Do you think the early 1900s-1960-ish was safer?

[OddBeMe]

Or did we just get better at measuring crime? Because there’s not a lot of data on pre WW2 crime, which included Prohibition mind you.

I mean even their safety gear wasn’t safe. Doubtful people left doors unlocked

Yes it was safer back then

No it probably wasn't much safer

[wiltingrosepetal]

Yeah, when the two world wars went down. Muuuuuch safer 😄👍

Okay but on the topic of crime rates, we've just gotten better at reporting them. There's a lot less shame around rape reports (although they're still notoriously terrible at holding up in court), now we have surveillance on every block, and a lot more people care now, with social media sharing every crime around. Kinda off topic but while watching American Psycho I was gobsmacked over the fact he killed several people in a row, got covered in blood, ran down a public main road and didn't get a penalty. No cameras, no evidence, no one caught him. And that film isn't even that old. Nowadays, crime is handled very differently.

[OddBeMe]

Agreed. Although, I think, that scene in American pschyo was in his head. Thats how a helicopter exploded from handgun bullets. Lol

I just get tired of hearing “back when people left doors unlocked”…if that ever happened they’re idiots!

[purplepoppy]

Interesting thing about that graph is the lines rise and fall in at the same time. To me that suggests it's down to how it's being recorded.

[goaded]

There's a good correlation, offset by a generation, with lead in the air. The UK also peaked in around 1996. (Unfortunately, they don't seem to show just violent crime statistics for that long a period.)

www.ons.gov.uk/.../yearendingseptember2021

[goaded]

The tripling in violent crime (and murder's a pretty easy one to count) was probably due to lead in the air poisoning children's brains, reducing intelligence and increasing violent tendencies. Once it was removed from fuel crime started falling again, albeit 20-odd years delayed. The same peak occurred around the US and in England and Wales in the mid-1990s, so it was unlikely to have anything to do with local policing policies.

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/02/lead-exposure-gasoline-crime-increase-children-health/

[OddBeMe]

Hey my wife wants to know if German people hate looking at Americans in the eye. Apparently that’s a tiktok going around.

[goaded]

How would you know if someone's American? Unless you're in America, I suppose. I don't know.

[OddBeMe]

Oh you know!

Lol some German guy says he always knows Americans by their huge smiles and looking them in the eyes.

[RSav4013]

I don't know where you got that chart from but you could probably walk around Chicago without worrying about getting shot back in the 20s. Not so much now.

[exitseven]

I can remember being allowed into an airport terminal to pick up a passenger. Today It is not possible.

[OddBeMe]

What were the crash rates of then and now?

[exitseven]

I can remember a few realty spectacular crashes. Many students died in the Lockerbie flight. There was a crash at Boston's Logan Airport where the nose of the plane fell off and many fell into the ocean and were never recovered. Who can forget Valu Jet?
I think that flying became untenable after 9/11. The long lines , cavity searches and surly TSA agents turned me off from flying forever.

[OddBeMe]

Usually you have to be Muslim for that treatment.

[SotiCoto]

Of course it was safer. The police didn't have DNA fingerprinting back then, so one could conceivably murder people and get away with it.

[exitseven]

There are many local murders that happened when I was a kid that were never solved. Th jury is still out on whether or not Albert DeSalvo was really the Boston Strangler.

[Sevenpointfive]

i guess this is just one of those stupid questions you ask that you already know the answer to. but why stop at 1960? it wasn't safe until 1990

[NathanDavis]

red cards were invented in the 70's...

[Astarlessnightsky]

The world became better and safer and its the safest its ever been.

[Juxtapose]

Despite the news the world consistently gets safer and less criminal as time goes on. Although the world still is filled with horrific darkness.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

Much less people back then. And life isn't safe as this world is filled with a bunch of devils, one just have to hope not to run into one of them.

[Anonymous]

Seems suspiciously skewed around 1990 for some reason. There are more people now if course, and I guess we're better at keeping records compared to 1960. All a bit odd.

[MrDaveAPSI]

Violent crime has actually gone down, way down, under biden. It skyrocketed, under trump

[MemeSupreme]

no hospitals sucked and cars barely protected you

[msc545]

I think it was probably safer back then.