> >>>> >>>>>> Gentlemen,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> From my position as an outside observer looking on with dismay from
>>>>>> glorious tax-exiledome abroad (as Mr. Plowman sees it) I can't help
>>>>>> but notice the staggering number murders taking place in Britain >>>>>> these
>>>>>> days.
>>>>>
>>>>> It would be helpful if you could provide the source of your
>>>>> misinformation. Would this be some old encyclopedia?
>>>>>
>>>>>> The kind of thing that would be national news for weeks on end
>>>>>> 50 or 60 years ago is now so commonplace that it barely warrants a >>>>>> few
>>>>>> desultory lines in the local rag.
>>>>>
>>>>> Perhaps the readership don't want to read such things
>>>>>
>>>>>> Something really needs doing (like reintroducing hanging) but no one
>>>>>> in politics is even referencing the problem, let alone dealing with
>>>>>> it. WTF is to be done and why is that bloody useless woman still in
>>>>>> post as home secretary??
>>>>>
>>>>> Why? the homicide rate is pretty stable:
>>>>>
>>>>>formatting link>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Note the compressed scale. From 2002 to 2021, the highest rate
>>>>> being 18 per million, currently 10.1 per million.
>>>>
>>>> What was it in (say) 1962?
>>>
>>> I assume it is not by chance you have chosen a year with one of the
>>> lowest murder rates in England and Wales during the 20th century.
>>> OTOH, today's rate is about average, or possibly a bit below average,
>>> for the past 40 years.
>>
>> There's nothing in the selection of the year - it's just the year a
>> few years before the penalty for murder was abolished. You may use
>> 1961 or 1963 if you like. Heck, use 1950. Or any year you like from
>> (say) 1945 up to and including 1964.
>
> It is also a period when drug related murders were few and far between,
> unlike today, when nearly half of homicides are drug related. That is
> probably a much larger factor than the abolition of the death penalty.
So you accept that there are more murders nowadays, but argue that if we still had the death penalty, drug-related murderers would excape it?
Says who?
And what relevance does motive have?
>>>>> Given the lockdowns and the concerns over domestic violence, I'm
>>>>> surprised the current rate isn't higher.
>>
>
>