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0 pointsCapitalistCartr15y ago0 comments

The actual article you linked to says, "Overall, the crime rate in the U.S. was the same in 2004 as in 1969, with the homicide rate being roughly the same as in 1966." As the subject is the homicide rate, that seems the most relevant datum.

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Retric15y ago· 2 in thread

The largest difference between 1960 and now is reported sexual crimes. Unfortunately they are so under reported it's hard to compare different time periods.

Edit: The year 2005 was overall the safest year in the past thirty years.

PS: You can get an idea based on the % of serial rapist victims that report at a later date, but that's extremely unreliable.

anamax15y ago

30 years from 2005 is 1975....

1969, let alone 1975, was considerably more violent than 1960.

Go to http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/Search/Crime/State/State... select all states and violent crime rates and the push "get table".

You'll see that the murder rate in 1960 was 5.1. By 1969, it had jumped to 7.3. By 75 it was 9.6. It peaked at 10.2 in 1980 with a lesser peak at 9.8 in 1991.

By 2005 the murder had dropped to 5.6. (FWIW, 2004 was 5.5) 2008 was 5.4, which is still above 1960's 5.1

Retric15y ago

Above the rate for the year 1960, but not the rate for the decade 1960's. Still, 5.1 vs. 5.4 for such a rare and random event is not particularly meaningful. Also you need to adjust the numbers to compare the same thing. EX: If you compare manslaughter between 1961 and now a similar drunk driving accident would have a different outcome.

PS: I work with these numbers all the time. Murder is for lack of a better term the least reactive crime type, compared to say assault it far less influence by things like age, education, and gender etc.

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