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Comment by aerosmile | Hacker News Reader

Spoiler alert: the murder rate in Russia is 40% higher than in the US, and that's despite the very different gun laws [1][2].

Nothing ruins a good story like facts. That's also why you should always raise before you launch or enter a new market, etc. People are suckers for a story, and our brains are pre-wired to explain phenomena rather than to question them. Once you master that psychology (and manipulation) of people, you'll be better at fundraising - and apparently at journalism as well!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Russia [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States

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From your link:

> Either way, it represents a significant decrease over the previous 15 years (in 2001, the homicide rate was 30.5). In 2018, according to Rosstat, there were 7,067 murders, and the homicide rate in Russia fell below the United States for the first time in recent history, falling to 4.9 per 100,000 compared to the US rate of 5.0 per 100,000 in 2018.

A common thing that happens in these comparisons is that people look at the Rosstat statistic that includes attempted murder.

Also, I'm specifically making my point about the major cities. Moscow sees a huge amount of investment of course, and I would expect the same from US cities like NYC or SF.

Could you expand on what this has to do with tazjin's point, which is specifically about delivery workers being attacked by robbers, and the police doing nothing about it, in specific cities?

He started off with "It's always strange to read these reports from American cities..."

It's strange because it's exaggerated, and it's exaggerated because it has to be - otherwise nobody would care to read the article (and then nobody would pay for this poor reporter's salary who has to hit certain monthly pageview targets, etc).

If you read something in the news and it sounds really strange, don't take it at face value.

I used to live by the bridge mentioned in the article as a place where people got attacked, and I believe it 100% fwiw.

It'd rather compare the US with Western Europe. Homicide in the US is 5x that of Germany, and 10x that of Norway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention...

My point was not to defend the crime rate in the US, but to address a question that a person from Russia asked - why does it sound like living in NYC is like watching some Western movie, whereas the same cannot be said about Moscow?

It sounded strange, because all it takes is a few YouTube searches to witness the level of violence that exists in Russia that far exceeds anything you'll see in the US. Russia really is something else in that regard, and if a Russian felt safer at home than in the US, it's simply a product of exaggerated reporting.

If someone living in Munich said that NYC is more dangerous than what they are used to, I wouldn't disagree with them.

Considering the US is notorious for mass shootings and gun violence, it's not at all surprising that someone would have that view. NYC is a fairly safe place, for now. So is Moscow.

This comment of yours however does smack of that run of the mill American xenophobia, "all it takes is a few YouTube searches to witness the level of violence that exists in Russia that far exceeds anything you'll see in the US. Russia really is something else in that regard." All it takes is a few YouTube searches to find some really fucked up footage of cops violating Americans' rights every day.

You have never been to Russia and yet feel comfortable saying it is "something else in this regard", basing the statement on a YouTube search.

The average stats are about the same, but that's as useful a number as the average temperature of the patients in a hospital.

For the places a visitor is likely to go, Russia will definitely feel safer. Crime there is largely pushed out of the densely populated city cores and into the outskirts. In the US, it's the opposite. A downtown core looks (and smells) like a dystopia unimaginable to most citizens of the world. People are always shocked at how terrible the world cities that heard about so much look in person.

The U.S., however, does not have the demographics of Western Europe.

Just like you can't compare Western Europe to Japan (it is much more violent in comparison, but again, different demographics).

The US is maybe 50% Europe, 30% Latin America, 8% Asia, 12% Africa, and if you look at the UN intentional homicide tables and take the weighted average by continent, you'll end up with an expected intentional homicide rate of about 5 per 100,000, which is right where the US is.

So stop pretending we are Western Europe - we aren't.

There's a HUGE difference between getting murdered by your friend in a drunken argument, and getting murdered by a stranger street criminal trying to rob you....

There is? Either way you're still dead.

Right before that there is a huge difference.

Ah yes, Russia. Long held as the standard to which the US should aspire to in many ways, including its murder rate.

It's deceptive anyway. Healthcare is much better in the USA than in Russia, including in the treatment of potential homicides.

If you combined murder rate + ICU entry rate for both countries due to violent crime, I think the stats would tell quite a different story.

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