Are things worse now..? Crimes and media?? 50's/60's vs today?

I keep hearing people here say that things are so much worse now...yet I know that years ago there were crimes, perverts, all sorts of things ..just that we didn't have national attention on them usually

Living in Pennsylvania I didn't hear about crimes in California on my tv or in the newspapers...people in Michigan didn't hear about crime in Florida and visa versa...and of course we had no internet

With no internet, we had no online predators....I think back then pornography was much harder to get, in stores, in "brown paper wrappers"...in adult "movie houses"

Of course..we also didn't have to wear seat belts or have auto insurance...and without cell phones it was much easier to get stranded
So that was dangerous

There were murders, rapes, all sorts of things but we didn't have them in our faces 24/7 on tv shows....and of course we didn't have the internet

I do think that families were "stronger"....more extended families...divorce was something frowned on, much less divorce tho I guess many stayed married and unhappy

Not so many fractured families, and not so many "single moms"....back when I was growing up some girls left high school to "stay with an aunt" in a neighboring state (ie, to have a baby and give it up for adoption)

I hate to say it...as I know it is not politically correct...BUT...some people were called "crazy" and spent time in and out of mental hospitals (my uncle for one) and IMHO their families were safer from this

They didn't have so many homeless people when they had mental hospitals...and yes I realize that many of these hospitals were bad or unfair but they were fair to the rest of the public who were kept safe from them

The economy was better too in the 50's and 60's.

But still there were horrible crimes and bad people..

Justice was somehow served without the use of dna and high tech CSI stuff..and justice seemed to be pretty swift...Death Penalty was used in more states, not questioned so much....some had gas, some had electric chair, some "hanged" them...it was pretty much accepted I guess???

.I guess we just didn't have them on tv and without the internet nothing to "sleuth" I do remember the "Mafia" type crimes and criminals tho...they were the ones who had National attention, newspaper articles and books about them

So....do you think crime is worse now?? or is it just more "visable' and national...with 24/7 media and internet??

 

~~respectfully snipped~~ & BBM

That is exactly what my husband told me several weeks ago when I was ranting and raving. and he's our GJF.

I don't agree with him. Growing up, we lived in a huge neighborhood, houses for miles, in a large texas town. My Mom stayed at home and I guarantee you, she knew dozens and dozens of women for miles around. They *all* stayed home back then. And they had coffee together. They talked on the phone. They went to PTA. Birthday parties, etc, etc, etc.

If so much as one house had been broken into, we would have all known about it. It just didn't happen. We lived there for 10 years, and I never heard of one crime in our neighborhood.

"So....do you think crime is worse now?? or is it just more "visable' and national...with 24/7 media and internet??"

I really do. And the crimes are so much more brutal. And, yes, the 24/7 spreads the word, too. We wouldn't always be running out of prison space, and doing early releases, if the crime rate was as low as it used to be.

Personally, I like the Sheriff who makes his inmates wear pink clothes. He said that I think it was one year after he started this, the rate of return criminals had reduced by something like 30%. When I think of what he's accomplished, it makes me smile.

 

I think that BOTH are the case! I do think that the horrific nature of a lot of sexual crimes has escalated, in part because of the easy access to porn. Predators are both born AND made in some instances and the availability of graphic images that they can access again and again over the internet becomes more 'boring' and they need to act out the real thing in order to satisfy themselves.

My Uncle was a diagnosed schizophrenic who was also a child molester (this was in the 60's-70's). He molested me, then murdered his daughter whom he was also molesting. He spent time in a mental institution and then was arrested for molesting neighborhood girls. He had a sack of playboys in his room. I'm not saying that porn leads to crime and molestation, or lack of access prevents it, but I do think there are correlations. Oh- it was never discussed in my family either, because you just didn't talk about things like that back then.

I also think that the media's 24/7 loops focusing on these mass shooters encites others with f'd up beliefs to follow suit so that they can be heard, and the current economic is creating more unstable people to act than before.

I wish the news media would spend as much time focusing on groups that are trying to protect others, and how they are doing that. I started a thread in the Parking Lot about the idea of a March on Washington. If ya'll get a chance, read it and give me your thoughts.

 

ITA
Times are different and so are people. Many different reasons as population, the justice system, drugs, parenting skills are not a prime priority with alot of people and the list goes on and on.

JMO

 

I am so glad someone brought up this topic.

