|
If you'd like to see crime statistics for your state for the years 1965 - 2010 you can go to disastercenter.com/crime.
It breaks out by the gross numbers across a wide range of crimes and also shows the per capita. One example: New York's per capita murder rate has been substantially lower the last 10+ years than the preceding 30. The high being from 1971-1994 with an annual murder rate twice that of the last 10 years.
Oddly, I thought about these numbers from reading crime fiction of the 70s and noticing the murder rate seemed higher than today. At least in New York that's true.
I'm not discounting other facts or anecdotal data, just saying that our impression of violence depends on our experience, real and perceived.
I was an Emergency Medical Technician for 5 years. The results of violence I saw was totally outside my experience previously and warped my thinking for awhile. All I saw was violence so it seemed that's all there was. But for most of the people in our area here it is only news on TV.
|