Murder rates in Ireland

There was a horrific murder in Ireland over the weekend which got me thinking how Ireland compares to the rest of the world in this respect.

The good news is that as of 2007 Ireland was the least violent country in Europe (according to the WHO) which compared homicide and assault rates across 27 European countries. The Irish rate, 0.32 killings per 100,000 people, contrasted with that of Finland (1.96) and Scotland (1.75) which topped western Europe's violence blacklist. Malta, with a rate of 0.48, was almost as peaceful as Ireland.

In 2007 the USA had a murder rate of nearly 6 per 100,000 people. Other countries: Mexico has a rate of 13; Russia has a rate of 19.9; South Africa has a rate of 47.5; and Colombia has a frightening rate of 62.7. Maybe Ireland isn't such a bad place to live after all?

However, the good news for the USA is that the murder rate has declined to levels close to that of the early 1960s. See graph below (1960 - 2007) to see that murder rates in the USA peaked at 0ver 10 per 100,000 in 1980 but declined significantly during the '90s. Any one know why? Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner have an interesting explanation in their book "Freakonomics" but I know many people are abhorred by the idea.