    2. Re:And yet... by GoCrazy · · Score: 2

      So I don't want to be that person, but based on the race and age group that commits the most crimes, you could probably guess the correlation between crime and demographic...

      --
      No beer and no TV make Homer something something
  28. Murder Rates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have a feeling US murder rates are underreported. After all, this is a country where a guy can open fire with an automatic rifle on a person in a moving car, kill them, and it not be counted as a murder as he was only shooting to scare, not to kill.

  29. FTFY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately, our current president has been totally ineffective in doing anything .

  30. [In] Honduras, by sberge · · Score: 2
    a man has a 1 in 9 chance of being murdered during his lifetime.

    And usually towards the end of his lifetime.

  31. I don't quite get by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your third point:

    3. Less inequality - This can only be achieved by sacrificing economic liberty which is something Americans traditionally don't like to do even at the cost of performing worse as measured by some statistic.

    Why not? I don't think for example progressive taxation anyhow sacrifices economic liberty. You are very free to make as money as you want, it's just that the more you make the bigger percentage you pay to the society back as taxes. The best argument for this being that after a couple of millions per year you can't even really waste more yourself. Yeah, rich people won't like that. Yeah, they will try to evade with any means possible, but so what? They already do so. Just publish a list of biggest contributors to society, or let them direct the usage of their tax money to some degree.

  32. The data doesn't show.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not sure how it is in other parts of the world, but here in FInland it's actually extremely rare to be murdered by a stranger. If you are going to get murdered it's statistically your old alcoholist buddy who kills you while you are drinking together in a friends apartmet. He stabs you to death with anything that's available (a knife usually) unless there is a gun around, then he shoots you. Third option is beating to death while you are passed out. You did drink from his bottle and called him an asshole earlier. Oh yeah, the other drunk might be your wife or husband. It's good to have common hobbies.

    Bottom line is, In Finland drunks and/or druggies kill each others.

  33. Drilling down deeper by argStyopa · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would also point out that the "US" - commonly condemned in such statistics - is probably the least homogenous country in the world. As such, it's probably useful to look at the state by state rankings, both positively and negatively:
    (ranked by deaths per 100k)
    1. District of Columbia 30.8 http://www.city-data.com/forum...

    --
    -Styopa
    1. Re:Drilling down deeper by schlachter · · Score: 1

      It's tied to race. DC has a very large black population. When you have that in any city, murder rates are very high. Same for hispanics.

      --
      My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
    2. Re:Drilling down deeper by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      I would also point out that the "US" - commonly condemned in such statistics - is probably the least homogenous country in the world. As such, it's probably useful to look at the state by state rankings, both positively and negatively: (ranked by deaths per 100k) 1. District of Columbia 30.8 http://www.city-data.com/forum...

      That comes from the same book of statistics that tells us the US has the best healthcare in the world. If you even take a day trip to Toronto you'll see more ethnic diversity than in the US. http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
    3. Re:Drilling down deeper by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      It's tied to race. DC has a very large black population. When you have that in any city, murder rates are very high. Same for hispanics.

      So we've enlarged upon " least homogenous" as a cause for murder to "large black population". Whenever you find two completely opposed ideas pulled together to prove something, you know you're in rightwingland.

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  34. Also by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 2

    Try very hard not to be a minority in the United States. And stay away from Skittles.

    1. Re:Also by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try very hard not to be a minority in the United States. And stay away from Skittles.

      And don't assault people that are carrying guns.

    2. Re:Also by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      Try very hard not to be a minority in the United States. And stay away from Skittles.

      And don't assault people that are carrying guns.

      I.e., if they get out of a car and start hassling you, grovel in a convincingly nonthreatening fashion.

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  35. TGR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I generally agree with the Camembert,

    having lived in Singapore it was extremely pleasant, and yes there are lots of rules and fines, but generally if enforced it's done with a sense of proportion. The locals seem to consider the trade-offs acceptable because the government does try to be accountable, and things they do seem to be executed properly.

