My son showed me on his smart phone this crime icon system that places symbols on a map of your locale to give you a heads up on what kind of crime is happening in the area. Charles and I are currently working on a supplement—actually a base line template for the use of—such indexes.
Here is why:
According to the violence survey I did between 1996 and 2000, 29% of violence found its way into a police report or civil suit. Let’s make that 25% probably made its way into the FBI database.
From 2010-2015 only 10% of the violence I have documented has resulted in “legalities,” therefore whatever index you are using, since it is based on law enforcement stats, is just the tip of the aggression iceberg. The great myth of our generation was that violent crime was reducing even as it expanded, a myth perpetrated by our media and law enforcement.
To use such indexes, which are subject to police statistical manipulation due to political pressure, I suggest the following:
Know who the people who report the crimes are.
The people who report arrests are the cops. Most arrests are for drug possession or sale. For every such arrest there will be numerous violent crimes that go unpunished and unreported, committed by both the users and sellers of these substances. So, when you see a cluster of arrest markers, you must consider that area a war zone of sorts, with 10 to 40 times the violence indicated by the arrest icon.
Burglaries are actually an indication that teenage criminals addicted to drugs are living in an upscale community, which is no surprise. This data is only pertinent if you plan on buying a home there.
Robbery and assaults are often misreported, but can generally be lumped into people using aggression against other individuals. Attacks by groups on individuals rarely make it into crime stats, but occur roughly 10 times as often as reported robberies in an area.
The people reporting robberies and assaults are generally middle class folks who believe—falsely—that the police will do something to help. Poor and working class people hardly bother to report crimes because they now the police are not inclined or able to help. Also, many working class crime victims—like a friend of mine who was fingerprinted for reporting the burglary of his apartment—are harassed by cops, and accused of committing some crime that they are trying to cover up by filing a police report.
Therefore, if you are a middle class person of the type who might consider reporting a crime on your person, than icons indicating robbery and assault are a sign that people like you are being targeted by violent criminals at roughly the frequency indicated by the map.
Shootings are generally reported at the highest level, with one of every three shootings reported in Baltimore, Maryland for instance. In an urban area multiply shootings by three to get the probably rate of actual lead dispersal.
The only crime that is reported at or near the actual rate of occurrence is homicide.
Check out this smart phone app below, and if you know of any others please post a link in the comment section below.
