Last year 20,500 Americans were murdered, which is well over twice the number murdered in 1965, just nine years before! At this rate of increase there will be over 40,000 killings a year by the early 1980’s. Thus, in the 1980’s it may take only six or seven years for U.S murder victims to outnumber the 292,131 American combat deaths in World War II!

In 1974 U.S crime rose a staggering 17 percent over 1973, the largest increase ever. But in the first quarter of 1975 it increased 18 percent over the same period of 1974! U.S. Attorney General Edward Levi called this increase “one of the terrifying facts of life, which we have come to accept as normal.”

Whereas big cities are the most dangerous places, the increase in crime has recently been even more rapid in suburban and rural areas. In 1974 it rose 20 percent in the suburbs, and 21 percent in the rurals. And for the first three months of 1975, robberies alone leaped an astonishing 53 percent in cities of between 10,000 and 25,000 people!

Over 10 million crimes were reported to the police in 1974, and the figure will probably approach 12 million this year. But this is only the tip of the iceberg, as the saying goes. A Census Bureau survey shows that more than two out of three serious crimes are never reported. Why? Largely because victims feel that nothing will be done about them.

The shocking conclusion of the Census Bureau survey is: 37 million serious crimes a year are being committed in the United States, more than three times the number reported. This amounts to seventy murders, rapes, assaults or various types of theft every minute, more than one a second!

It is noteworthy, too, that murders commonly occur during vacation periods, such as at Christmastime. Also, in a study of 588 murders in Philadelphia, sociologist Martin Wolfgang found that about two thirds of the victims had been killed on weekends. Regarding this, Psychology Today observed: “It’s not surprising that we are killed while we are at ease. After all, this is when we are with those who are most likely to kill us: our relatives, friends, and drinking companions.” Did you realize this?

You may also be surprised to learn who commit most crimes. It is young people. In the United States last year nearly half (45 percent) of the serious crimes​—murders, rapes, robberies, and so forth—​were committed by youths less than eighteen years old. Children under fifteen commit more crimes than do adults over twenty-five.

Even older criminals fear the youngsters. Says a Chicago holdup man: “These younger criminals, they’re sick. They have no motive for what they’re doing.” And a New Yorker who has been mugged six times in four years warned: “Watch out for the kids, they’re the dangerous ones.”

White-collar crime, such as employee theft, although not so visible, is hurting most of us even more in a financial way than is traditional crime. Norman Jaspan, a noted business-crime expert, says it “adds as much as 15 per cent to the cost of goods and services.” But there is also the cost to us of organized crime, New York special prosecutor Maurice Nadjari claiming: “23 cents of every dollar that we spend goes into the pockets of organized crime.”

NO CITY has as much total crime as New York city. More people​—1,669—​were murdered here in a recent year than have been killed in almost seven years of fighting in northern Ireland!

Hundreds of New Yorkers daily are either murdered, assaulted, raped or robbed​—a serious crime is reported almost every minute. A New York Times headline, reporting the crime increase of the early months of 1975 over the same months of 1974, reads: “SERIOUS CRIMES UP 21.3% IN THE CITY.”