Crime Rates - The Lying Media and How It Affects Us

The mass perception of the USA as a country seething with crime appears to be - at first glance - an incontestable truth.  This supposed truth is thrust into our homes by a news hungry media who broadcast the most gruesome, debauched and despicable aspects of life in the USA twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Death and destruction permeates our existence as a matter of daily discourse - reaching into our minds, playing with our emotions, bending our will, depressing us, taunting us, holding our very souls hostage with a frightening montage of dead children, grieving families, flashing police lights, burning buildings, riots in the streets, yellow crime scene tape, dour newscasters and pompous politicians looking for someone - or thing - to blame, so they may make the evening broadcast and further their personal agenda.

But are we truly a more violent and crime ridden Country than we were years ago?  Has it all gone to hell?  Is this Country a big, bad scary place?

In a word?  No.

When many of us were young, before electronic media was so prevalent, our news came in three ways - journalism, television and radio - and it wasn't a constant in our lives.  Most of us listened to the radio in the morning, hearing the news along with sports, weather and music.  At work, we worked!  No laptops or cell phones.  Newspapers had a morning edition and a Five Star Final evening edition.  Then we went home for dinner before watching the 10:00 news and then Johnny Carson.

Our news came from what we perceived to be trusted sources while images and video were self censored by the broadcast outlets.

Now?  The perception of runaway crime explodes like projectile vomiting from a myriad of broadcast outlets, not the three or four we had long ago, and these outlets are forced to fill countless hours of empty air - and does so with an aggressive onslaught of crime riddled pictures, videos and voiced opinions - never mind the facts, just get the story out, speculate ad-nauseum, grab the ratings and fix any wrongs by backpedaling tomorrow.

We are buried in a self-induced tidal wave of information that washes over us while surfing the internet, from sources of questionable intent... and content.  Conjecture, speculation and bombastic opinion disguised as news bears down on us from every electronic gadget made by man - or so it seems.  Texts. Updates. Tweets. Blogs. Nowadays, the business of news is like a two headed snake attempting to eat itself.

But how do we quantify if crime is worse... or better?

In the statistics below - compiled by the  Disaster Center using the  FBI Crime Statistics page - you might be surprised to learn our current Murder Rate is not only at its lowest since 1960 - the beginning of the FBI Stat Page - but in fact is lower than any time dating back to 1957 and to be precise, would be lower than the rate in 1950!

All violent crime reached a relative high between 1980 and 1992 before tailing off.  In the last 20+ years, violent crime has fallen better than 50%, leaving our Country a much safer, saner place than the main stream (and not so main stream) media would have you believe.

The murder rate reached a high of 10.2 per 100,000 in 1980 vs the current rate of 4.5 per 100,000 - again, lower that at anytime since 1957.

Rape climbed to a high of  42.8 per 100,000 in 1992 before falling to 25.2 per 100,000 in 2013, its lowest rate since 1973.

Aggravated Assault's high was also in 1992  - 441.8 -  while it now sits at 229.1 per 100,000, lowest since 1974. 

The total violent crime rate hit a high of 758.1 per 100,000 in 1992 and has now dropped to 367.9 per 100,000 - its lowest since 1970!