    As someone who overstayed their work visa... due to my secretary not sending the right forms from my employer in time, I can say I thought I was treated extremely well. I had extenuating circumstances that they took into account, I had the support of my employer, obviously, and I was allowed to continue to live and work while it was all being sorted out. I paid a fine - which was not too large and was issued with my new permit. No drama.

    I also sort of agree with their gum rule: Chewing gum is a PITA in a tropical country, Singapore is almost slap bang on top of the equator, it's 30C+ 24/7. Discarded gum stays horribly sticky because of the temperature, not nice to step on. (To my knowledge possession and use of gum was never proscribed, just selling the stuff).

  36. No political ambitions... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But I do, however, have a beard.
    And I've been known to chew gum.

  37. TGR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The apartments are not government "owned" in the traditional sense- the Wiki you pointed to says "publicly governed and developed"; the intent is to provide affordable, well built housing for citizens to buy. There is a fund to provide affordable loans for those on low incomes.
    This deliberate approach was in response to observation of the Western European model where public housing was owned by local government resulting in limited upkeep of the property by occupants and extended costs of upkeep by tax payers. The SG model allows people to work to own their accommodation giving a greater sense of responsibility of ownership (who washes a hire car?) and a tangible asset.

  38. Yay Canada! by guytoronto · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Canada = 1.4-1.8/100k

    U.S. = 4.7-6.6/100k

    It's amazing how some people will defend the American way of life while being completely blind to the American way of death.

    1. Re:Yay Canada! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We can send you the underclass that commits most of these murders if you want. We can call it Section 8 - NAFTA edition.

  39. Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I like how they lump "Americas" together to make it look worse.

  40. Tom = multiple /. sockpuppet using scum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's let TOM speak shall we:

    "I'm having great conversations on this site with one of my alias accounts" - by Tom (822) on Monday April 07, 2014 @02:29PM (#46686259) Homepage

    FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    APK

    P.S.=> Tom *tried* to libel me & failed after I destroyed him in a technical debate on hosts files... result?

    Tom ended up "eating his words" here http://slashdot.org/comments.p... spiced with "the bitter taste of SELF-defeat" + HIS FOOT IN HIS MOUTH

    ... apk

  41. Caviar for all. by TapeCutter · · Score: 2

    From an Aussie POV it looks like Americans are paying caviar prices and being served dog food. The Aussie health system has statistically better results that the US system, however a 'single breadwinner" Aussie family of four is paying about one tenth what a similar American family pays for health insurance. To add irony to injury, one tenth of what the US family spends on health is already included in their tax bill and spent on government health schemes.

    It's been said that the measure of a nation is found in how it treats it's weakest citizens - the US does rather badly on that score compared to other (modern) western countries.

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    1. Re:Caviar for all. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not sure where you get the "one tenth" figure from. Yes, it's true that the 1.5% tax for Medicare in the US is the same as what it is in Australia (and apparently in Mexico too). But, what I pay for health care on my plan for me and my son is about 2x (maybe 5x if including what my employer chips in) what I'm paying in Medicare. Maybe the 10x will come into play when the Obamacare mandate is applied to businesses too. I don't know. But like my Mexican friends, my Australian friends (who still live there) have said that public system operated by the states in their countries is shit and that if you want decent care that involves not waiting forever and a day for follow up visits, one needs to buy private insurance.

      The best thing that a country can do is treat all of its citizens in the same manner, not robbing from one group to buy votes from another. Unfortunately, that robbery is done in the name of "treating the weakest citizens" and it does nothing but keep them dependent on the govt.

  42. The weather will murder you :) by IQzeroIThero · · Score: 1

    The reason why there is no murder there is because nobody report the murder by extreme bad weather.

    --
    Out of my mind. Back in 5 mins.
  43. be a woman? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    guess the author of the article hasn't watched CSI or Law and Order or True detective shows. It is usually a woman who is murdered in a domestic dispute or for life insurance money.

    1. Re:be a woman? by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      guess the author of the article hasn't watched CSI or Law and Order or True detective shows. It is usually a woman who is murdered in a domestic dispute or for life insurance money.

      Good lord, on LMN (Lifetime Movie Network) there's a different woman being murdered by a man pretty much every 2 hours, 24/7. Mostly "based on a true case!"

