[thechat] Bowling for Columbine

[Martin Burns]

On Wed, 29 Jan 2003, Lachlan Cannon wrote:

> Bob Davis wrote:
> > Read the papers.
> >
> > Our criminals are not nice people.
>
> You mean these reliable sources:
>
> "When researchers from Emory University computed the levels of coverage
> of various health dangers in popular magazines and newspapers they
> discovered an inverse relationship: much less space was devoted to
> several of the major causes of death than to some uncommon causes. The
> leading cause of death, heart disease, received approximately the same
> amount of coverage as the eleventh-ranked cause of death, homicide. They
> found a similar inverse relationship in coverage of risk factors
> associated with serious illness and death. The lowest-ranking risk
> factor, drug use, received nearly as much attention as the second-ranked
> risk factor, diet and exercise."

There's also a distinct lack of correlation between levels of crime and
levels of *fear* of crime.

To use a UK example, you'd think that the people most at risk from crime
were women alone at night and old people in their homes. Actually, it's
young men. Similarly, you'd expect that the greatest risk of abuse to
children is dodgy-looking strangers hanging about the school gates. Well
it is, but only if they're family members.

Cheers
Martin

--
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie