Crime Affects You

AN ELDERLY man stepped from the elevator of his building on Avenue D in New York city. Suddenly, from behind, a youth grabbed his throat and threatened: “Give me your money or I’ll kill you.” Jerking forward, the man broke free. As he screamed, the mugger fled.

It was a frightening experience. And this was the sixth time that the man had been mugged in four years! Other experiences had been more frightening, as when he was knocked down and viciously beaten, and when a revolver was held to his head. In many areas these crimes are common.

Are you afraid when you venture from your home alone? Millions are. United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim warned: “The streets are no longer safe after dark.”

Even in smaller towns muggings, rapes and murders are occurring, scaring citizens. A middle-aged couple in a nice part of the desert resort of Palm Springs, California, noted: “We no longer feel safe out walking alone after dark.”

A prosecutor in Santa Monica, a relatively small middle- to upper-class California community, routinely asked a jury how many of them had been mugged or burglarized. Eight of the twelve had!

But even if you personally have not been hurt or robbed, you are affected. For has not crime caused you to worry about the safety of your family? Are you not concerned about what is happening in the schools? Are you aware of illegal use of drugs in your area? Do you worry that your car may be damaged or stolen when you park it? Or, if you travel by plane, are you concerned that it may be hijacked? And what about the security of your home and other possessions?

The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine noted: “City dwellers are digging in, those who can afford to, making fortresses of their homes.” Crime has even spread to areas once viewed as secure.

One visitor to the beautiful American Virgin Islands observed that there is one prevailing topic of conversation​—the latest crime. “Some of the stories may be exaggerated,” he acknowledged, “but the fear is pervasive and palpable, the mentality of siege akin to that of many big-city dwellers in the U.S.”

A twenty-year resident of the island of St. Thomas laments: “I won’t even drive home alone at night. I can’t leave the island without someone backing a truck up to my house and filling it up. We’ve all been robbed several times.”

But you may still think, ‘Crime does not affect me, at least not much.’ Yet it does. Aside from the constant threat to your safety and possessions, there are other ways that you are affected.

For example, consider skyrocketing prices that affect your pocketbook. Norman Jaspan, head of a New York consulting firm, explains that some retailers add 15 percent to the price of certain manufactured goods to offset what is stolen by employees. That means you pay $11.50 for an item, instead of $10.00, because of employee theft.

As a consumer, you pay, too, for merchandise stolen by other “shoppers.” A Macy’s department store official explained: “The shoplifter who picks our pocket picks yours as well.”

Also, as crime increases, so does the expense for larger police forces and penal and court systems. Law-enforcement costs, according to one survey, amount to $8,600,000,000 a year in the United States alone! You, as a taxpayer, pay for this.

Then there are the polluted lakes, streams and oceans, or the smog-filled air you breathe. Surely you are affected by them, perhaps critically so. Criminal negligence by large industries and city governments often is the cause of pollution.

But you may say, ‘Is not crime decreasing? Do not statistics show this? Even the United States attorney general recently said that his country is “moving from a crime increase to an actual crime decrease.”’ Is this really so?

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Do you feel safe out walking alone after dark?

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You Pay the Higher Price Because of Crime

Some retailers add 15 percent to price of products to cover their losses from employee theft

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You are affected by polluted waters, which are often the result of criminal negligence by large industries and city governments