Category Archives: Crime

Journalism: A Dangerous Profession

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Journalism is a very dangerous profession. Many journalists are killed every year around the world while covering everything from business and sports to revolutions, wars, political upheavals, corruption, human rights violations and more.

In 2012 alone, 103 journalists were killed around the globe. Motives were confirmed for 70 of them. The deadliest countries for journalists in 2012 were Syria (28 deaths), Somalia (12 deaths), Pakistan (7 deaths), and Brazil (4 deaths). The motives where the confirmed in these cases.

The way journalists are killed, range from crossfire or combat to murder. Impunity is a shocking 100% for murder cases. More detail in the chart below:

For additional information, including the list of the journalists killed in 2012, visit: Committee to Protect Journalists: 70 Journalists Killed in 2012/Motive Confirmed

 

Chicago: A City of Guns

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click to enlargeChicago is the only city in the United States with tough gun control laws. Gun shops are prohibited, and so are shootings ranges. It is illegal for private citizens to carry guns in public places. Despite this fact, Chicago has experienced a high number of gun-related deaths, 500 homicides in 2012 and so far 40 in the first month of 2013.

Guns recovered by the Chicago police in the last twelve years came mainly from the within the state of Illinois, followed by the states of Indiana, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas. Overall, the provenance of guns confiscated in Chicago pointed to all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam.

Resource: The New York Times: Where 50,000 Guns Recovered in Chicago Came From

 

Trafficking of Females

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trafficking of females

Although statistics about trafficking of females are unreliable due to a number of reasons, starting with the clandestine nature of the activity, the WomanStats Project has managed to gather one of the most comprehensive data sets to date about the issue. One of the maps they produced, displayed above, illustrates the magnitude of the problem worldwide. You may find it shocking that in this day and age trafficking is not illegal and is even common in several countries, including Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. To find out more about the issue, and find out what you can do to help, visit the Stop Violence Against Women site.

The Gun Lobby in the U.S.

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While the debate goes on in Congress regarding gun control, it is interesting to see that many members of Congress that will be voting on the issue, received donations from no other than the National Rifle Association (NRA). On the graphic above, compiled by the Washington Post, we can see that the party that benefited the most from NRA donations in 2012 was the Republican party.

Recipients of NRA donations are selected by the NRA based on a grading system that includes how a particular Congress member supported the NRA on gun issues in the past.

For the interactive graphic that allows you to check for names of candidates that received financial contributions by the NRA visit: The Washington Post: How the NRA exerts influence over Congress

 

The World’s Deadliest Cities

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World's Deadliest Cities

The excellent data blog from The Guardian created an interactive visualization showing murder rates in the world’s most populous cities. The data, obtained from the UN, shows that Caracas, Guatemala City, and Basseterre have the highest homicide rates, while Lisbon, Ljubljana, and Tokyo have the lowest. You can read more details about their analysis in the accompanying article.

Rape Statistics by Country

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The UN Office on Drugs and Crime compiles rape statistics from countries around the world. We used their most recent numbers to create the map displayed above, which shows the number of rapes reported to police per 100,000 inhabitants. According to the UN data, the country with the highest rate of reported rapes is Botswana (92.9), while the country with the lowest rate is Egypt (0.1). Note though that comparison of crime rates across countries needs to be be taken with a grain of salt, since in some countries the population may be reluctant to report certain types of crimes to the police. You can read more about how the UN compiles crime statistics at its website.

 

Gun-Related Deaths vs. Gun Ownership in the U.S.

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According to data from The Violence and Policy Center, the death rate by firearms in the U.S. is 10.19 per 100,000 people. Data from Gallup puts gun ownership at 34% nationwide. States with higher percentage of gun ownership also show a high number of deaths by firearms. Louisiana ranks 1 in number of deaths by firearms at 18.03 per 100,000, and 13 in gun ownership at 45.6%. Wyoming ranks 2 in number of deaths by firearms at 17.64 per 100,000, and 2 in gun ownership at 62.8%. These states are followed by Montana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nevada, Tennessee and Alaska. In comparison, Massachusetts ranks 50 in number of deaths by firearms at 3.14 per 100,000 (lowest of all fifty states), and 48 in gun ownership at 12.8%. Hawaii fares well, ranking 49 in number of deaths by firearms, and 50 in gun ownership at 9.7% (the lowest of all fifty states).

