Cooch
Regular Member
The last bit of reading that I did on the subject showed the folly of talking about "North America" or even the US as a country, as though they were single, homogenous entities. The variation in violent crime rates is huge.
However, if you analyse that variation across that various socio-economic groups that exist within a nation, you will find that there is remarkable consistency between similar groups.
To take some examples.
The highest rates of legal ownership of firearms in America occurs amongst middle-class, rural dwellers. Yet as a group, they experience one of the lowest rates of violent crime, rates comparable with those experienced amongst the same groups in Australia and Europe.
Japan is well known for having a relatively low homicide rate. What few people know is that the Japanese community living in America has an even lower homicide rate.
Inner-city slum dwellers who self-identify along ethnic lines have relatively high levels of violent crime almost anywhere.
I hesitate to repeat this as it usually leads to a heated discussion, however reputable criminologists have stated that it is possible to predict the violent crime rate in any area of the US by analysing the ethnic makeup. The groups most closely associated with high levels of violent crime are "Southern White Trash", Latinos and African-Americans. I don't believe it is a "race" issue as such, but it IS a cultural issue.
Crime rates correlate very strongly with a lack of social cohesion, a lack of identification with and respect for the rule of law, and the failure of families. To put it another way, if the US homicide figures excluded the inner-city ghettos in which racially-oriented gangs fight each other over drug turf.... then we would not be talking about the US as a "high crime" society.
Regards.... Peter
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