What was he/she/they/whoever thinking?

It seems like daily hear about unfortunate crimes and robberies all over town; but you never really think about it until it hits home. This weekend was a great Labor Day weekend right? Wrong…my grandma and grandpa were robbed! It was about 7:30ish on Sunday night, the thief came on a stolen motorcycle. They tore through their house, top to bottom, every room, every drawer. After stashing all of my grandma’s jewelry…FINE jewelry I might add, seven guns, two laptops, the thief set my grandpa’s shop on fire…He is a mechanic for many local farmers, I don’t have any idea what the sticker price would be for all of his belongings. And on top of that he was working on someone else’s tractor at the time of the fire that was demolished. And last but certainly not least, they used his pick up as a getaway vehicle and left the burnt up motorcycle, yes they tried to burn the evidence.

So after this incident this weekend, I started wondering how or if the crime rates have fluctuated compared to the past. I feel like the robbery, crime, and murder rates have significantly increased. I believe much of this has to do with the weak economy, unemployed and the desperate time of need United States citizens are experiencing.

According to the FBI; in the years 2006 and 2007 from January to December the robbery rate percentage was -0.5. Within a short for years, we jump to the year of 2010. In this year, the robbery rate had increased to -9.5. That’s a pretty extravagant difference I think.

I found that Neighborhoodscout was a helpful resource to help understand how close the crime really is to home. The population of Missouri is estimated at 5, 837,861. Annually, the report total for burglary was 45,788 and for theft there were 150,032 crimes reported. The national median chances of becoming a victim in crime or theft is 32.1%. In Missouri, your risk is greater at 37.10%. Now I realized that is not a huge difference but if you think about the entire United States…that’s not good, not good at all!

Another view to look at this at this is the fact that since we are in a time of economic lows there is obviously unemployment. I didn’t really think about it until I read this article but, many of these job cuts have been police patrol, security guards and etc. Also many businesses are hurting and in these hurting times they are skipping out on privileges like security cameras or alarm systems.  Sure these things come at an extra expense, but could it pay off in the long run if something were to happen close to your home or business?

It is very sad to see the crime, burglary, and murder have increased. And like I said before; I believe it is from the hard economic times that Americans are facing. I hope to see a decrease in these rates in the near future to help preserve the lives of American citizens.