Couldn’t find a cite for it in print media (here’s the NPR RealAudio link), but I heard an interesting story on the ride home yesterday.
Homicide rates were down in the 90s. Lots of folks have claimed credit for it, or claim to know what caused it — stricter laws, gun control, lack of gun control, more drug users in prison, etc. A new study, covering from the 60s up through 1999, apparently makes a persuasive case instead that it’s actually much more a matter of improved emergency medical treatment.
In other words, the presence of EMT personnel (including paramedics), the 911 system, and improved ER technology (not to mention a generation of combat medics in Nam) have meant that folks who are shot, stabbed, or otherwise assaulted in a way that would have been fatal in the past are now surviving.
In still other words, it’s not that fewer folks are trying to kill others — it’s just that fewer of them are succeeding.
An AP story about this study appeared in the Chronicle (Houston) on August 12. I looked it up in the archives, but they’re subscriber-only, so there’s no link for outsiders. You might be able to find the link in the New York Times or the Washington Post or Yahoo for free.
Alas, so are the archives for the NYTimes and WashPost.
However, this site still has the original AP article.
That’s definitely a frightening thought…