One does wonder why in such a fortunate country, the rate of assault appears to be rising.

I wonder if it's just that we hear of it more or if it's really increasing.

I'm inclined to think that it is increasing.

A while back I gave my eleven year-old permission to watch the regional news. I thought he'd be informed about issues in our region and other regional areas in our state, and that would be good for him. When his much older sister was his age, that particular news seemed pretty innocuous, the odd assault was reported, but for the most part it wasn't that startling.

Unfortunately, he was confronted nightly with about twenty minutes of the most horrendous crimes perpetrated by supposedly average citizens. Nightly news of assaults, batteries, murders, thefts - you name it, each night was a litany of man's inhumanity to man, regional style.

I had purposely steered him clear of national and international news to save him from just such an assault on his senses. (I happen to think that it's not so great to give a child a nightly dose of human depravity in the form of news)

So, apparently all this stuff is going on around us, in our communities, and we hadn't been aware of it before. I figured if he kept on watching it, it would make him fearful of his society.

So, eventually he stopped watching that news and I think he's better off for it.

RObert you are aware I respect you.
Have from my first post here.
Too that we come from different sides of politics.
And that we disagree often.
Show me one word that Suseonline used that matches the shocking words of our hostile and heated Indy.
Why are so many willing to put the sex of a poster first in comments.
I get in real trouble for highlighting SOME women.
Here in this thread some knives came out because posters are female.
And too, because some are Labor voters.
Fellas look no further than Abbott for your pain.
But look too at Indy,s posting style.
PS RObert I too defended you against an insulting trouble maker, I may get it wrong, do but see nothing wrong in feeling SOME insult too much.

separate out the background noise from the actual evidence.
R0bert,
I am fully aware of what you're referring to. Where the actual problem with such statistics is, is in the fact that once a magistrate has made a ruling it's all over for the victim. Be it a fair or unfair outcome. rarely does a sentence turn out satisfactory enough for the victim to feel justice has been done. In my case of several break-ins & an assault the Police did not pursue the matter as they would have had the perpetrators been other than indigenous.
So, when I got absolutely no compensation & the culprits are still breaking in & stealing I do not feel I got justice. I am not alone there, I know of quite a few who literally had to pack up & leave their employment because of the lack of justice whilst the offenders are given computer courses, dental treatment, & flights to go home after insufficient prove or incredibly short incarceration. Only recently a ranger had to pack up & leave after a knife was put to him in threat & he got no back-up from anyone in authority.

So, eventually he stopped watching that news and I think he's better off for it.
Poirot,
i know where you're coming from & it is a dilemma because we really don't want them to grow up totally ignorant of what's going on yet to expose them to reality can also have bad effects. The only answer there is harsher sentencing & total financial compensation. Many families lose out terribly in simply trying to get some justice.
That's why I advocate non-military national Service to put ALL on a track to responsibility & they won't have the excuse later that they didn't have the opportunity. There's no proof that common discipline & respect have ever produced bad outcomes. Ther will always be criminals & for them the Constitution should state that they immediately lose normal privileges. To treat them with kid's gloves has proven wrong.

individual,

He still accesses the news via the computer, but the good thing about that is that it's just a static page in which he can read the main stories, and click on one if he's interested. He's not being shown video after video of heart-wrenching images and narration, and often bloody atrocities.

I can see what you're getting at with your call for public service....yet I think that's like shutting the door after the horse has bolted. These values need to be instilled right from the start with young people, not foisted on them when they're raring to go as adults. They'd perhaps be resentful?

Wouldn't it be nice if we cared about our community to the extent that community service was something we took for granted as part and parcel of living in one.

yet I think that's like shutting the door after the horse has bolted.
Poirot,
I don't think that's the case at all. My reason for thinking so is the fact that each & every generation has that horse & that gate. If our generation ensures that gat is elf-closing & the horse is trained to stay in the yard then we have a very good chance that the generation after will improve upon this & that's how we'd get gradual improvement in society.