Recently I posted one of those internet posters, claiming that the murder rate in the United States is due to only four cities. I added that the internet never lies, indicating that I wasnt all that sure of the underlying truth. Well, it turns out that not only is the poster incorrect, the common assumption that the United States is murder capital of the world (or at least an competitor for the title) turns out to not be accurate, either. The United States murder rate (per 100,000 population) is about 4.8. Compared to Europe, its pretty bad. But (contrary to the Republican Partys unstated axiom) were not a European country. We are a very mixed county, with people coming from many different cultures, bringing their own cultural baggage with them. Were as much a South American country as we are a European country. If you look at continents, our murder rate is higher than Oceania, Europe, and Asia. Its significantly lower than the Americas and Africa. We are below average for the world. Breaking down the world into smaller pieces, we have a higher murder rate than: Polynesia 0.1 Western Europe 1.0 Australasia 1.0 Eastern Asia 1.1 Southern Europe 1.4 Northern Europe 1.5 Micronesia 2.5 Western Asia 2.6 Southern Asia 3.8 Northern America 3.9 (blame Canada) And a lower murder rate (and in some cases a far lower murder rate) than: Northern Africa 5.9 Central Asia 6.0 Eastern Europe 6.1 South-Eastern Asia 7.5 Melanesia 11.1 Western Africa 15.4 Caribbean 16.9 South America 20.0 Middle Africa 20.8 Eastern Africa 21.9 Central America 28.5 Southern Africa 30.5 Interestingly, it looks like were most like the Islamic world. Im not at all sure that means anything. (Im putting Southern Asia, Northern Africa, Central Asia, and South-Eastern Asia into the Islamic category. But it does mean that gun control advocates who compare us only to European murder rates are basically ignoring the diversity of the nation. And I thought Progressives liked diversity. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 19:16:25 +0000
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