I thought about this the other day and clearly remember telling my boyfriend how much crime has been escalating these days. Even though I was born in the 80's, I can tell from that time period up until now how crime has just become worse and aggressive. I feel that the only reason why there was not a lot of broadcasting in previous years is because the crime rate was not as high as it is today. Presently, I see much crime shown in the news probably because we have so much more crime happening.

I've noticed there are so many people who are going missing or people being found shot to death. In addition, people seem to be getting better at hiding their crime and a lot of cops just simply want to give up. Some won't even do anything about an issue unless they are pushed to the limit. Seems like the cops just don't want to try as hard anymore. My mother always talks about how things were so much better in her years and how she has no clue what is happening to a lot of people in the world. I've caught myself saying many times how people are just simply going nuts.

When the convicted go to prison, I believe they should have daily therapy exercises that help them learn and correct their behavior. Even if it doesn't sink it. Some how some way it has to. I've heard that special programs offered in prisons to help inmates, have less of a chance of committing a crime when released. It's about finding what will help these prisoners to not do a crime again and trying different tactics as well. Like what Karen Anne stated about the sheriff who makes his inmates wear pink clothes. I like when the prisoners are treated like normal human beings. I don't think allowing some prisoner to sit in a cell is going to do much in the long run.

From what I've observed, there is a lack of positive parenting going on in the world and there are a lot of single parents out in the world. Very young girls becoming pregnant. I believe a lot learn from their parents and if the parents aren't right to begin with then I doubt their child or children will be. It's teaching kids that it's OK to act in such a manner.

People need to be taught, listened to, loved and helped. I think things wouldn't be so bad if this happened more often.
I wish I truly knew why crime is becoming higher but I don't. But I believe it could be that there are more ignorant, only 5 sensory people in the world with lack of spirit and soul being born and when this occurs, bad things do happen. Or, This may sound a bit out there but I think this issue has a lot to do with the energy level around the Earth. I've heard and read thatthe energy level is increasing; hence, some people are responding to it well and others not responding to it well at all. Another reason is how the convicted person was treated as a child. If they had a rough horrible child hood who was abused beaten and just unhappy, some criminals will take it out on other people by murdering others, stealing of being a sex offender. Some people have PTSD and can cause someone to commit a negative act.

Just a thought.

 

I think it is alot worse now .
We can share files in seconds and have live web cams that broadcast anything live .

 

Recently, before I had seen this thread, I asked my psychologist this very question. I was expecting his opinion to be that there is more crime today than in the past. I was wrong. In fact, he felt that there is actually less crime today because society is more aware thanks to modern communication and, in particular, the internet.

I have a book that looks at crimes in the headlines going back to the 1800's. It's shocking to see how individuals could do things like poison members of their family for many years before coming under suspicion. H.H. Holmes murdered hundreds in his downtown Chicago building before anyone got suspicious. Family members might go on vacation, or emigrate to another country, and all contact would be lost. The worried family members might not even know where the missing person was last seen. Not to mention, it was much more expensive and time consuming to search for someone. These days, for better or for worse, it's almost impossible to become anonymous!

I did notice that carrying out the punishment after a conviction is taking longer and longer- to the point of the ridiculous. In the early part of the 20th century, once someone was convicted of murder, he would be executed usually within a year. These days it takes about 20 years due to unending appeals. It's ludicrous. No wonder we have such overcrowding in the prisons!

Because crime is plastered all over the place these days, it's easy to believe that there is more of it. Although I haven't seen any statistics on this subject, I certainly hope my therapist is correct.

 

I have stated this opinion elsewhere in other threads so will try to keep this brief to avoid sounding like a cracked record.

I do think that there are many more crimes of shocking depravity and brutality today - and I lay much of the blame for that on the ready and legal availability of terrible videos showing the utmost barbarity being inflicted upon real people online. We have videos of a 16 year old girl being burned alive on Youtube, and indeed videos of the cruellest sadism and horror being meted out to victims and videotaped, with millions watching this stuff - perfectly legally - for their leisure all over the internet. There are gore sites out there whose only purpose is to host such barbaric, gruesome and twisted violence and death.

And with all this perfectly legal, society and the law is sending no message that this sort of thing is not morally suitable for recreational and entertainment purposes. No signal that there is anything wrong with enjoying such imagery is being sent. We thus have people growing up in an environment where viewing the most barbaric, sadistic and twisted deaths and tortures being inflicted on people, purely for their recreational viewing pleasure, is considered normal entertainment. And inevitably some are coming to believe that death and barbarity for pleasure - as long as the victim is not someone you care about - is perfectly fine morally. And they are also losing any sense of squeamishness or horror at the sight or thought of such cruelties.

