This article (
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3879) in "Foreign Policy" caught my attention.
It's no secret that millions of people are killed every year as a result of crime, and in particular ORGANIZED crime.
That didn't surprise me, but this DID:
There is no correlation between poverty and crime. Some poor countries have high crime rates; others don’t. Russia is far richer than Costa Rica, but its crime rates are substantially higher than those of Costa Rica. Some have suggested that crime rates may be explained by the strength of religious institutions, measured by church attendance and involvement in religious activities. Again, the statistical evidence isn’t there. Countries with high church attendance rates, such as Guatemala or the Philippines, for example, can also be plagued by murder.
In other words; church attendance does not help to lower the crime rate...
God bless you,
Eirik
EDIT:
After some further reading on the subject, I just learned that since 1960 the number of crimes reported to the police each year has increased by 873 percent in my country Norway. Also, 32 percent of the people living in London have been exposed to brutal robberies or other violent crimes.