[quote=svelte][quote=EconProf]Along these lines….many people wrongly buy into the idea that recessions cause crime. But your cited facts belie that conclusion, as crime rates are thankfully falling most everywhere. The national crime rate was unusually low during the Great Depression of the 1930s.[/quote]
This intrigues me…why do crime rates fall during recessions/depressions? It does seem counter-intuitive.[/quote]
svelte, I dont think Econ was asserting that recessions/depressions cause crime to fall, just that they do not cause it to rise, which people tend to believe. It is logical, just not factual. The last ten years of falling crime rates can mostly be attributed to technology. There’s just no money in mugging people, few people carry cash, it’s a lot easier to get their money madoff style, or in less violent ways (identity theft/fraud). bankers are the new gang members. Forensics, DNA, video cameras, computers, cell phones, alarms, gps tracking devices and other technological advances gets most of the credit for the falling crime rates this decade.
paramount, here is the press release from the sheriff
a couple of things to focus on, the victim didn’t report the crime or call 911, the hospital reported it because they have to. They quickly got his name and phone number, contacted him and he agreed to surrender. DNA doesn’t work that fast so the victim probably knew him, may have been related to him, etc. But he wasn’t sitting in the park waiting to stab the next guy walking his dog.
Four entries, but three were sealed (probably because he was a minor), the only visible one was a domestic violence restraining order, kinda rare for an 18 year old. My guess is that this had a domestic angle to it and was not random. There really isn’t a place you can move to in order to avoid brothers fighting, husbands killing wives for insurance money or jealousy, families turning their living rooms into hockey games, this happens everywhere and doesn’t endanger you.
But if you are afraid to venture out at night, then it is real to you, it is affecting your quality of life. I suggest land, places on 5 acres or more, dog and shotgun country, russel’s type hood, those places have a lot less things going on and when it does happen, it’s too far away to hear.
I’m still going to go out at night, I’m an odds guy, I’m not going sit at home because there is a 0.00153 percent chance that in a given year I will be the victim of a violent crime. Over the course of the next 40 years that I’ll probably be on the planet, there is a 0.0612 chance that I will be a victim of a violent crime. I don’t know how to calculate the odds of my being involved in a threesome with Beyonce and Christina Hendricks so I don’t modify my life because of that possiblity either, unfortunately.
