Very attractive subject right? It creates this high expectation about what you´re about to read.

To be totally honest, the only link between this title and what you´re about to read is that both fall in the bucket of HOW ATTRACTIVE AND DECEIVING MEDIA can be.

As Bill Clinton likes to say, “Follow the trend lines, not the headlines.” We will see that the trend lines are more encouraging than a news junkie would guess.

This article is about how we percieve that we are in greater danger today than we were ever before.

Today´s conflicts and extreme violence such as the crisis in Syria … crisis in North Korea… Russia and America facing off… and ­China getting itself involved in the mix. And summing up all the killings and terrorist attacks in schools and public places...all of this may play a big part in why we think the world is about to end!

But, I have good news... the trend lines for violence worldwide point sharply downward. And this is data talking, not pure speculation.

We need to be mindful of orders of magnitude. Some categories of violence, like rampage shootings and terrorist attacks, are riveting dramas but (outside war zones) kill relatively small numbers of people.

I know using graphics can be very old fashion and boring, but they always help to make a point. Im only using some of them to reinforce the message... so dare with me.

The trend appears to be downward, from 7.1 homicides per 100,000 people in 2003 to 6.2 in 2012.

141209_Charts-Homicide-Rates-US-England

In Mexico, we are also getting better with some spikes that involve all the drug-fueled killings, but the homicide level has declined in each of the past two years (including an almost 90 percent drop in Juárez from 2010 to 2012) ** UNODC (Global Study of Homocides)

In other words, the world’s civilians are several thousand times less likely to be targeted today than they were 70 years ago.

141209_Charts-Homicide-Rates-Mex

 

This next graphic, personally has a great impact on me, is about victimization of children in the US.

David Finkelhor and his colleagues reported, “Of 50 trends in exposure examined, there were 27 significant declines and no significant increases between 2003 and 2011. Declines were particularly large for assault victimization, bullying, and sexual victimization.”

141209_Charts-children

 

This study, dates up to 2011, but we all know that this type of events are becoming a regular in this country. So, I went deeper and found a study that dates to 2014.

And guess what, they had some picks but the trend returns to a downward state.

Resultado de imagen para VICTIMIZATION OF CHILDREN IN THE US TREND LINE
This is all very helpful, but is this happening because we became better persons through time? or our empathy level grew stronger through the years?
One big political movement that has had a great impact is democracy. It has proved to be more robust than its eulogizers realize.
141209_Charts-Autocracy
Other causes of the decline in violence include the invention of printing, the empowerment of women, enhanced powers of reasoning and expanding capacities for empathy in modern populations, and the growing influence of enlightenment ideals.

 

The big question is:

Why is the world always “More dangerous than it has ever been”—even as a greater majority of humanity dies of old age?

The real answer is the immediacy in which we get the information. Our access to information has never been so easy and fast.

My advice would be check facts, dates and trend lines.

I´m not trying to minimize the violence we are living right now. I might even think today´s violence might be worst in sense of meaning. We live in an information era, we are "civilized" and knowing all the facts we still try to impose our beliefs and kill for them.

We have a long way for it to disappear.

But, next time you feel like having a stong point about anything in life, make an effort on sustaining that vision with hard data.

Knowledge is power.

Thanks for reading me,

Maria A

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