Correlation
A couple interesting bits:
TriggerFinger: the level of trust held by a populace in its government influences the murder rate in that society. When people trust their government and feel justice and respect can be obtained through the system without resorting to violence, murder rates are low. When the government is not responsive to the people, and is not trusted to deliver justice for its citizens, murder rates increase
And a link between traffic deaths and murders?
December 7th, 2009 at 10:17 am
I can agree with that. It makes sense to me.
Kinda like if you trust your votes will be counted and your government is responsive to your desires, you won’t resort to violence against the government or its agents.
December 7th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I came across that also in a review of the same book, in National Review. I guess it was one of the more outstanding salient points.
It also does well to illustrate the core differences in certain hot-spots of crime around the country – like the Richmond/Oakland axis of murder where violence is frequent, prolific, and endemic compared to neighboring cities with low crime rates.
December 7th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
seems to me that it would be the other way around. high murder rate? probably don’t trust the government. low murder rate, along with a low crime rate in general, my trust in them goes up. seems to me that one of their primary jobs is to keep people from killing me. when they fail at that basic task (or i perceive that they fail to minimize crime) then i start to distrust them.