We are as a result breeding growing numbers of people who view sadism, brutality, death, and murder as no big deal, and are far less likely to have many qualms about committing cruelly sadistic acts themselves. We are - by allowing the legal availability of video imagery of the utmost barbarity on the grounds of "freedom of information" - breeding growing numbers of future thrill killers.

Our societies are increasingly starting to reap what they sow. We need to stop sowing the seeds of this descent into depravity by criminalising videos featuring such appalling suffering being inflicted upon real people.

 

Here are the stats that prove your therapist correct:

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htius.pdf

 

Major flaw with that study. It only goes up to 2005, which is ten years ago now. Back then substantially fewer people had internet access. And many who did have access had had it for a much shorter length of time by then. But it's use has mushroomed in the last ten years. So that study misses out on much of the effect of the widespread and prolonged normalisation of grotesque violence, torture and death happening to real people and animals as an "entertaining" viewing spectacle.

Also, whilst the internet clearly brings more of what criminality there is to light much sooner, resulting in fewer everyday violent crimes perhaps, what the internet does all too well is cater for the real depravity in the minds of many. The desensitisation to grotesque violence and suffering will inevitably breed more people whose idea of entertainment is to watch people dying horribly - and in some cases to kill people horribly. Some of the most depraved crimes out there - thrill killing, sex crimes of varying types, and paedophilia, do seem to be being facillitated by the internet. At least the paedophile stuff is illegal. A lot of the violent stuff where the victims are real people should be illegal too in my view.

 

Since my initial response above, I have been investigating the statistics. Studies such as this one do point to a downward trend in overall murder rates throughout large areas of the world......

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ts-plunges-40-15-years-policing-improves.html

There are many factors accounting for this, including better policing, more trust and cooperation between citizens and police forces, and better and more reliable investigative techniques, eg better use of DNA evidence. There has also been a decline in drug use and drug addiction, as well as in drunkenness, amongst younger people. The internet has been a positive influence here, in that young people playing computer games and socially interacting with each other is resulting in fewer of them turning to drink and drugs out of boredom. Also some forms of violence such as domestic violence have become much more socially unacceptable, much less likely to be excused and justified.

Where the trend has been bucked and murder rates are increasing tend to be in regions rife with corruption, plagued by illegal markets run by criminal gangs, and where trust in the police is totally lacking. Which suggests strongly that policing itself and the degree to which organised crime or corruption in any society is kept in check is a massive factor in falling murder rates, along with improved investigatory, surveillance, and evidence-gathering techniques.

Yet hidden within the overall downward trend in homicide rates, there does appear to be a an increase in so-called "thrill killings" where people kill other people or animals purely for the sick pleasure of it. Here is just one article that highlights this.....

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/mar/16/ukcrime.london

There has also been a marked and highly noticeable increase in the phenomena of brutally killing animals for fun......

http://www.everythingwolf.com/forum/threadview.aspx?thread=8800p1

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-01-26-wildlife-thrill-killing_N.htm

I have found comments online about this sort of thing expressing incomprehension at such a growing phenomenon. Yet the obvious likelihood that many of these people are viewing violent deaths of people and animals online for entertainment and thus being normalised to it seems not to be crossing the minds of many. Yet the likelihood of such a connection seems logically obvious to me. After all, unlike all previous claims as to the effects of violent imagery achieved by special effects or computer graphics, the stuff on the internet now is video imagery of the actual gruesome deaths of real people and animals, known by the viewer to be real people and animals. That is qualitatively and materially vastly different to - and far more potentially dangerous than - all forms of visual violence depicted before. It is no longer fantasy - which all stable minds understand to be fantasy - but brutal reality.

Yet try as I might, I could find no investigative studies by psychologists, criminologists, sociologists, or anyone else, into the long term effects of constant exposure to real death and suffering as viewing entertainment. Yet how can it be anything but a negative influence upon developing or any adult potentially twisted minds?

 

Other likely contributing factors to recent declines in violent crime around the globe are demographics (as populations get older, which they are in most developing countries, there tends to be less violent crime) and the elimination of leaded gasoline (which correlates with a reduction in violent crime as the newborns at that time reach puberty). These factors have kicked in at different points in time in different countries due to different demographic trends and the timing of environmental protection laws.

