| Show M cimiE FOLLOUS i choosy for particular days According to police studies murder Is largely a week-en- d crime Most of them are bunched on Friday Saturday and Sunday Obviously these are the “social” days when congregating friends invite trouble as well as pleasure Most murders happen at night Shakespeare struck a scientific as well as poetic note when he wrote: “For I must talk of murders rapes and massacres Acts of black night abominable 5 1 1 I 4 t deeds” Sixty-tw- o t out of every 100 murders are per- petrated between the hours of 6 pm and 6 am One doesn't have to be a Sherlock Holmes to appreciate how a cloak of darkness abets the assassin What makes one person take another's life? The heads of two large Midwestern police departments have reported their studies along these lines: Of 100 murders 74 arose from domestic strife lovers’ quarrels (jealousy) and the eternal triangle Rape another in the vicious assault classification also flares higher as the warm summer months progress The number of July and August cases far exceeds the norm and police records show that Saturday and Sunday are the worst days For some inexplicablereason Thursday is the quietest for rapists accounting for only 10 out of each 100 Sunday leads the week with an average of 19 of each 100 f Tks Uaftr BUckav Rights As we drift into winter one’s chance of being the victim of some form of negligent manslaughter increases A classical example of this is being shot by a hunter who mistakes you for a deer Much more serious however is the great winter risk of being snuffed out by negligent automobile drivers This despite the fact that summer with its jammed roads and -studded week ends would seem to be much more accident prone But negligent manslaughter usually committed by otherwise citizens follows seasonal crimes of purfrom different a graph assault Unfavorable driving condiposeful blacker tions and longer nights explain the traffic winter killings of higher In 1953 for example the number of traffic k If p V collision- f It £ law-abidi- ng ff 4 T f £ 1 £ ? r I H f) K i i i I f T ft V I 1 I 4 4 CiLEEDiE CONTINUED j t THE 8 i deaths due to negligent manslaughter was around 16 per cent below the annual average road-dr- y months of July for the weather-clea- r and August But they skyrocketed to almost 50 per cent above normal in the skiddy ceiling-zer- o month of December No doubt much of this highway trouble springs from the seasonal spurt in Christmas-Ne- w Year’s drunken drivers Burglary and robbery are also perennials For these crimes thrive on stealth The forays of the lowly “common thier1 are no laughing matter They total up to $99000000 a year cold-weath- er December ier Bebherlee Both burglars and robbers are inveterate cal- Police dockets disendar and close that 73 of each 100 robberies occur at night and that the cit&en is most likely to be robbed between the hours of 6 pm and 2 am on a Saturday night in December January or February There are approximately 182 robberies in the peak month of December for each 100 in the low month of June g and shoplifting also reach their zenith in December Their sudden dip in January indicates that the crime magnet here is not long black nights but crowded department stores Both the pickpocket and the shoplifter operate on a Christmas premise that it is more blessed to receive than tq give Although auto thefts occur more often during the cold months accessory thieves are most active in February March and April This has nothing to do with March winds or April showers It's just that car parts are more valuable right after the new models appear on the market Accessory thieves are practically moribund in December Certain crimes occasionally take a holiday but there's no rest for the FBI and the agencies In a way I'm glad this article appears in May: it’s the one month we wish could last all year clock-watche- rs Pocket-pickin- law-enforci- ng NEXT QUESTION: “Why did yom gin away alt your medals fM a This Week reader asks Aadie Morphy America’s Gl His answer is a moving Memorial Day message most-decorat- ed |
