Gee, kinda glad I live in the USA afterall.

Scotland tops world league for violent crime
Camillo Fracassini



SCOTLAND is the most violent country in the developed world, according to a United Nations report.
Excluding murder, Scots are almost three times more likely to be victims of assault than Americans. England and Wales have proportionately the second highest number of assaults.



Many experts believe Britain’s heavy-drinking culture is to blame for the frequency with which fights break out.

The study, based on phone interviews with victims of crime in 21 countries, found that more than 2,000 Scots are attacked every week — almost 10 times police figures. The crimes covered by the study include assaults, but exclude street muggings, sexual violence and murder.

Violent crime has doubled in Scotland over the past 20 years to a level comparable with crime-ridden cities such as Rio de Janeiro.

The attacks have been fuelled by a “booze and blades” culture in the west of Scotland, with the worst offenders being males aged between 15 and 25. The region is home to the “Glasgow kiss”, in which someone appears to be about to kiss someone but instead headbutts them.

Since January there have been 145 attempted murders and 1,100 serious assaults with knives. But although there have been more than 160 murders involving knives over the past five years, Scotland is still far from the worst for killings.

David Ritchie, an accident and emergency consultant at Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary, said the UN figures were a “national disgrace”. He said: “There is a culture of violence in this country — you can buy a crossbow in the city centre, a knife with a 12in blade, a machete. What message does that send out?” A recent audit of Glasgow hospitals’ accident and emergency departments showed that only half of stabbings were reported to police.

Senior police have little doubt that alcohol-related thuggery is the main factor in violence on British streets.

Chris Allison, lead officer on licensing at the Association of Chief Police Officers and a commander in the Metropolitan police, has said that drunkenness is “all we are ever dealing with.”

Allison added this weekend: “The link between alcohol and crime and disorder is well documented. Figures from the 2000 British crime survey suggest 40% of violent crime was committed by someone under the influence of alcohol. It is therefore vital for the government to take action to change the current culture of excessive drinking.”

According to the UN study, 3% of Scots had been victims of assault. The second highest figure was recorded in England and Wales at 2.8%, compared with 2% in America and 0.1% in Japan.

“Our survey is more accurate than the official figures because there is a huge proportion of crimes that go unreported,” said Jan Van Dijk, head of analysis at the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute.

“We have seen a trend in Scotland and the proportion has almost doubled since 1989 and risen from 1.9% in 1996. This is very significant and is a clear upward trend.”

Recent victims include a 14-year-old schoolboy from Glasgow who lost an eye after he was hit in the face with a bottle during an unprovoked attack, and a 17-year-old girl from Edinburgh who was left unconscious after being punched, kicked and stamped on by a gang of girls.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspap...785929,00.html

I think that mass legalization of Marijuana and a campaign to promote it as an alternative to alchohol would be interesting one way or another. I'm betting that it would certainly lead to less drug-related violent crime.

Excluding murders. Would you rather be assaulted or murdered? Hmm, tough choice...

Personally? Depends on the assault I would rather be murdered than raped and violated by a bunch of sodomite gang members.

And the fact that they excluded murders doesnt mean much other than the fact that they excluded murders, I am sure the crime rates would still hold up if they added them in. Only difference is that the US for example has insane amounts of murders in places where less than a half of a % of the population live. Black ghettos.

Besides your chance of being murdered in the US or England is slim to none. Your chance of being robbed, raped or beaten though is insane in England and Scotland.

I doubt it. As long as guns are illegal in the UK and people are unarmed and unable ot defend themselves properly criminals will have easy access to victims. The fact that most criminals have a drink before they go out and rape or mug someone is really irrelevant.

Either way, I'll always feel that that argument is just about pushing an agenda and trying to proove a irrelevant point rather than trying to present an alternative solution to the problem. Although I do agree on some level, I am anti-gun and weapon control after all.

I want to legalize weed too, not for medicinal purposs, but because I like smoking it and its fucking lame that its illegal to begin with.

All unbiased evidence clearly indicates that it is much less harmfull then alchohol as well.

So it doesn't include mugging or rape either...

Basically, a drunk person is more likely to smack you in the face after a night on the razz in Scotland than the US.

Well, that clearly proves... um... absolutely nothing?

I dread to think how much worse this country would be if we didn't have gun-control.

Easily done, read the crime stats from 20 or 30 years ago. I think you'll note there was less crime actually when people were allowed to defend themselves.

You can't really compare the world today with the world 30 years ago. Society was different, completely different, and I think that has far greater relevance to the levels of violent crime then than the lack of gun control.

thats a load of crap, at no point in time do they look like they want to kiss you, they just smash you.

you gotta love glasgow.

I think I agree with you this time. I don't think this has anything to do with the gun issue.

Umm yes you can, in fact thats how we notice trends. Crime has been increasing ever since the UK outlawed guns. Get it?

sorry, but you can't say that is the reason. you can't say for a fact that the crime in the uk is rising because guns aren't legal. there's hundreds of reasons for the crime in scotland, from yobism to pure and utter boredom.

in my area people get jumped just because the person has thought they were looking at them funny, others because they're "moshers" or look like "freaks" it has fuck all to do with guns and everything to do with peoples attitudes. and im pretty sure that the crime situation here would be a hell of a lot worse if guns were legal. infact! gun crimes in the uk have also been rising. im not sure i would even leave my front door if they did become legal, as i get enough abuse as it is. i had some little twerp threaten to ram me with a metal pole because he thought i was a goth, could you imagine how that situation would have been with a gun?

considering you dont even live in scotland i dont think you can actualy say too much about it, since you really dont know the culture, this is a country where people are killed purely from supporting a different team from one and other (football). in the 50's/60's glasgow was basicaly run by gangs of youths who used to stab and beat each other just for fun.

as a nation we have always been a violent nation, guns or no guns.

for some reason throughout the centuries we have just loved kicking the living shit out of one and other. it goes right back to the clans fighting for land.

i can't speak for england or any other part of the uk. but scotland has always been violent.

The thing I find intriguing about the Brits and firearms is when you get them here and hand them a well balanced, top quality, compensated competition .45 auto on a firing range, and let them shoot to they're hearts content, they are nearly orgasmic with pleasure to have the opportunity to fire a fine hand gun. They'll still spout the "gun control is good" party line, but complain noisily that you only brought 500 rounds to the range...

we love to moan!

i'd love to go shooting, i think it looks like great fun, but fuck trying to live in this area if guns were legal..