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lol and even bigger question is why the hell dont you guys put walls around your houses! there is something really unsettling about how easy it would be for someone to walk right up to your window and look in
Well, it would help a lot of things if there were truth in sentencing in this country. A person gets sentenced to 20 years and gets a day of credit for every day served, cutting the time in half. It is no different than a spoiled child. If they know they are going to wrangle out of their punishment, they are not afraid to repeat the offense. Punishment should fit the crime, and our prosecutors and defense attorneys should stop acting as if they are playing a game to see who can win and get down to trying for true justice. It is time to take the blindfold off of the lady-justice.
lol and even bigger question is why the hell dont you guys put walls around your houses! there is something really unsettling about how easy it would be for someone to walk right up to your window and look in
This is what it's coming to. With the collapse of the middle class, the US is slowly turning into something like Latin America, where the wealthy all live behind high walls and have bodyguards and private security details. This is what the "gated community" phenomenon is about in the US, though it doesn't really work all that well. Repairmen and construction workers who are allowed into the communities commit crimes, so it's not an effective system.
16 years olds cannot buy a weapon in america...and they cannot legally carry either...
This varies by state, and by type of gun (handgun vs. longarm). And now that Congress has allowed the gun laws of one state to carry over to other states that the licensed gun owner visits, 16-year olds can carry their guns into any state if they're allowed to have one in their home state. Teens in Arizona carry guns to school in their cars, for participation in gun clubs at school.
Arizona and Virginia want to allow concealed weapons on college campuses. Bizarrely, they think this will make college campuses safer. The madness only gets worse, not better. Thank the gun lobby for that. It's working to extend the right to carry concealed weapons to more and more locales. The prohibition on buying and selling semi-automatic weapons just expired as well, and Congress didn't renew it.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 05-11-2012 at 07:11 PM..
The US has 1 serial killer for every 2, 511, 097 people.
The UK has 1 serial killer for every 1, 507, 053 people.
Australia has 1 serial killer for every 1, 584, 642.
However, these numbers are based on current populations and the total number of serial killers to date. What would be more accurate would be if I averaged the population between the years of the first recorded serial killer to the most recent.
LOL - The high rate for the UK can probably be accounted by two things. Firstly the UK has one of the oldest legal and law enforcement systems in the world and has recorded crime for a far longer periods than many countries. If you look at the UK list of serial killers, quite a high percentage are from the 18th Century or from the first half of the 19th century. (By the way I seem to recall people such as Ian Brady and Donald Nielsen as being Scottish, amongst others on that list????)
Secondly a serial killer can only emerge as a serial killer if a pattern of murders are put together leading the police to suggest that one person is responsible. In many cases the police go on to catch the person responcible, so serial killers will always have a greater prevalence in societies that have advanced law enforcement and police services backed up by good science, forensics and technology. Even during Victorian times the British Police were amongst the best at detecting and solving murders.
It would also seem that Scotland, Venezuela, Brazil and Papua New Guinea would easily rival, if not outright exceed, the violence you see reported in American media on a daily basis. Caracas, Venezuela has the distinction of being one of the most violent cities on the planet, and Glasgow, Scotland is one of the most violent cities in the western world. It should also be noted that in many places within India, Pakistan and northern Africa, violence is so commonplace that incidents that would widely reported in North America are simply accepted as part of daily life. I worked with an Indian man who told me some of the things he saw growing up in India and it was a helluva lot scarier than Columbine.
It would also seem that Scotland, Venezuela, Brazil and Papua New Guinea would easily rival, if not outright exceed, the violence you see reported in American media on a daily basis. Caracas, Venezuela has the distinction of being one of the most violent cities on the planet, and Glasgow, Scotland is one of the most violent cities in the western world. It should also be noted that in many places within India, Pakistan and northern Africa, violence is so commonplace that incidents that would widely reported in North America are simply accepted as part of daily life. I worked with an Indian man who told me some of the things he saw growing up in India and it was a helluva lot scarier than Columbine.
Scotland does not have violent crime rates similar to South America. The difference is in what is recorded as violent crime, with fairly trival incidents including verbal assault classed as violent crime in the UK.
