WS More or Less: Why London’s Murder Rate is Being Compared to New York’s
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2018
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
London’s murder rate is on the rise – and for the first time ever it has just overtaken New York’s, according to a number of media outlets. But is it true? And is it appropriate for journalists to compare between the two cities? South Africa’s missing children statistics A viral Facebook post has suggested that one child is kidnapped every thirty seconds in South Africa. We examine the evidence which shows that a child is reported missing every nine hours to the police, and this includes more than just kidnappings.
(Photo: Police officers inspect the scene of a knife attack in London. Credit: Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:05.9 | This is your weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life. |
| 0:09.4 | I'm Charlotte McDonald and I'm Kate Lambo. |
| 0:12.8 | Later in the programme we'll be looking into a viral Facebook post which claimed that |
| 0:16.1 | a child gets kidnapped every 30 seconds in South Africa. |
| 0:20.7 | But first, this week, a British newspaper the Sunday Times pointed out that there had |
| 0:27.6 | been more murders in London than in New York in the last couple of months, something |
| 0:32.1 | that hasn't happened in modern times. |
| 0:34.8 | The reason sighted? |
| 0:36.4 | A dramatic rise in knife crime. |
| 0:39.6 | Following that, many more media outlets in the UK and the US reported this fact. |
| 0:45.4 | Well is it true? |
| 0:46.8 | It is correct that for the two months of February and March this year London has had a higher |
| 0:51.6 | number of murders. |
| 0:53.2 | The New York Police Department dealt with 11 homicides in February. |
| 0:57.0 | While London's metropolitan police are looking into 15, in March there were 21 in New |
| 1:02.1 | York, but 22 in London, so that's one more. |
| 1:06.1 | But what does that actually mean? |
| 1:08.4 | Point number one, London has seen a dramatic increase in knife crime. |
| 1:13.1 | In the last few years, knife crime has been going up in the UK capital. |
| 1:17.7 | We know that of the murders this year in London, a number of them were caused by a knife |
| 1:21.8 | or sharp instrument. |
... |
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