> Keep in mind that many states that have restrictive gun laws take a very
> dim view of people actually defending themselves. As you stated with
> some cases in Germany, there are similar cases here, where people
> defended themselves in cases that would be quite justifiable in most
> other states, but wound up being convicted themselves of murder or
> manslaughter, or aggrevated assault. However, overall, that seems about
> right. I do wonder though, since you've noted some cases where people
> were victimized with nobody paying attension, what is the rate of
> reportage? Could there possibly be more crimes in Germany that are not
> being reported?
That is indeed a problem. As I know from several sources, there are
substantial numbers of crimes which are not reported. This is especially
true for violent crimes like assault and rape. Many crimes are not reported
by the victims because of shame. But I suppose that this is true for many
countries, including the US.
It is - especially when it comes to rape or child abuse - a big problem that
the rate of crimes being reported is less than half of the total sum, in
case of children as victims it could well be possible that only one of ten
cases is reported. I have made the sad experience that two of my girlfriends
were subject to sexual abuse, and the most shocking fact about it is that in
a large part of these cases it is family (10%) or friends/neighbours (30%).
The percentages are based on numbers given by the BKA (wich is the German
equivalent to the FBI), but these numbers are of course only speculative.
On the other hand, the laws for such crimes are way too soft for such
people. According to my oppinion I would see to it that a criminal who has
been charged for rape should never ever become a free man again. For me,
rape is not less cruel than murder, and I would prefer such people far away
from the rest of society where they can never again be a danger.
Karsten
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:14:02 MDT