Crime Stats - US Dept. of Justice 1996

[RACastanet]

Hi to all. This post is one reason why all should be armed and prepared, female and male.

The following 'Story' is part of the data reviewed a few weeks ago in my threat management course. The source is my insructor, Ron Crawford.

Here it is. Hopefully it will copy well to this site. I'll post this on Van sensei's site as well.

Rich

CRIME STORY

Facts and Figures About U.S. Violent Crime

Statistical Source - United States Department of Justice, National Crime Victimization
Survey, 1996.

There are over 9 million victims of U.S. violent crime in a year. Sanitized statistics and
graphs cannot show the actual horror of broken bones, torn skin, limbs and organs
damaged beyond repair, or even the paralysis or death that occurs as a result of violent
crime. If you think criminal violence is unpleasant to think about, imagine what it’s like to
experience it.

A violent crime occurs every 18 seconds. A robbery occurs every 54 seconds. A murder
occurs every 24 minutes. Of the 37 million plus crimes committed each year, 9.1 million
are violent in nature such as rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. There were 5.4 million
residential burglaries in this country in 1996 alone, and in about a third of these violence
was attempted against a resident.

Who are the victims? Damn near everybody. Although men are twice as likely to be the
victim of a robbery or aggravated assault as women are, women are 10 times as likely to
be raped. Blacks are twice as likely to be the victim of a robbery or aggravated assault
than whites, although blacks and whites are murdered in roughly equal numbers, 48%
each. Young people seem to be especially at risk for violent crime, those aged 12-19 are
three times as likely to be the victims of aggravated assaults and robberies than those aged
35-49. The elderly also have a much higher risk of violent crime victimization than those
closer to middle age.

Where do the violent crimes occur? Well, in over half the cases, the DOJ couldn’t
determine the location from the victimization survey, but of those in which they could,
they found the following:
18% of attacks occurred on a street or highway.
16% happened in the victim’s own home.
Another 5% on the grounds of the homestead.
13% occurred in a public property or accommodation area like a school,
recreation area, shopping mall or hospital emergency room.
21% of violent crimes happen at work or en route to work.
This stuff happens close to home, too. 50% of violent crimes happen within one mile
of your home, 73% occur within five miles of the house. So much for just taking a gun
with you only on long trips.

What are the tools of the violent criminal’s trade? Surprisingly, 64% were unarmed
assailants. 10.9% used firearms. 5.5% used knives, and another 3.8% used assorted blunt
objects. Oddly enough, less than 1% used anything that could be construed as an assault
weapon. 70% of all this violent crime was committed by 7% of the criminals, after repeat
arrests and early releases. It’s probably fair to say that the most often used tool of the
violent criminal is the criminal justice system itself. Oh, by the way, 6% of all firearm
homicides are juvenile gang killings.

What did we do in response? Most of us fought back, or at least said we did. 72% of 1996
respondents said they took some form of protective action in the face of the assault. 64%
said they felt that they had helped themselves by resisting, 9% say they felt they made
matters worse. We Americans called the cops a lot in 1996, and they came pretty quickly.
But, consider these statistics. 55% of all emergency calls to the police result in a police
response within 10 minutes. In 87% of cases, they get there within the hour. In 10% of
the cases, the police don’t even get there on the same day. Anybody want to rely totally
on a police response as your only means of self-defense?