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.'"
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.
Come on, public data published in .xlsx...
here I come!
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...
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.
Dangerous places in descending order:
[Places where there are wars or massive corruption]
America
[The rest of the world].
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. :(
A women may be less likely to be murdered but more likely to be raped.
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...
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.
Play lots of violent video games!
Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
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.
Please help metamoderate.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent....
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent....
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
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.
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.
Please help metamoderate.
Must have it great...
Who moderated my comment as "offtopic"? The story is about the odds of being murdered!
Please help metamoderate.
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.
..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.
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.
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.
The actual UN homicide report is at
http://www.unodc.org/documents/gsh/pdfs/2014_GLOBAL_HOMICIDE_BOOK_web.pdf
Here: http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Murders/Per-100%2C000-people
This site as useful source of all types of stats.
Intriguing 'print only'? That's no good - if anything calls for a killer app this does.
Thanks, a true /.er .
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.
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.
Unfortunately, our current president has been totally ineffective in doing anything .
And usually towards the end of his lifetime.
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.
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.
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
Try very hard not to be a minority in the United States. And stay away from Skittles.
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).
But I do, however, have a beard.
And I've been known to chew gum.
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.
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.
I like how they lump "Americas" together to make it look worse.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I want to congratulate that person that made an unsortable excel. What a superb idea that was.
...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.
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.
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.
" 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.