Culture of violence - Murder rate stands at 85-year high

THE rise in the murder and manslaughter rate has reached alarming proportions. This year’s murder rate has surpassed 70 for the first time since the Civil War of 1922-1923.

To date 74 people have been murdered in this country since the beginning of the year. This is up on the 68 murders in 2006. It amounts to an increase of almost 9%.

At the rate that murders have been occurring, it would be rather presumptuous, even at this stage in the dying hours of 2007, to assume that last night’s figure will hold until midnight tonight.