-- At 11:08 AM 3/20/2001 -0500, Trei, Peter wrote:

I'm sure the apparent discounting of the US murder rate by some American list members seems inexplicable to you. At the risk of being extremely non-PC, I think I can explain why.

The distribution of murders in the US is very heavily skewed towards groups which are unlikely to be on the list, or acquainted to people on the list. In short, there is a large disparity in the murder rates for white, educated professionals (who make up most the membership of this list) vs poor blacks or latinos.

Most of the murders are committed by blacks and latinos, especially blacks and most of the victims are blacks and latinos. The black murder rate, though extraordinarily high by western standards, is lower than that of typical black countries, for example it is lower than that black countries near the US, such as Jamaica or Haiti. The murder rate among white Americans is comparable to the murder rate among white canadians, and the murder rate among black Americans is comparable to the murder rate among black canadians. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG CRLWmdwmh8GdPNOQ5k/+rr34Pbyvm3AHVpJPEIXN 4/UjXVePKYjivInLg/HQx7LX1Z0RzehMcd+AqFpay