{"id":56596,"date":"2015-12-14T11:30:27","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T17:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=56596"},"modified":"2016-06-14T10:27:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T15:27:20","slug":"gun-homicide-comparing-apples-and-apples-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=56596","title":{"rendered":"Gun Homicide: Comparing Apples And Apples, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday<\/a>, we noted that to the US’s murder rate of 3.8 per 100,000 ranks 121st in the world overall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which, to “Gun Safety” advocates, is just wrong; they insist on constraining the comparison to only “western, industrialized” countries – as if the life of a\u00a0human being in Honduras or South Africa is somehow worth less, or their murder is of less weight than someone from Highland Park. \u00a0 And I noted that the reasons for the comparison are to make the US look as bad as possible, against small, socially-homogenous countries like Denmark and Norway and Japan.<\/p>\n

But I noted that among larger, westernized nations with at least a passing notion of human rights and any kind of social diversity at all, the US still fares pretty well<\/p>\n

But then, I thought – what if we factor out\u00a0the parts of US society that have the major crime problems? \u00a0What happens then?<\/p>\n

In The City<\/strong>: \u00a0First, I thought, we should take a look at America’s cities.<\/p>\n

For whatever reason, cities have almost always had a disproportionate murder rate.<\/p>\n

So why is that?<\/p>\n

Well, that question is one that keeps scads of otherwise unemployable sociologists hard at work. \u00a0 But it’s no secret that American cities are faced with three pathologies:<\/p>\n