See interactive map at: Aljazeera.com – Interactive: US, Yemen lead the world in guns

 

World Murder Rates

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The number of intentional homicides by country, and the rate of homicides per 100,000 population is shown in the table below.

  Counts Rates per 100,000
Country 2005 2006 2005 2006
Algeria 204 214 0.62 0.64
Argentina 2,115 2,052 5.46 5.24
Armenia 55 75 1.82 2.49
Austria 54 61 0.65 0.73
Azerbaijan 192 190 2.30 2.26
Bahrain 4 7 0.55 0.95
Bangladesh 3,431 4,123 2.24 2.64
Belarus 836 734 8.53 7.53
Belize 81 92 29.40 32.67
Bolivia 478 454 5.21 4.85
Bosnia and Herzegovina 70 73 1.79 1.86
Brunei Darussalam 0 2 0.00 0.52
Canada 663 606 2.05 1.86
Costa Rica 338 348 7.81 7.91
Croatia 68 74 1.49 1.62
Cyprus 16 14 1.91 1.66
Czech Republic 104 136 1.02 1.33
Denmark 53 29 0.98 0.53
Dominican Republic 1,666 1,537 17.59 15.99
Ecuador 2,121 2,385 16.24 18.07
Egypt 364 440 0.50 0.59
El Salvador 3,779 3,927 56.67 58.07
England and Wales 766 755 1.43 1.41
Estonia 113 91 8.41 6.79
Finland 113 112 2.15 2.13
Georgia 403 323 9.01 7.29
Germany 780 727 0.94 0.88
Greece 127 109 1.14 0.98
India 32,719 32,481 2.88 2.82
Ireland 65 67 1.57 1.59
Italy 610 625 1.04 1.06
Jordan 67 100 1.21 1.75
Kazakhstan 1,804 1,729 11.86 11.29
Kenya 2,313 2,090 6.50 5.72
Kyrgyzstan 491 446 9.44 8.48
Latvia 130 148 5.65 6.47
Lebanon 94 23 2.34 0.57
Liechtenstein 0 0 0.00 0.00
Lithuania 369 277 10.77 8.13
Malaysia 497 604 1.94 2.31
Malta 4 0 0.99 0.00
Mauritius 37 50 2.98 4.00
Mexico 11,372 11,558 10.91 10.97
Monaco 1 1 3.08 3.07
Mongolia 310 311 12.01 11.94
Montenegro 22 25 3.62 4.16
Morocco 160 162 0.52 0.53
Nepal 564 509 2.08 1.84
Netherlands 197 159 1.21 0.97
New Zealand 61 47 1.49 1.14
Nicaragua 436 465 7.98 8.41
Northern Ireland 26 23 1.51 1.33
Norway 33 33 0.71 0.71
Occupied Palestinian Territory 145 3.85
Panama 364 363 11.26 11.04
Paraguay 887 742 15.02 12.33
Philippines 3,240 3,296 3.83 3.82
Poland 555 490 1.45 1.28
Portugal 175 227 1.66 2.15
Republic of Moldova 226 184 5.83 4.80
Romania 457 438 2.11 2.03
Scotland 81 109 1.59 2.13
Serbia 142 144 1.44 1.46
Singapore 21 17 0.49 0.39
Slovakia 72 65 1.34 1.21
Slovenia 20 12 1.00 0.60
Spain 405 336 0.93 0.77
Sweden 127 115 1.41 1.27
Switzerland 75 60 1.01 0.80
Syrian Arab Republic 206 239 1.09 1.23
Tajikistan 157 228 2.40 3.43
Thailand 5,141 5,023 8.16 7.92
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 44 41 2.16 2.01
Turkey 3,082 2,999 4.22 4.06
Turkmenistan 162 142 3.35 2.90
Ukraine 3,030 2,958 6.46 6.35
United Arab Emirates 56 39 1.36 0.92
United States of America 16,740 17,034 5.58 5.62


These figures are collected by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime through its Survey of Crime Trends. Its definition of intentional homicide is “death deliberately inflicted on a person by another person, including infanticide”.