Only A Matter of Time?
The Crime Clock doesn’t recognize race or age or gender. It’s all about statistics.
The figures are compiled each year by the National Center for Victims of Crime. The numbers come from various government and private agencies like the Department of Justice, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
The Crime Clock might easily be dismissed as just a bunch of numbers but it really isn’t…It’s the scoreboard on which America keeps track of all the criminal ugliness that happens in our country. Take the individual crimes committed and divide by the number of citizens we have and you get numbers that will leave you numb.
While I’m usually skittish of statistics that can be easily manipulated or interpreted in biased ways I really think you can take these stats to the bank. Ready to digest some mind boggling figures?
The Clock, It Ticks For You
There are so many homicides in America every year it extrapolates to this: One person is murdered every 31 minutes in America.
One person, woman or man, is raped every 1.9 minutes.
One child is reported abused or neglected every 35 seconds!
Stop for a minute and imagine the true impact of these statistics. The agony of men, women and children left behind in the wake of these crimes, their scars carried for a lifetime.
And that’s not all.
The Crime Clock tells us one person is killed in an alcohol related traffic accident every 40 minutes in America – that’s more than four dozen people every single day.
One woman is victimized by an intimate partner every 52 seconds; one man is similarly assaulted every 3 and a half minutes. Just imagine the number of people crippled by domestic violence every single day. It’s mind boggling!
One American home is burglarized every nine seconds. So what do you think your chances are of coming home one day to find your home has been violated, your belongings gone?
Abuse Against Elders - A Crying Shame
One elderly person falls victim to a violent crime every 4 minutes in the United States and every single hour of every single day someone reports they have been victimized as part of a hate related crime.
What are we doing to each other?
Last week in this space I wrote about a wonderful organization called Crime Survivors (www.CrimeSurvivors.org) based in Orange County, California, founded and maintained by crime survivor Patricia Wenskunas. The group struggles to make sure victims of crime are not forgotten in a system that gives so much benefit of the doubt to criminal defendants. I’m not knocking the idea of “innocent until proven guilty,” I just think we should give equal consideration to those left victimized. Patricia’s mantra is that victims are blameless, that they can rise above their victimhood into true survivor status with the proper support.
Reading mere numbers can sometimes fog the brain. It’s not until we hear individual stories about specific victims that we can truly begin to focus on the plight of victims and their families who suffer through the crime with them.
For every high-profile media case – think Matthew Sheppard, Elizabeth Smart or Jaycee Dugard – there are hundreds of thousands of others each year you never hear about.
I doubt you heard about Patricia Wenskunas’s terror. She had suffered an eating disorder since childhood molestation by an uncle. As an adult, a single mother, she decided to hire a trainer to get her on a healthy path. Nine months into the program her trusted trainer invited himself to her home where he surreptitiously drugged her, beat her black and blue, bound her and suffocated her with layers of saran wrap. She survived, she told me, because when he threatened to kill her son if she screamed she leaped off a balcony to find help. At that point Patricia the victim became Patricia the survivor.
None of us should be complacent or fall into the trap of thinking crime happens to someone else. The Crime Clock says otherwise. The Crime Clock shows us the odds are not necessarily in our favor of getting through life without being touched by the constant swirl of crime that infects our country.
I’ve met a lot of victims in my line of work. None of them want to suffer with the burden of what they’ve been through. I come away thinking there has to be a way we can help those of our fellow citizens most deeply damaged by violent crime.
Patricia, and groups like hers, can’t do it alone.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
ABQ Journal Reader Frank P. writes:
“Funny you should write about the “crime clock” catching up with one (Abq Journal 10/24). It took 82 years and ten days to catch up with me.
Our Albuquerque home was burglarized Sunday afternoon, October 4 as we were driving from Nevada. We got the call from our next-door neighbor who handed his cell to the policeman standing in our bedroom, who, in turn, gave us the news. The rats simply walked up to the front door, kicked out a panel and helped themselves. No one in the area noticed.
We’ve since installed a solid-core front door with a deadlock that’s key-dependent. Next week, we’re having a wrought-iron gate put up in front of it.
Now, if we can only manage to avoid becoming members of the 31-minute, the 1.9-second and the 40-minute victim clubs. Gaining membership in them seems to be getting easier every year.
High regards!”
Thanks for the info Diane. Now, if nothing happens, I have something to be grateful for and anxious about at the beginning of each new year. For Auld Lang Syne, my dear … for Auld Lang … Never mind.
