We Are the Safest We’ve Been in 40 Years
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 12:09 pm
http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/12/sandy-hook-safe/
So how do I find comfort? I look at the criminal justice field as a whole and I am tremendously impressed with how far we have come in the last forty-odd years. Take a look at the homicide rate per 100,000 and tell me: would you rather be raising a child now when the homicide rate is the lowest it’s been in decades, or in 1980, before Columbine, when Atari ruled, Call of Duty hadn’t even been imagined, Smurfs were Smurfing, and the murder rate was twice as high?
Many things have changed in the last four decades.
All crimes have gone down. Way, way down. We don’t have a very clear explanation for why, but we’re grateful that the numbers are as good as they are.