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To: maceng2 who wrote (842)	10/17/2005 4:02:23 AM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1417

Murder rates 'fuelled by poverty' news.bbc.co.uk Murders involving firearms rose in more affluent areas, the report said Increasing murder rates over the past 25 years were triggered by a recession in the early 1980s, a report says. The Crime and Society Foundation study found the risk of being a murder victim in England, Wales and Scotland rose sharply for poor men of working age. But the risk of being a murder victim fell for all other groups, including women, it said. It pointed to a link between rising murder rates and young men leaving school in the early 1980s. The report found people in the poorest areas are six times more likely to be murdered than those in the richest. It said the risk of being murdered was highest for poor men under 60. "The key component to what makes one place more dangerous to live in as compared to another is poverty," the report said. "The poorer the place you live in the more likely you are to be murdered." Gun crime While the top 10% richest Britons are now 4% less likely to be murdered than in the early 1980s, the report said the poorest 10% are 39% more likely to end up as murder victims. This is because a significant increase of murders among working-age men in the poorest communities has boosted the overall numbers of murders as a proportion of the population, it said. Report author Professor Daniel Dorling from the University of Sheffield dismissed the idea that gun crime was a key factor in rising rates, saying that firearms were instead shown to be used in more in affluent areas. The rate has risen most for those demographic groups and in those areas, for whom and where people have become relatively poorer over time Professor Daniel Dorling Statistics showed firearms accounted for just 11% of murders in the poorest areas, but this figure rose to 28% in the most affluent neighbourhoods. "The simple reason for this is that there are more guns in more affluent areas," the report said. Social harm Mr Dorling pointed to a link between rising murder rates and young men leaving school in the early 1980s, which was a time of mass unemployment. He concluded that the lack of opportunities and feelings of hopelessness among this group "bred fear, violence and murder". But he added the rate of murder represents only the "tip of an iceberg of violence". "The rate of murder in Britain can be seen as a marker of social harm," he said. "The rate has risen most for those demographic groups and in those areas, for whom and where people have become relatively poorer over time." Director of the Crime and Society Foundation, Richard Garside, said crimes that do the most damage to society are often overlooked. "To redress this imbalance we need to address our obsession for applying criminal justice solutions to complex social problems and develop a broader perspective on what actions and activities cause the most harm and damage," he said. The study looked at the socio-economic backgrounds of all the 13,140 people murdered in England, Scotland and Wales over 20 years from 1981. BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said critics will argue that murder rates were rising before the 1980s, and that the theory does not take into account increasing drug use and other changes in society.