Murder rates

An American blog features a good dissection of the comparative murder rates between the UK and the US.

If you were to ask the average person on the street here in the UK, they would probably say that America has a higher murder rate. The raw statistics back this view up.

However, the blog points out that it is not that simple for various reasons. For one thing, the definition of 'murder' in the US statistics is different to murder in the UK, and you end up comparing apples and pears.

The post makes good reading if you are interested in the way statistics can be devilish creatures, even when not being manipulated for political means.

And the answer? No-one knows whether, per capita, the UK or the US has more murders.