					Forcible	Aggravated
Year	Population		Violent	Murder	Rape	assault
1960	179,323,175		160.9	5.1	9.6	86.1
1961	182,992,000		158.1	4.8	9.4	85.7
1962	185,771,000		162.3	4.6	9.4	88.6
1963	188,483,000		168.2	4.6	9.4	92.4
1964	191,141,000		190.6	4.9	11.2	106.2
1965	193,526,000		200.2	5.1	12.1	111.3
1966	195,576,000		220.0	5.6	13.2	120.3
1967	197,457,000		253.2	6.2	14.0	130.2
1968	199,399,000		298.4	6.9	15.9	143.8
1969	201,385,000		328.7	7.3	18.5	154.5
					Forcible	Aggravated
Year	Population		Violent	Murder	Rape	assault
1970	203,235,298		363.5	7.9	18.7	164.8
1971	206,212,000		396.0	8.6	20.5	178.8
1972	208,230,000		401.0	9.0	22.5	188.8
1973	209,851,000		417.4	9.4	24.5	200.5
1974	211,392,000		461.1	9.8	26.2	215.8
1975	213,124,000		487.8	9.6	26.3	231.1
1976	214,659,000		467.8	8.7	26.6	233.2
1977	216,332,000		475.9	8.8	29.4	247.0
1978	218,059,000		497.8	9.0	31.0	262.1
1979	220,099,000		548.9	9.8	34.7	286.0
					Forcible	Aggravated
Year	Population		Violent	Murder	Rape	assault
1980	225,349,264		596.6	10.2	36.8	298.5
1981	229,146,000		594.3	9.8	36.0	289.7
1982	231,534,000		571.1	9.1	34.0	289.1
1983	233,981,000		537.7	8.3	33.7	279.2
1984	236,158,000		539.2	7.9	35.7	290.2
1985	238,740,000		556.6	8.0	37.1	302.9
1986	240,132,887		620.1	8.6	38.1	347.4
1987	243,400,000		609.7	8.3	37.4	351.3
1988	245,807,000		637.2	8.4	37.6	370.2
1989	248,239,000		663.1	8.7	38.1	383.4
					Forcible	Aggravated
Year	Population		Violent	Murder	Rape	assault
1990	248,709,873		731.8	9.4	41.2	424.1
1991	252,177,000		758.1	9.8	42.3	433.3
1992	255,082,000		757.5	9.3	42.8	441.8
1993	257,908,000		746.8	9.5	41.1	440.3
1994	260,341,000		713.6	9.0	39.3	427.6
1995	262,755,000		684.5	8.2	37.1	418.3
1996	265,284,000		636.6	7.4	36.3	390.9
1997	267,637,000		611.0	6.8	35.9	382.1
1998	270,296,000		566.4	6.3	34.4	360.5
1999	272,690,813		523	5.7	32.8	334.3
					Forcible	Aggravated
Year	Population		Violent	Murder	Rape	assault
2000	281,421,906		506.5	5.5	32	324.0
2001	285,317,559		504.5	5.6	31.8	318.6
2002	287,973,924		494.4	5.6	33.1	309.5
2003	290,690,788		475.8	5.7	32.3	295.4
2004	293,656,842		463.2	5.5	32.4	288.6
2005	296,507,061		469.0	5.6	31.8	290.8
2006	299,398,484		473.6	5.7	30.9	287.5
2007	301,621,157		466.9	5.6	30	283.8
2008	304,374,846		457.5	5.4	29.7	276.7
2009	307,006,550		431.9	5.0	29.1	264.7
					Forcible	Aggravated
Year	Population		Violent	Murder	Rape	assault
2010	309,330,219		404.5	4.8	27.7	252.8
2011	311,587,816		387.1	4.7	27	241.5
2012	313,873,685		387.8	4.7	27.1	242.8
2013	316,128,839		367.9	4.5	25.2	229.1

These aren't numbers twisted by agenda riddled outlets looking for the advertising dollar.  These are the raw statistics from the FBI.

In 1945, the Murder Rate was 3.84 per 100,000 (5831 Criminal Homicides / Population of 139.9 million) - the facts are, we just aren't that violent a country.

Our Country's murder rate puts us 111th out of 278 Countries in the world. Our gun murder rate is distorted terribly by the hi density, Democratically controlled cities of the USA - as can be seen below...

 

It's just not as bad as the media - both Liberal and Conservative alike - would have you believe.  So I tell you, unless you are in Chiraq or one of the other large, hi density cities of this Country, enjoy yourself.  Go for walks at night with your family.  Go on vacations and see this great Country!  Watch ballgames, see the sights and enjoy... enjoy... enjoy!  All while carrying and staying in Condition Yellow, of course, and remember... the Media is not your friend, they are here to make money, nothing more, nothing less.

Stay Safe and Carry Responsibly

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