Bob, at 08:47 on May 31 1996, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

BL> Year  Homicides  Rape  Population
BL>  64     270       260     10.5M
BL>  72     400       600     13.0M
BL>  82     700      1300     15.0M
BL>  90     960      2100     17.0M

BG> Fuck me dead, are you quite sure about those figures?

BL> I just took them out of the Year Books under "Law and Order" and
BL> picked the years that showed the trend. It goes up and down a bit. The
BL> 1990 population figure was extrapolated, but the rest came out of the
BL> Year Books. I collect them...

Bit hard to argue with those figures then.

BL> The murder rate in 1964 was 25.7 per million
BL>                    1972     30.8
BL>                    1982     46.7
BL>                    1990     56.5

BG> Bloody hell, the per capita rate has more than doubled in just 26 years! 

BL> I have this same argument every time Rod makes his assertion.

I don't recall your posting specific figures before, though.

BL> These are Commonwealth Statistician's figures of homicides "reported or
BL> becoming known to police." I'm not sure what that means.

Typical bureaucratic gobbledegook.

BL> The really big increase is in theft. From '72-'82: B&E 110K to 210K,
BL> car theft 40K-80K, forgery 30K-70K (not corrected for population).
BL> Basically, everything doubles every 10 years. Rod is right that the
BL> lowest increase is murder, which doubles in 25 years.

The fact that the murder rate has increased at all is still a major cause
for concern though, and I'd be interested to see if these figures have been
further broken down into say random murders, or those done by people who
are known to the victim.  It's the random stuff which worries me the most.

BL> Our perception that Australia is less safe than it used to be is
BL> correct.

Bloody hell, Bob!  I didn't need any stats to tell me that, just my eyes.

Regards, Bill
@EOT:

--- MsgedSQ/2 3.30