The Taipei Times today (Oct 22, page 3
I think it is like that everywhere… well, except Green Island since that is where all the murders are at…
I have asked several local friends what the murder rate is in Taiwan. I never get a straight answer, but the highest number I’ve ever heard is a few hundred in a year, and those mostly mob killings over betel nut girls.
Welcome back Brian
Los Angeles city – not the county – reportedly had 653 homicides in 2002 and 17.48 killings per 100,000 people.
But Los Angeles has a population of just under 4 million - that’s approximately a sixth of Taiwan’s population. If Los Angeles had the same size population as Taiwan, and maintained the same homicide rate it has now, an average of around ten people would be murdered there every day.
The DGBAS has some figures on this. See the third sheet here:
dgbas.gov.tw/dgbas03/bs2/92chy/A203.xls
IIRC, Taiwan’s murder rate is relatively high compared to other crimes here.
I just “ran the numbers” myself and came up with (approx) 11 murders per 100,000 in LA county and 5 murders per 100,000 for Taiwan; basically same numbers as Cold Front. Making, from a stats standpoint, Taiwan about half as deadly as LA.
That figure still seems way high to me and to the prosecutors I have spoken with so far today.
Well we shall see. Bassman, thanks for the welcom back, although I just dropped by to mention this, I am still on my “Segue sabbathical”.
take care,
Brian
President, Murder Inc.
Judging by the frequent “watermelon knife” chopping style reports on the local media it looks right to me. I imagine most are kept within the family so to speak. I remember some time back I was writing a report on the media handling of the whole Chen Ching Hsing and his cronies thing and was quite startled at the offical figures for certain crimes. Despite the kidnap and crime panic in Taiwan at the time, I recall kidnappings were more frequent in Australia per 100,000 than they were here. A big surprise. However I later learnt “kidnapping” in Australia could also be interpreted as a disgruntled seperated parent snatching back their kid for the weekend.
I tell ya what I’m interested in is the road toll. In Australia they publish this widely with a state by state breakdown and flash it right in your face on a daily basis, especially leading up to any holiday - "the Easter weekend road toll tragically increased to bla blah blah after yet another horror on the deadly Hume . . . "
I’ve heard the stats for road tolls here are unreliable as people are recorded as dying of trauma or lodged in other categories once they hit the hospitals.
HG
[quote=“brianlkennedy”]The Taipei Times today (Oct 22, page 3
I feel safer in Taipei than in Zurich…!
Equally interesting is this:
According to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, in the first six months of this year –
Traffic deaths: 7.3 per day
Deaths from fire: 18.83 per month
2002
Suicides: 254 per month, or 8.48 per day
Mesheel, not where I lived in Taipei… (by LiShan North Road) where all those barber shops are at… it is scary to walk by those places at night…
I know Linsen Rd…=)
The main problem here in Zurich is, that it gets dark in winter around 5pm, all shops close at 8pm and nobody is on the streets anymore. There are no 24hour shops and people tend to go home after work, so during week days, the city center is dead after 8 pm. They are also trying to save money on the street lightening. I live in a place similar to Zhongshan East Rd. in the city center but am afraid to go home alone at night, cause nobody would even hear you screaming.
Maybe I watched too many movies…
I agree. how many la murders are gang murders out in the street so you can’t miss it. the taiwan mafia don’t do it like that. practically all your other murders are in the living room, you don’t notice it as much, but if you watch the tv news or read the chinese paper–such tripe is beneath the english dailies apparently–you’ll see them.
Yeah, reading the Chinese newspapers really can change your
perspective of crime, etc. in Taiwan. If I went by the info in the
English newspapers, Taiwan is a really safe place. But when friends
in Tienmou and elsewhere in Taipei were attacked, it never made
the newspapers. The police kept every incident quiet. I have had
at least four friends leave Taiwan because of some kind of sexual
harrassment (which the police won’t help them with - whether you
are male or female) or attack/rape/robbery.
Hope that the statistics that have been cited are incorrect, but would
be interested if you do find alternative statistics.