Figures published by the Scottish government revealed there were 97 homicides in the year to the end of March in Scotland which has a population of 5.2 million.
Surprising UK Crime Figures
• Around half of all violent crimes result in no injury whatsoever (according to both police figures and BCS).
• 71% of mugging (robbery and snatch theft) incidents result in no injury.
• The number of violent incidents has fallen by 36% since 1995.
• Certain "yobbish" behaviours (eg minor scuffles) have been reclassified as crime, with the effect of doubling recorded violent crime.
• A violent crime with many victims is no longer recorded as a single crime. An incident with 5 victims is now recorded as 5 crimes.
• A higher proportion of violent crime is recorded – eg the proportion of common assaults (without injury) recorded rose from around 50% to 68% between 2002 and 2003.
There were 619 muders in England & Wales (population 54 million) in 2010/11. The biggest single cause of murder in the UK being domestic violence rather than murder by a stranger.
In terms of serious violent crime the UK has one of the lowest figures in the world, in terms of minor and nuisance crime, we often record it in our violent crime figures leading to a massive inflation of the figures and an over recording of crime. The new Government is currently looking at taking certain low level crimes off the list of crimes deemed as violent, as it is making a mockery of our figures. Although the fact the figures are so skewed because of the over recording of minor crime doesn't get in the way of idiotic journalists trying to write a daft sensationalist story.
As for Glasgow I don't think it is on is on a par with many US Cities in terms of violent crime never mind American ones. I always found Glasgow quite a nice city, and one which has seen massive investment in recent decades. Fair enough Glasgow has twice the murder rate of London, and over a quarter of the 97 murders in Scotland took place in Glasgow, but this still accounts for a murder rate of 3.3 per 100,000. Compare this with some US Cities such as Philadelphia which has a murder rate of 19.6 per 100,000 or Baltimore which has over ten times the murder rate of Glasgow with a massive 34.8 per 100,000 or Washington DC with 21.9 per 100,000 or St Louis with 40 per 100,000 or New Orleans with nearly 50 per 100,000.
If Glasgow was in the US it would have one of the lowest murder rates of any major city of it's size. Whilst Glasgow may have one of the highest murder rates in Western Europe, I think it would be an exageration to claim it was one of the most dangerous places in the Western World. As for the highest murder rate in Western Europe doesn't that belong to Helsinki in Finland with 12.5 murders per 100,000.
Strathclyde Police cover Glasgow and it's metro of 2.5 million people, which is home to nearly half the population of Scotland, and which is home to a diversity of areas based on income, and a diversity of urban, suburban and rural areas.
It should also be noted that there is a big difference between serious violent crime and more low level crimes sometimes recorded as violent crimes by police, and it is serious violent crime that is the important figure when looking at recorded crime data.
In terms of Glasgow I recently read that the city had been succesful in reducing gang-related violence, and that the city was employing fresh approaches and initiatives in order to cut violent crime
As for Common Assaults they were up slightly, but they constitute very minor assaults and scuffles.
Glasgow probably does have higher violent crime figures when compared to some other UK Cities and indeed some European Cities, but it is hardly Johannesburg or Baltimore.
Complete ignorance and blatant disregard for mental health issues
To a large degree that is corrct. A perosn that is mentally ill can not be instituionalised unless he si a imment danger.not just a danger , For exaple many people with mental problems refuse to take their mediciane that controls behaviour and that is not reason to atke their feedoms away.That si why i so mnay cases the perosn is often confronted by police when they go off.As to murders i schools its jusr asgi of moderan society ebcause eve when i was a kid;school was oe of the safest place you could be and even a kid with brig a fireram to school was unheard of. perhaps its just that moderan secular spociety reenfrce the perosn over the cosiety and they fee a right to be violent in forcig their rights.One only has to looat other violence and distuptive behaviour which even the law its approved to violate to get your poltical wants.Violence and disreagrd of the law has become more prevelent since the 60's in belief that the end justifies the means.
Better police force and free press. I am sure there are serial killers in every country is just that america has freedom of speech where as other countries the government censors a lot of information.
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serial killers
Not to mention the abundance of serial killers?
