I certainly will not claim the United Kingdom has more than twice the rape rate because American women are allowed to own guns while British women for practical purposes are not, but it does make you wonder, doesn’t it?
I think a woman’s ability to defend herself is part of it, but I also think different cultures tend to drive different kinds of criminality. British subjects, for instance, have never been big murderers, but overall violent crime is higher in the UK than here. I’ve also wondered if that is because, even in criminal subcultures, there’s certain behavior that’s likely to get your ass shot, and is best not engaged in, whereas in the UK there’s more low level violence, because the criminal culture is less willing to murder. I don’t think this has as much to do with the supply of guns, since guns seem to be pretty available to criminals in both countries, so much as differences in the criminal cultures.
I think a good bit of the difference in murder rate between the UK and the US has to do with racial history. I’m not just talking just about black and hispanic, but immigrant culture in general–there tended to be a significant amount of criminal activity among immigrants who were not allowed to assimilate into business culture. While that’s mostly in the past, it continues in low-level urban violence and gangs. I think we’re largely outgrowing it–violent crime in the US has been steadily declining for thirty years, now. We can ask why murder is lower in the UK, but we can also ask why violent crime is not declining there in the same way it is here. At least part of the answer to that question is handgun ownership and concealed carry.
Also, is it reported rapes or overall estimated rapes? Because differences in culture can also account for different levels of reporting. So, if the Brits have made more of an effort to encourage reporting sexual violence than we have, then it would make sense for their rate of REPORTED rapes to be higher, even if the overall number of incidents is nearly the same.
I’m not saying the numbers ARE the same, I’m just saying it’s important to be VERY specific when examining crime statistics – otherwise you can wind up drawing erroneous conclusions (recall that “90% of Mexican crime guns come from the US!!!! OMG!!!” stat, or even the frequently quoted statistic saying a gun in the home is, like, a billion times more likely to kill you or your family members than be USED on an intruder – when the statistic is specifically talking about guns kept loaded AND unlocked, and KILLING the intruder, not just being used defensively).
Because fudged statistics are SO often used against gun ownership, it’s all the more important to make sure that when we quote statistics, we know ALL the specifics, or address our uncertainty if we don’t.
(Again, this is not a rebuke – just a reminder of something this blog is usually excellent at doing but I think requires more attention than it generally gets.)
Of course, actually following the link reveals the statistics. Derp. :p
Yeah its hard to compare any crime rate between countries even as similar as the US and UK, because of the different cultures.
I see what you did there, Whoopi.
Or, does that mean the first rapist also gets raped by a second rapist?????
Hmmmmmmmm………………
That was a mistake, actually.
You said rape twice.
That’s just mean, leaving a low hanging curveball just waiting for someone to knock out of the park, Hedley.
The recent Pers Morgan clip where he mentioned to Carolyn McCarthy that he was interviewing two women who wanted AR-15s so they could murder their attackers … first thing I though of was the terrible mindset that thinks self-defense is murder. Second thing I thought of was that attacking women has a good chance of being about rape, and wondering if Pers Morgan tells his mother, wife, and daughters to not resist if someone attacks them.