>"ThorII" wrote in message [...]
>> You are six times more likely to be mugged in London now than in New >York..
>
>The converse is true on murders though.

But murders are so rare in either the USA *or* Britain that they do not force people to modify behavior. In contrast, robberies (muggings), assaults, and burglaries are so common in Britain that they do modify behavior, keeping honest people inside much more than in the USA. A 1/50 chance of being assaulted means a lot more to me than a 1/16000 chance of being murdered, especially since even that 1/16000 can be reduced to European levels simply by staying out of a small number of urban neighborhoods, at least at night.

1995 figures, UK and US, crimes per 1,000,000 populaton
(Note: for ease of comparison,I have converted statistics from 1/1000 and 1/100,000 to 1/1,000,000)

type of crime	UK	USA	source
robbery	7,800	5,700	#1
assault	20,000	9,000	#1
burglary	80,000	42,000	#1
Motor veh. theft	24,000	10,000	#1
murder	-	58	#2 (for 1999)
murder	18	-	#3

Sources:

#1: 1995 figures:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cjusew96h.pdf
Since these figures are read off of a graph, they are not 100% accurate.

#2: 1999 figure:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/hmrt.htm#longterm

#3: (approximate, from my recollection)
British statistics do not count all the homicides that US statistics do; nevertheless, there is a consensus that the USA homicide rate is still higher than Britain's.

Incidentally, the 2/1 UK/USA ratio for burglaries shown above is even worse for Britain, because about half of British burglaries are against *occupied* homes, while in American the ratio is a mere 15%, so rare that such burglaries are headlined as "home invasions." The difference, of course, stems from liberal US gun laws; American burglars take great care to avoid the possibility of encountering an armed homeowner.

--Hugo S. Cunningham