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  44. Or military posts... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or military posts, police stations, college campuses with armed police forces...you know where lots of people congregate. Fact of the matter is gun shows are generally people closer to death than not, so the ROI just isn't as good. That and why would you attack your own people? Gun nuts don't kill other gun nuts, it's professional courtesy. You know what place had lots of guns? The wild west...and it was...wild. And Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia have lots of guns, along with Mexico. Maybe the issue isn't the guns, maybe it's the people behind the guns and the apologist crap that they spout whenever another gun massacre pops up. Your theory that guns make people safe has been disproven time and again, yet you bring up cherry picked data every time and spout that garbage like a fount.

  45. Mexico in Central America? by lmasaya · · Score: 1

    Stats for North America are incorrect. Mexico is not a part of Central America, it is part of North America. Some may not know or like this, but it is correct.

    1. Re:Mexico in Central America? by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      Stats for North America are incorrect. Mexico is not a part of Central America, it is part of North America. Some may not know or like this, but it is correct.

      Mexico is part of North America. (New Mexico, right?)

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  46. Crime in America by MaWeiTao · · Score: 2

    I have generally found that most foreigners and immigrants have a much harsher perspective on handling crime than Americans. Many developed countries engage in law enforcement activity that Americans would consider the mark of a police state. I've found most of those people, however, find it outrageous that Americans would be so obsessed with perceived freedom that they'd be willing to sacrifice quality of life and overall safety. The difference is that they're focused on prevention whereas American obsess about deterrence via punishment.

    I'm not arguing they're right necessarily but it's hard to argue when cities in most first world nations are safer than American cities. I was generally oblivious to this until I lived in Taiwan for several years. It was refreshing to be able to go out at 3am and not have to worry about being mugged. Not that there weren't problems, particularly in Southern Taiwan and especially seedy neighborhoods. And sometimes I suspect crime in other countries in under reported. There's a lot of petty crime that I think is not adequately represented. But even then it's nothing compared to how rough things can get in the US. And to think that Japan somehow manages to be on another level.

    Crime also doesn't tell the whole story. In Taiwan, if you really had to go looking for trouble. Otherwise no one gave you a hard time, even as a foreigner. In America, however, wander into certain neighborhoods with the wrong skin color and it's a near inevitability you'll get harassed. And usually the harassment comes from some punk teenager, which is a bit of a concerning trend. Where I used to live in the US was a borderline neighborhood that straddled the line between okay and bad neighborhoods. A week didn't go by that some asshole didn't make remarks about me, as a white guy, being out for a jog.

    Inevitably, you learn to avoid trouble areas and I think Americans as a culture do that constantly. The problem is that it's the equivalent to sweeping the problem under the rug. And Americans seem to have a habit of reinterpreting statistics to suit some deluded world view. Take incarceration stats. People look at the numbers and assume there's some grand conspiracy. Doesn't it occur to people that more people are in jail because there's generally more crime? Certainly, the crime statistics corroborate that.

    Now, the interesting thing I've found, is that American police departments are far more militaristic than anything I've seen overseas. In Taiwan, more than once I've seen a drunk woman slap a police officer and he just stands there and takes it, waiting for her to calm down. In the US they would have tased her and smashed her face into the pavement, assuming someone more gung ho didn't just pump a few rounds into her claiming probable cause.

    On the other hand, I found the authorities there much more comfortable with continued surveillance. Here, it's all reactionary aggression. The rare police car I see is busy blowing through stop lights supposedly on the way to an incident. In Taiwan, however police presence was more persistent and reliable. Not that cops were personable there, but there was a lot more interaction. The only time people ever see cops in America, other than directing traffic, is when something has gone wrong. No wonder people develop a negative impression.

    If I had to attribute crime in America with a cause, I think the single largest problem is irresponsible and shit parenting. If that were addressed I think so many other things would start falling into place. There are so many cultural problems endemic to America that you just don't see overseas, at least not to the extent they exist here.

  47. congrats by mestar · · Score: 1

    I want to congratulate that person that made an unsortable excel. What a superb idea that was.

  48. China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...does NOT have socialized heath care. It does have incredibly strict gun laws, but there is nothing resembling universal healthcare--in fact, the whole system was scrapped in the mid 1990s because it was deemed too expensive. There's no laws for hospitals either. If you can't pay (and they make you do so in advance), they will leave you to die on the street. It's happened a few times that a pregant woman has given birth in the gutter because she couldn't afford a bed in the hospital.

  49. Why pretend to be blind? by dbIII · · Score: 1

    You can see the evidence for yourself in your own example as well as others in other places. I'm sure you've already noticed so it's amusing that you've used a pre-emptive accusation of lying. This has clearly just turned into playground name-calling, which while it demonstrates your weakness of character quite well is somewhat boring and offtopic.

    1. Re:Why pretend to be blind? by stenvar · · Score: 1

      You can see the evidence for yourself in your own example as well as others in other places.

      You claimed that "the poor" are a "key demographic" for high homicide rates in Europe. Where is the evidence?

    2. Re:Why pretend to be blind? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      You are the one that shifted the goalposts to Europe in some feeble attempt to hide from reality. Meanwhile in your own country and many others (including European countries) most homicide victims and perpetrators are poor.
      Pretending that a simple and truthful two word answer is a fabrication and a lie however really shows that this is all about pushing an agenda isn't it? Sorry about not giving you an excuse to bring out the kerosene and wooden cross.

    3. Re:Why pretend to be blind? by stenvar · · Score: 1

      Meanwhile in your own country and many others (including European countries) most homicide victims and perpetrators are poor.

      Even if that were true, it wouldn't make poor people a "key demographic"; African Americans in the US commit homicides at a rate 5-10x higher than non-African Americans, even poor ones. Hence, poverty logically not a cause of the excessively high homicide rates among African Americans, because otherwise we'd be seeing the same kind of homicide rates in those other populations.

      And, of course, African Americans as a population are economically better off than the populations of many European nations with much lower murder rates, so if economic deprivation caused high homicide rates, many European nations should have higher homicide rates than African Americans.

      Pretending that a simple and truthful two word answer is a fabrication and a lie

      Your answer is neither simple nor truthful. You're evasive, refuse to give facts, and clearly have an economic agenda. I'm trying to get some facts out of you because I'm actually interested where your opinions come from, to learn something. But obviously, you're just pulling everything out of your ass.

    4. Re:Why pretend to be blind? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      You got all that out of two truthful words where you can clearly see the evidence yourself even in your own example? Wow. You really are working hard to push the party line there comrade. Keep it up and you may make Commissar.

    5. Re:Why pretend to be blind? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OK, I'd like to have seen evidence of a link between poverty and homicide in Europe, but obviously you have no such evidence. I think it's quite plausible that such a relationship exists in Europe (given that societies are much more uniform), but obviously you are too ignorant and uneducated to actually provide one.

      As I was saying, in the US, the high homicide rate among African Americans cannot be explained by poverty, as is easy to see from US data.

    6. Re:Why pretend to be blind? by dbIII · · Score: 1
      It's very easy to see such a link if you open your eyes long enough to read about the topic from any source.

      the high homicide rate among African Americans cannot be explained by poverty

      Why? Because it doesn't fit the message you want to spread? It certainly fits with the data because the ones doing the killing and dying are poor.

      Of course since you are the sort of person that called my simple two word reply "fabrication and lies" you are clearly not interested in the truth but instead pushing some fucking stupid white supremacy agenda.

  50. The source of the statistics? by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 1

    Last I heard, being shot or beaten by a cop for no good reason, and then dying at the scene or later of your injuries isn't included in the statistics, at least in the US. Not as murder (obviously) nor as suspicious death at the hands of police nor non-suspicious death at the hands of police or anything. Not tracked in the stats, period.

    Specifically, not something the FBI keeps track of, last I heard.

    Maybe if I had RTFA I would know. And maybe not.

    --
    There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
  51. tell the whole story by gzuckier · · Score: 1

    " In the world's most violent country, Honduras, a man has a 1 in 9 chance of being murdered during his lifetime." On the other hand, his chance of being murdered not during his lifetime is much lower.

    --
    Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.