Unfortunately, I know this to be true. Thanks for doing this story, Diane. I hope it makes people more aware of their surroundings and how to protect their homes.
I say, carry a weapon even if it isn’t a gun…stunning guns, or mace or Raid bug repellant…they all work.
It would be a good program to start: assistance to homeowners for installing steel doors in steel doorjams, they are very hard to kick in. And insurance companies can get involved by providing incentives to install steel doors and better windows.
This is a win-win, and eventually would mean less break-ins.
The other issues: one at a time.
Thanks.
Mr. Hughes says to carry a weapon, which I have since my incident over 30 years ago, but this is not always the smart thing to do either. The show of a weapon to someone already committing a crime may cause more serious injury than would have happened. My personal theory is that I would rather go down fighting back than give an inch to criminals, but again that is not always the smart thing to do. It just happens to work for me. I could easily take the life of another human being in defense of my home, family or friends and sleep like a baby that night, most people still cannot do that, although I think the percentages are going up for those that could. So consider the possibilities and the consequences if you choose to carry some type of weapon. I personally detest the justice system process that seems to baby and pamper the criminals, but I do not have any suggestions on how it could be changed to continously protect the actual innocent persons charged with a crime. I am not even sure it can be changed without raising the number of innocent people convicted of crimes every year. Would sure like to hear some ideas on changing the system if you are any of your readers have any thoughts about that subject. Now to the subject of the ticking Crime Clock. It is very easy to sit back and think “that will never happen to me” and until crime does touch you personally whether it be family or friends, that mind set is understandable, none of want to sit around and think about things that may or may not happen, we just want to live through our day to day experiences without the usual interruptions.
Diane, I would think financial support to most victims groups would be tax deductible, can you verify this and perhaps put a list of those on your website. To your readers, yes it may never happen to you but it might and it has happened to others, as human beings we should all try to support such victims groups in any way possible.
Diane
I’ve been on the side as a victim, more than once. My crime clock is on at 6:pm and 11:pm, you see the horror of our society and the people it effects. In Maryland there is a Criminal Compensation Commission and like most there is the bureaucratic loops one must go though. Ms. Wenskunas’ approach to helping and assisting the victims seems to be a simple way to care for those who continue to deal with being a “victim”. Most systems that are there to assist in most cases, end up victimizing the person needing the help. I hope your article brings the kind of awareness this problem needs to be addressed and not by just the victims.
Facebook Friend Bill S. writes:
“What I call American Terrorists… the US criminals is worse than anything Al Quada has ever done. When I go to an ATM and worry about crime, I am not looking for Mohammad over my shoulder but puffy daddy wanna be or Meth Trailer trash.”
Facebook Friend Steve E. writes:
“So when I go to NY next summer to see the US Open, Statue of Liberty, a Yankees game and do an all nighter in Manhattan should I pack a pistol? I really hope not cuz us bleeding heart Oregonians really are laid back and like to get along with everyone.”
Actually, Steve, crime in New York is down. As we’re about to watch game one of the World Series tonight, being played at the new Yankee Stadium – I discover that the violent crime rate is higher in Philadelphia!!
Another reason to root for the Yanks~!
And, if you do visit New York I bet you’ll find it much friendlier and accommodating than you ever thought it would be.
Facebook Friend Dixie J. writes:
“this is very frightening, I wonder how these people came to be!Thanks for your article , Diane.”
Web site reader Lynn N. writes:
“Just read your column..God the crime figures are staggering….one can;t be too careful. I take it for granted every day when I go outside in the pitch dark at 6.30 am to get in my car…having to walk inbetween some treees…..God….”
>>>I wonder how these people came to be!
I presume you’re talking about the criminals. If so the answer is simple: bad parenting and an impotent, gutless justice system.
Hi Diane (et al):
Wow! Lot’s to think about with this fine piece of writing.
First, let me thank you, Diane, for bringing these things to our attention, for at least some of these things were definitely news to me.
As someone who has been ‘victimized’ by crime multiple times in my 50 (or so) years, it still sort of stuns me to see just how many other Americans have to endure these same – or even worse – horrors.
Is it even possible to return more to the “E Pluribus Unum” concept which made this country what it is (was?), or are we witnessing the last gasps of the Greatest Country that this world has ever seen?
I believe it is possible, and indeed, overdue. This is a complex subject of it’s own, so I will just write this. The key, I believe, lies in more Americans getting involved directly in (not necessarily employed by) their government, which as we know, was designed to be … “of the people, and by the people, and for the people.”
White House Party Crashers
Treat them like any other person who lies to Federal Agents.
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