A question for the Brits and Aussies.

[Vanguard_Ex]

Here in the UK, as has been mentioned, we have much less gun crime than the US, since we disallow weapons (with the exclusion of farmers, special branches of the police, etc.) but we do have a lot of cases of assault and theft. And more teenage pregnancies than you could shake a stick at. Societies lowest rungs are a scary place to be.

 

[Captain Booyah]

Yeah, more or less. Every country has its crime and its crazies. I don't think the 'children raping other children' thing is common, like in one of those articles, but we do have problems with the whole chav culture (Jeremy Kyle, anyone?). We frown at 14 and 15 year-olds getting pregnant at such a young age, but that doesn't stop it from being any less common.

We're not as big on guns over here, though; not as much as over the pond, where there's been a few stories of little kids that have picked up a gun that's been far too easy to access and accidentally injured themselves or a family member. We have more of a knife culture -- I hear of far more stabbings in the news than what I do shootings.

You get idiots in every country. If there's one where you don't I would move there in a heartbeat.

Some rich guy built his own island city. He could probably keep it idiot free. Utopia!

That was the libertarian guy who wanted a paradise devoted to his beliefs, Andrew Ryan-style, right? If I remember correctly, he also wanted 'looser building codes' (exactly what I'm looking for on a platform in the middle of the ocean!), so I'm not too sure about the 'idiot' thing there.

I'm sorry. I have some cookies if I've just crushed your dreams of living in a stupidity-free utopia...

We obviously have much less gun crime, though still more than we'd like, but our gang crime rates and related violent crimes are still up there.

This has nothing to do with that quote, but I get drive-by avatar love whenever I see one of your posts and today is the day I decided to let you know. Basil was one of my favourite films when I was a kid. <3

 

[Palademon]

Gun crime much lower, but when it happens, SHIT REALLY HITS THE FAN!
Do you know how a country of no guns responds to gun crime?

I can drive for 15 minutes and reach my local chav land where some of my friends live. If I talk to them on skype, some of their local people will ask me if I'm posh. When I went to a fireworks display there, a young child was talking about "deh billy boys gunna ruff em up if dey come in here, cuz duh billy boys are da best". Billy being a slang term for the village.

Teen pregnancy is a problem, but one I've never actually seen, and the earliest I've heard people actually talking about having had sex was in the years of secondary school, and even then it was only by the select few complete idiots. They're weren't actually stupid, they were just teenagers with the extra added ideal of "I don't have to bother in school". I know some of my friends were in sexual relationships, but they started those around the legal age, and I'm pretty sure most of them are STILL in those relationships.

I know of a few local stories of people committing suicide because one of the local secondary schools is shit at controlling people. I had no idea until some people I met at my college told me stories about how they got group beaten and had to crawl to some teacher's office bleeding, because they couldn't walk. This very much suprised me and disgusted me. More interestingly, this was an anecdote of a female. Fights involving females and going beyond shouting are very rare.

I can however say I've never been mugged or robbed. I live in the country side, 40 miles from London.

 

[Sparrow]

There is an issue with knife crime in the UK (although, it's seemingly stopped popping up so much in the news) and generally just some issue issues with the younger generation. By "younger generation" I don't mean "ALL OF THE KIDS ARE BASTARDS," I mean that a good chunk of them are. No worse than America, though. The good kids still outnumber the bad ones by a good amount regardless.

 

[Benny Blanco]

As many people have pointed out, we have a lot of problems with underage sex in the UK, but comparatively few shootings due to restrictions on the availability of firearms.

What I don't think anyone mentioned yet is that:

Gun crime has gone up in the UK since the 1997 ban on handguns came into force.

The UK has a higher rate of violent crime per capita than the US or even South Africa. That's South "Cops Rape Cops" Africa, proud home of the flamethrower carjack defence system.

The only reason that we have a lower murder rate is that the type of violent crime is more likely to be committed with bare hands, a bat, or some other weapon less inherently fatal than a gun. Knives are frighteningly common, but fortunately most people don't know how to use one for maximum effectiveness, so most stabbings aren't fatal.

One theory I have to explain this is that UK law doesn't allow people to carry any defensive weapons. Stun guns and tasers get the same 5-year mandatory minimum sentence as an illegal gun, pepper spray and mace are also illegal. Batons? You guessed it. What this means is that most law abiding people leave the house without a weapon, something of which criminals are more than aware. If you're pretty sure no-one's going to pull a weapon out, the prospect of beating people up is suddenly more attractive.

 

[Randomologist]

...its even in my local paper because some foreign looking guy has been attacking women in the next town over.

For the UK at least, it does strongly depend on the paper and if its a local one. My local is making a fuss over a tripping motorist that crashed into a bridge. The bridge wasn't badly damaged, but the paper was practically on the verge of remembering it by its date alone.