Here's an article about the lead correlation from Chemical Engineering News:
http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i5/Crimes-Lead.html

 

even through i was born in the late 80s, yes i think crime has become much worst today, well for us western 1st world developed countries. With child killers/kidnappers they have always been around nothing new from the 50s, 60s or today, people must have heard of the Maria Ridulph case which has become the oldest solved case in USA, a 7-year old little girl was kidnapped while playing with her friend one evening outside her street corner in 1957, child's body was found the following year in 1958 and her killer was caught more than 50 years later in 2011 sentence life in prison. To bad he didn't get the death penalty, anyone who murders children should be put to death or beaten to death.

I am from Australia, crime is so big here now. We never use to have guns but now there has been so much gun deaths people obtaining guns in Australia.

 

I do think that pornography depicting extreme violent, non-consenting sexual activity - rapes, snuff videos, necrophile fantasies, and stuff like that are a massive problem in pushing those with such warped proclivities towards committing terrible sex crimes. Non-consenting porn of this type ought really to be illegal in my opinion.

But I remain convinced that far more damaging than most porn is actual violence and torture and murder of real people being shown on video for entertainment.

I find it extremely morally perverted, for example, that whilst Youtube bans nudity of any kind, it sees no problem at all with showing videos depicting a 16 year old girl being burned alive by vigilantes. Such imagery - viewed for entertainment by some and readily accessible to children - is obviously going to desensitise many to such barbarity and diminish empathy for victims.

Indeed, empathy for others amongst younger people growing up with such material has been noticeable for 30 years and become very marked in the last ten - the period when access to images of the utmost brutality being normalised has become widespread. Here is one study into the decline in empathy amongst young people....

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-me-care/

The widespread and totally legal availabilty of video imagery of the most brutal murders of real people, including minors, is likely to be having a far more damaging impact upon society than most consenting adult porn.

 

Perception vs. Reality

(BBM)

The decline in violent crime is one of the most striking trends over recent decades; the rate has declined roughly by half since 1993.

To be precise, the F.B.I.'s count of violent crimes reported to law enforcement has declined from a rate of 747 violent incidents per 100,000 people in 1993 to 387 incidents per 100,000 people in 2012, which is the most recent year for which it has published complete data. This reflects the fact that over this period, the homicide rate has fallen by 51 percent; forcible rapes have declined by 35 percent; robberies have decreased by 56 percent; and the rate of aggravated assault has been cut by 45 percent. Property crime rates are also sharply down.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/upshot/perceptions-havent-caught-up-to-decline-in-crime.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0


FBI: Violent crime drops, reaches 1970s level

(BBM)

"The violent crime rate last year was 367.9 for each 100,000 in population, down 5.1 percent from 2012. The rate has fallen every year since at least 1994, the earliest year for readily accessible FBI data, and the 2013 figure was about half the 1994 rate."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-violent-crime-1970s-level-20141110-story.html


Perceptions of crime haven't always followed the reality...

"Between 1992 and 2011, the annual number of murders in the United States fell from 23,760 to 14,612 despite a growing population.

In May, a Pew Research Center study found that 56% of Americans believe that gun violence is higher than it was 20 year ago, even though it has fallen precipitously since the 1990s.

And in 2011, Gallup found that 68% of Americans believed crime was getting worse, despite the reality of declining crime rates nationwide."

[video=cnn;crime/2013/08/23/newday-periera-wwii-veteran-beaten-death.cnn]http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/justice/random-killings/index.html[/video]

Why the Disconnect - Public Ignorance About Crime Rates?

(BBM)

"Unfortunately, however, most voters have little incentive to either acquire accurate information about crime policy, or rationally evaluate the information they do know, such as sensationalist media accounts of individual crimes. Because the chance of casting a decisive vote in an election is so extremely low, this kind of ignorance about crime is actually rational behavior, if the only purpose of seeking out the truth is to become a better-informed voter. For ideologically committed “political fans,” it is actually emotionally satisfying to interpret sensationalistic media stories as evidence of rising crime rates that (for the right) demonstrate the need for aggressive law enforcement or (for the left) the need for stronger gun control."

http://volokh.com/2013/08/26/public-ignorance-crime-rates/

THIS, in my opinion, is highly relevant; whether Republican or Democrat, playing up/sensationalizing crime/crime rates plays into and advances both parties agendas. For Republicans, justifying increased aggressive/militarized law enforcement procedures and/or protocols, protecting and securing 2nd amendment right, coddling/advancing NRA initiatives in exchange for monetary contributions + increase of gun sales by advancing the message that you're not safe anywhere and you need a gun(s) for protection. For Democrats, as stated above, stiffer gun control laws.

