3 ms·

Burglaries per: United Kingdom: 13.8321 per 1,000 people United States: 7.09996 per 1,000 people Murders per: United States: 0.04

Burglaries per: United Kingdom: 13.8321 per 1,000 people United States: 7.09996 per 1,000 people Murders per: United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people United Kingdom: 0.0140633 per 1,000 people My suggestion: The wide availability of guns makes murder easier in the United States (for obvious reasons) and Burglary harder (...since so many homeowners have guns, and shooting burglars is generally legal, burglars tend to avoid the practice.)

mhb 19y ago
Or maybe window glass is thicker in the UK or one of another of the zillion other possible explanations for this statistic.
- mynameishere 19y ago
  Heck, NPR is basing their theory on anecdotes from an ex-con. At least I'm putting up some numbers. Obviously, statistics like the above are a result of extremely complex systems. I tried to compare two countries with similar population make-ups, similar economies, similar legal traditions, etc, but you can only remove so many factors. Actual experimentation in social science, by contrast, tends to result in unholy bloodbaths.
falsestprophet 19y ago
Guns are ubiquitous in Canada, but violent crime rates are dramatically lower. The US murder rate is 2.5 times greater than Canada's.* I'm sure there are several reasons for this. There are two differences between US and Canadian society that I suspect could be important. First, the wealth divide is much greater in the US than in Canada (or the UK). Social programs look out for the poor and reduce their desperation. Second, the US almost uniformly rejects drug treatment as an alternative to long incarceration. Sending drug addicts to prison is just going to train them to become proper criminals. *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Canada#United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Canada#United_States
- yummyfajitas 19y ago
  Another important fact, which is politically incorrect to mention. About 66% of the murders in the US are committed by a demographic group that is unique to the US (1). If you exclude that group, our murder rate is cut in half. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_03.html http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/expanded_informatio... (1) I'm know the racial group exists in both Canada and the UK. The demographic group (race+culture) is uncommon in Canada, and virtually nonexistent in the UK. When looking at the statistics, I'm assuming the 28% of murders with unknown perp are distributed the same as those with a known perp.

mhb 19y ago

Or maybe window glass is thicker in the UK or one of another of the zillion other possible explanations for this statistic.

mynameishere 19y ago
Heck, NPR is basing their theory on anecdotes from an ex-con. At least I'm putting up some numbers. Obviously, statistics like the above are a result of extremely complex systems. I tried to compare two countries with similar population make-ups, similar economies, similar legal traditions, etc, but you can only remove so many factors. Actual experimentation in social science, by contrast, tends to result in unholy bloodbaths.

falsestprophet 19y ago

Guns are ubiquitous in Canada, but violent crime rates are dramatically lower. The US murder rate is 2.5 times greater than Canada's.* I'm sure there are several reasons for this. There are two differences between US and Canadian society that I suspect could be important. First, the wealth divide is much greater in the US than in Canada (or the UK). Social programs look out for the poor and reduce their desperation. Second, the US almost uniformly rejects drug treatment as an alternative to long incarceration. Sending drug addicts to prison is just going to train them to become proper criminals. *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Canada#United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Canada#United_States

yummyfajitas 19y ago
Another important fact, which is politically incorrect to mention. About 66% of the murders in the US are committed by a demographic group that is unique to the US (1). If you exclude that group, our murder rate is cut in half. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_03.html http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/expanded_informatio... (1) I'm know the racial group exists in both Canada and the UK. The demographic group (race+culture) is uncommon in Canada, and virtually nonexistent in the UK. When looking at the statistics, I'm assuming the 28% of murders with unknown perp are distributed the same as those with a known perp.