I feel sorry for my son... gone are the "good old days". :(

[Koshinn]

They were ignorant for not letting thoughts of highly improbable events negatively affect their mental health and quality of life?

No, they were probably ignorant because the thought of improbably negative events occuring never even crossed their mind.

 

[RidgeHunter]

Good facts brought to the table..I will retract that statement. The Murder rate, rape rate, robbery rate, and aggravate assualt rate are going DOWN from the '90s. If we consider the "good ol days" to be..lets call it 1960s-1980s, than without a doubt our Violent Crime rate has tripled here in Oklahoma. Here is my source on fbi.gov

http://www.ucrdatatool.gov/Search/Crime/State/RunCrimeStatebyState.cfm


In 1960 the violent crime rate was 97.0%
In 1970 it was 202.9%
In 1980 it was 419.5%
In 2009 it was 501.1%

If we are comparing from the "good ol days" to now. FBI statistics say that our violent crime rate has risen from 97.0% to 501.1% in fifty years time. If we are comparing from the 1990's then RidgeHunter, you are absolutely correct: the rate is going down. Hopefully it will continue to do so

I was referring to national crime rates earlier. We can do Oklahoma too.

Using the table you provided for Oklahoma crime data, if you notice the murder and manslaughter rates remain relatively constant from 1960-2009 spiking a few years in the 80's an 90's (as noted, the 1995 spike was the Murrah Building Bombing). In fact the Oklahoma murder rate was higher in 1960 than it was in entire decade preceding 2009.

Your "violent crime rate" spike is being skewed by aggravated assault and robbery, which if you notice started climbing in Oklahoma in the 60's and 70's. Good ole days to posters here. Aggravated assault more than doubled in the 60's alone. 36.8 in 1960 and 116.5 in 1969. Notice the same thing in the 70's and 80's. How much of that is tied to changing police tactics and changing circumstances (drugs)? The sale and use of illegal drugs became pretty popular in this time period, as did enactment enforcement of drug laws (War on Drugs ramped up dramatically in the early 70's). I would wager a good number of these assaults are between drug dealers/buyers/users and not on the average unsuspecting person going to the market for some bread.

Also being skewed by an increase in forcible rape. Ok, lets think about that. The Oklahoma forcible rape rate rose pretty quickly in the 70's and 80's, and then leveled off and remained relatively constant until now. How much of that was due to an increase in the amount of rapes reported to law enforcement due to changing societal attitudes towards sex crimes, especially in a traditionally southern and socially conservative state like Oklahoma?

Lastly, how many of these rapes, murder and assaults were random acts of violence from a stranger? A very small minority. Most people know their murder, rapist, or attacker.

http://www.ucrdatatool.gov/Search/Crime/State/RunCrimeStatebyState.cfm

 

[RidgeHunter]

No, they were probably ignorant because the thought of improbably negative events occuring never even crossed their mind.

Maybe it did cross their mind and they just chose to react to it differently.

It only crosses our minds more now because the media sells a lot more FUD now than they did back then.

Americans are always more than willing to alter their lifestyle and trade freedom for the illusion of security. See "post 9/11" world.

 

[inactive]

I'd argue the world is more ill and dangerous today than 30 years ago, but it's the people closest to the children we need to worry about more than the strangers.

http://m.news9.com/default.aspx?pid...y-abused-toddler-arrested?clienttype=rssstory