Pregnant girls, there's a problem but from what I see its mostly in the cities. There's still a stigma attached to it around these parts, but how long that will last I don't know. Gang culture consists mostly of getting smashed and driving aggressively in cheaply souped up 90s hatchbacks.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

There's definitely a greater lack of gun crime in the UK. Several of my friends (who are my age, that is, 15) claim to have had sex, but I'm not sure whether to believe them. Underage pregnancy is apparently a problem in Britain.

 

[DPeteD]

yes, it happens all the damn time, pick up any morning paper, (except mybe the metro) and you will find articles on rape, gun crime, general racist overtones, murder. hell its even in my local paper because some foreign looking guy has been attacking women in the next town over.

youll find the bad one everywhere, but if you only look at the news thats pretty much all you will find. joe bloggs workaday life just doesnt make good news

pretty much this, death makes for good news, though I still think there is less widespread gun crime.

 

[shadow_Fox81]

America, Australia and Britain are all a part of Western society and on a basic level are very similar. Having said that there are cultural differences which I imagine would make a difference to individuals.
I lived in England for two years of my childhood (8 - 10) and even then I noticed some slight differences between England and Australia and from what I've heard and seen of America there's some serious differences between our countries.
I guess what I'm saying is that it doesn't seem right to compare these three countries in this way. America, to me, seems like it's a far more extremist society whereas I see Australia as being quite laid back. I'm not sure how well I'm getting my point across but I've always seen each countries citizens as having a quite distinct way about them in a round-a-bout way.

you know working in a resturaunt this is extremely clear when you observe how each nationality asks for cutlery.

 

[ramboondiea]

just out of curiosity, does your papers only show teenage pregnancy in cities? i only ask as i know that wigan (my home town) has one of the highest teen pregnancies in the country? (also we have the highest number of dogging sites, which i believe is a related factor)

 

[ramboondiea]

just out of curiosity, does your papers only show teenage pregnancy in cities? i only ask as i know that wigan (my home town) has one of the highest teen pregnancies in the country? (also we have the highest number of dogging sites, which i believe is a related factor)

 

[ramboondiea]

please ignore, double post and completely irrelevant

 

[EeveeElectro]

How old is 6th grade? 12? [sub]not sure why ya'll can't just say the ages...[/sub]
Yeah, there's plenty of stories of underage sex here. But like Russell Howard said, apparently the surveys are usually carried out in the street. So if you're a 14 year old boy with a group of mates, a lady with a clipboard asks you if you've had sex, you're going to say yes.
We don't have many shootings because we don't really have guns. However, it was in my local newspaper that a group of 14 or so people brought guns back from America somehow.

There's a fair few "mother was killed after taking xbox from son" sort of stories, I see more from America though.
Also there's a lot of father/daughter rape victim or abuse stories. At least once a week in the newspapers and magazines.

 

[Legit101]

................

 

[Raognerrrm]

Well, I live in Australia, and hear about some pretty bad stuff.
Someone was shot in the street next to me.
There are gangs going around killing each other.
Quite a few people raped and murdered.
I know of several ~30 year old grandmothers.

So we have problems too.

 

[Richard Eis]

If 6th grade is 11-14 then thats actually perfectly normal for humans to be having sex because thats when the hormones kick in. In fact 1 in 10 seems kinda low. Our civilisation has moved away from that so now it's frowned on if people don't wait till at least 16 or whatever... but no one told our biology.

This is why you need clear, solid sex education and prevention methods as early as possible. Not this namby pamby "abstinence only" nonsense.

 

[CAMDAWG]

These are not regular stories in Aus, that's not to say they never crop up though. I consider the U.S to be a 'special case' as far as countries are concerned.

Even on here you can use arguments comparing America's ridiculous levels of gun violence and massacres to Australia or other western countries and people will still try to defend owning guns.

You know how many massacre's Australia had to have before guns were banned? One.

Also the US is full of religious nuts, 27% of Australians believe in God compared to the US' 83% (or something like that). And even I think that number is too high for Australia.

These are what I would call the 2 reasons for most America's bad news stories, even if they don't specifically relate to the above stories.

But then I don't live there, so I don't really know, I only know what the media tells me about America, and pretty much every T.V show America produces paints the same picture (albeit sarcastically... I hope).

If gun nuts and religious people quote me I am not going to reply, these are not strong opinions or deep beliefs of mine, its just speculation.

Not sure if the poster will reply to this or not, but anway...

While I agree with most of your thread, your statistics are wrong. At the last census, we had ~20% of people weekly attending church, but ~65% identifying as christian, and 30% who either stated no religion, or didn't answer. So your 27% of australians stat is bogus (unless you can back it up somewhere, in which case I'm sorry).

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

In AUS land, 14 year old preggers are becoming more common, and it honestly disgusts me in more then one way.

(Even worse is I know others who started having sex at 14, I didn't until 18 because of my parents "ethics" and it destroyed every sense of "experimenting" as a youth, but that's more of a personal hate)

 

[Insanity72]

ahh...i don't think i've ever read anything on those levels happening in Australia, maybe the occasional gun crime, but that stuff is just mess up