MO ~

 

Perception vs. Reality

(BBM)

The decline in violent crime is one of the most striking trends over recent decades; the rate has declined roughly by half since 1993.

To be precise, the F.B.I.'s count of violent crimes reported to law enforcement has declined from a rate of 747 violent incidents per 100,000 people in 1993 to 387 incidents per 100,000 people in 2012, which is the most recent year for which it has published complete data. This reflects the fact that over this period, the homicide rate has fallen by 51 percent; forcible rapes have declined by 35 percent; robberies have decreased by 56 percent; and the rate of aggravated assault has been cut by 45 percent. Property crime rates are also sharply down.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/upshot/perceptions-havent-caught-up-to-decline-in-crime.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0


FBI: Violent crime drops, reaches 1970s level

(BBM)

"The violent crime rate last year was 367.9 for each 100,000 in population, down 5.1 percent from 2012. The rate has fallen every year since at least 1994, the earliest year for readily accessible FBI data, and the 2013 figure was about half the 1994 rate."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-violent-crime-1970s-level-20141110-story.html


Perceptions of crime haven't always followed the reality...

"Between 1992 and 2011, the annual number of murders in the United States fell from 23,760 to 14,612 despite a growing population.

In May, a Pew Research Center study found that 56% of Americans believe that gun violence is higher than it was 20 year ago, even though it has fallen precipitously since the 1990s.

And in 2011, Gallup found that 68% of Americans believed crime was getting worse, despite the reality of declining crime rates nationwide."

http://www.gallup.com/poll/179546/americans-crime-last-year.aspx
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1603/crime.aspx
http://www.gallup.com/poll/150464/americans-believe-crime-worsening.aspx

Why the Disconnect - Public Ignorance About Crime Rates?

(BBM)

"Unfortunately, however, most voters have little incentive to either acquire accurate information about crime policy, or rationally evaluate the information they do know, such as sensationalist media accounts of individual crimes. Because the chance of casting a decisive vote in an election is so extremely low, this kind of ignorance about crime is actually rational behavior, if the only purpose of seeking out the truth is to become a better-informed voter. For ideologically committed “political fans,” it is actually emotionally satisfying to interpret sensationalistic media stories as evidence of rising crime rates that (for the right) demonstrate the need for aggressive law enforcement or (for the left) the need for stronger gun control."

http://volokh.com/2013/08/26/public-ignorance-crime-rates/

THIS, in my opinion, is highly relevant; whether Republican or Democrat, playing up/sensationalizing crime/crime rates plays into and advances both parties agendas. For Republicans, justifying increased aggressive/militarized law enforcement procedures and/or protocols, protecting and securing 2nd amendment right, coddling/advancing NRA initiatives in exchange for monetary contributions + increase of gun sales by advancing the message that you're not safe anywhere and you need a gun(s) for protection. For Democrats, as stated above, stiffer gun control laws.

MO ~

 

Wrong. The 80s was the aids and crack epidemic. The riots were way worse, and so was the amount of serial killings.

 

IMO no. Things are now just broadcast across the world. Family molestation is not kept quiet as much as it used to be. But, terrible things have happened across the world we are just more aware now with safeguards in place.

 

I studied to be a teacher for children aged birth through fourth grade. In one of my courses (I think we had a day/class about identifying abuse) my professor mentioned (I believe it was my professor but it may have also been in a movie we watched in class, my point here is that I haven't fact checked this info) that the number of children that are missing/abducted/lost today is roughly the same as it was in the early 1900s but we hear more about it now. The distance a mother would let her child travel alone has greatly shrunken in the past 100 years but it is no more dangerous outside for children outside then versus now.

I've read similar things that echo that. In Bringing Adam Home (a book about the Adam Walsh case that I highly recommend) they mentioned that parents never really talked to their kids about not getting into the car with strangers or if someone offers them candy, etc before Adam and that his story started this fear. Maybe some older sleuth-ers can attest to this? I was born in 1993, and I've been warned of everything from candies to puppies to cyber predators in my time. My fiance born in 1980 mentions he was told to simply not talk to strangers. My point here is that we are more aware of cases and how kids are taken now.

 

Thanks for this info, BritsKate. It’s only taken four years for me to see it! Lol. My skills at navigating sites where I have made comments, is very poor.