CHAPTER 1 (Part 3)

The following excerpt is from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity.

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Crime Statistics

The island of Dominica was visited by Christopher Columbus in 1493. The French claimed it in 1635, but ceded it to the U.K. in 1763. Dominica, which should not be mistaken for the Dominican Republic, another Caribbean nation, became independent in 1978. Most of the 70,000 citizens are descendents of African slaves. If you scan through Wikipedia or the CIA World Factbook, you might be tempted to plan a vacation there, although the latter reports that there is 23% unemployment and money laundering enforcement is weak. Actually, Dominica leads the world in crimes. A selected ranking from the latest, and seventh, United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, covering the 1998-2000 period, can show the following (all, per 1000 people): (sorry about the crummy tables, and it gets worse...go to the book above if you wish for the columns to line up)

o #1 Dominica 114
o #2 New Zealand 106
o #3 Finland 102
o #4 Denmark 93
o #5 Chile 88
o #6 United Kingdom 86
o #7 Montserrat 80
o #8 United States 80
o #10 South Africa 77
o #11 Germany 76
o #12 Canada 75
o #13 Norway 72
o #15 France 62
o #20 Switzerland 36
o #24 South Korea 32
o #30 Uruguay 21
o #34 Japan 19
o #40 Tunisia 12
o #47 Thailand 9
o #50 Malaysia 7
o #57 Papua New Guinea 2
o #59 India 2
o #60 Yemen 1

There are a lot of surprises here. Make that, incredible illogicalities. New Zealand at #2 and Finland at #3? Papua New Guinea at #57? I’ve been to all three places. The first two, I thought, were really safe and the third, truly dangerous. Is good, bad? Bad…good? What does all this mean?

Well, the 2006 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index lists Finland, New Zealand and Iceland at the top as the least corrupt countries in the world. For the record, the U.S. is #20, better than Spain (#23), but not as honest as France (#18) and Japan (#17). What this appears to mean is that honest countries report all their crimes. So, maybe, Dominica should not be tarnished by this crime ranking. Thus, be careful of statistics.

In the same 7th UN crime survey (per 1000 people):

ASSAULTS MURDERS ROBBERIES
v #1 South Africa 12 #1 Colombia 0.6 #1 Spain 12
v #2 Montserrat 10 #2 South Africa 0.5 #2 Chile 7
v #3 Mauritius 8 #3 Jamaica 0.3 #3 Costa Rica 5
v #6 U.S. 8 #5 Russia 0.2 #11 U.S. 1.4
v #12 Iceland 5 #12 Papua NG 0.08 #19 Russia 0.9
v #31 Dominica 1 #24 U.S. 0.04 #27 Papua NG 0.6
v #50 Costa Rica 0.2 #50 Tunisia 0.01 #50 Macedonia 0.1
v #57 Azerbaijan 0.03 #62 Quatar 0.01 #64 Quatar 0.005

Overall, NationMaster.com reports that Columbia has 0.62 crimes/1000 people, South Africa (0.50, #2), U.S. (0.043, #24) and Qatar (0.001, #62).213 Another way of looking at this is that Columbia has about 15 times more crimes than in the USA and more than 600 times that of Qatar.

Well, I’ve heard that South Africa and Colombia are bad places, and I personally almost was robbed in Spain, so, the worst countries, here, make some sense. Yet, I was recently in Cartegena and did not feel in any way threatened, so there are micro-climates of good and bad within one country and any city. Yet, as you can see, if you want to avoid crime, live in Azerbaijan or Qatar. Also interesting that Costa Rica is about the safest place for assaults, but the third most prone to robberies. The United States is not a good place to be for crimes…but maybe that is because we report well. As for example, in police efficiency (there were only 17 countries listed):

o #1 United States 89%
o #2 Canada 87%
o #3 New Zealand 79%
o #16 Italy 52%
o #17 Netherlands 52%

You can reasonably guess that most other countries, if they were included, would have fared worse.

In the United States, Statemaster.com reports:

o Lynchings (1882-1968): #1 Mississippi (581), #2 Georgia (531)
(six states had zero)

o Murder (per 10,000): #1 DC (3.6), #2 Louisiana (1.3)
#51 Maine (0.1)

o Burglary (per 10,000): #1 North Carolina (117), #2 Arkansas (108)
#51 North Dakota (30)

Since 1993, property and violent crime rates have dropped by more than half, while rapes and robberies by two-thirds. Now, there is “only” one violent crime each year per 47 residents. Why the drop? There are more criminals in prison and there are 100,000 additional police officers. It can be better, for in Honolulu alone, which is not far from the norm, there was in 2006 a backlog of 61,500 bench warrants (mostly for traffic crimes) because of a lack of personnel. The city of Chicago saw a 25% drop in killings to 445 for its 2.9 million citizens. Yet, Berlin, with 3.4 million, experienced only 71 murders in 2004.

There was a disturbing reversal beginning in 2007, though, as Google on July 24, 2007 showed that the crime rate was rising in New Orleans and San Bernardino, and murder rates in New York City and Philadelphia. Murders and robberies increased in 2006 for the second year in a row, said the FBI, and watch out if you are a transgender lady of color in Northern California, as murder rates are really skyrocketing.

Part of the problem with crime is that perpetrators are not caught. Only 15.6% of all crimes were solved in the U.S. in 2002. In Hawaii, 90% of crimes remain on the books, but most of this is due to an 8% conviction for property (burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft) crimes. Then when you hear of car thieves actually arrested and convicted innumerable times…only to steal another car…the conclusion is that a whole lot of cars are stolen. A paltry 3.6% of burglaries were cleared in 2004. These are generally carried out by those on drugs, so while this sorry type just has to be lacking in sense, it then must be that it is really safe to live this lifestyle. Then, if, somehow, they are thrown in jail, you, the taxpayer, will be saddled with their food, air conditioning and whatever bills. There has got to be a better way.

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The Dow Jones Industrials sunk 514 to 8519. The NYMEX Crude Future settled at $67/barrel, with the Dated Brent Spot at $63/bbl.

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For first time in a long time, there is today no major storm being tracked.

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