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There are also anecdotal stories of people who gave in to thieves and were still killed, and people who stood up to them and scared the thief off. That doesn't
by corin_ 13y ago
There are also anecdotal stories of people who gave in to thieves and were still killed, and people who stood up to them and scared the thief off.
That doesn't mean standing up is the right thing to do, but would be interesting if anyone had any more insight into which was the safer option - though I guess hard to give, as presumably it depends on who the thief is, their state of mind, how exactly you react, etc. Regardless, I don't think I'd ever change from an automatic response of giving up whatever they wanted.
- MetaCosm 13y agoWell - you can use UCR data to check the mugging to murder ratios. I am guessing the overwhelming vast majority of muggings don't result in death, and the overwhelming majority of murders don't occur during muggings. This would imply that the safe course of action is to give up your stuff.
- corin_ 13y agoA few hypotheticals examples where this data wouldn't necessarily answer the question: - 100% of mugging victims fight back - 100% of mugging victims immediately give in - Muggings turned into murders are reported only as "murders" in UCR (I'm not familiar with this data, random guess) - Attempted muggings where the victim fights back and the mugger runs away aren't reported as crimes, so aren't included in these statistics - Muggings of small value might not be reported (I'd report a lost phone to get it blocked, but if someone wanted all the cash in my wallet I probably wouldn't bother calling the police)