BL> Rod always asserts a STATIC murder rate, but it isn't so. Here
 BL> are the figures from Australian Yearbooks: 1968, '75, '85, '92.

 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?

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

 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
 BG> years! 

  I have this same argument every time Rod makes his assertion. These
are Commonwealth Statistician's figures of homicides "reported or
becoming known to police." I'm not sure what that means.

 BG> Funny, I was under the same impression as Rod, but hadn't
 BG> bothered checking. 

 BL> Especially rape!
 BG> Every cloud has a silver lining, I guess. :)

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

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

Regards,
Bob

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