“The Urban Institute, a research organization based in Washington, has released an interesting report that suggests that the proliferation of iPods helps account for the nationwide rise in violent crime in 2005 and 2006,” Sewell Chan blogs for The New York Times. “The report suggests that ‘the rise in violent offending and the explosion in the sales of iPods and other portable media devices is more than coincidental,’ and asks, rather provocatively, ‘Is There an iCrime Wave?'”
Chan reports, “The report notes that nationally, violent crime fell every year from 1993 to 2004, before rising in 2005 and 2006, just as ‘America’s streets filled with millions of people visibly wearing, and being distracted by, expensive electronic gear.'”
Chan reports, “Of course, as any social scientist will tell you, correlation and causation are not the same thing. The report’s authors, John Roman and Aaron Chalfin, acknowledge in the report that ‘rigorous empirical tests’ of any theory for the two-year-old rise in violent crime ‘are not possible.'”
Chan reports, “But they offer three tantalizing observations… [along with] four reasons iPod owners might be particularly susceptible to crime.”
Full article here.
The “Is There an iCrime Wave?” report itself (pdf) is here.
MacDailyNews Take: Rather than blaming an inanimate object, we blame the criminals’ parents (or lack thereof).
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “qka” for the heads up.]
Oh yes Apple and iPods are totally to blame for crime.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue laugh” style=”border:0;” />
Makes perfect sense!!!
I agree with Mdn’s take.
Get a job and buy your own iPod, you lazy bastards.
Blame inanimate objects for human behavior…. YES.
I blame comic books.
I’m sorry, but this the most mindless shit I’ve read today.
Yeah, that’s all I’ve got.
“Rather than blaming an inanimate object, we blame the criminals’ parents (or lack thereof).”
or…
Blame the criminals?
iPod don’t kill people, people kill people…
No one is blaming an inanimate object. They’re saying that the existence of the object induces robbers to commit more crimes. Get it straight.
Just scanned their study, and it looks real, but I’m not sure characterizing it as “violent” makes sense. It’s property theft.
I reported on the begining of this when the iPhune first came out with the iRiots in several European countries!
iRiots subsided, order restored, investigation pending …
Yesterday the iRiots in the EU seemed to stop as quickly as they started! I personally find this very troubling, could all of this have been orchistrated by certain miscreants simply to get press for the pending European release of the iPhone? I am no conspiracy theorist, BUT, this all seems a little fishy to me … and where was Steve Jobs (fake or real) during all of this carnage? It is nothing less than a miracle that loss of life was kept to a minimum, the only casualty was an Apple “genius” who lead an iMob into a Best Buy, he was crushed by a falling rack of Vista Boxes.
We can now account for the whereabouts of all but two MS employees who were last seen being carried away by a group of thugs wearing jeans and black turtlenecks.
I told you guys that the seemingly never-ending reference to ‘blood on the click wheel’ was barfy. Got the picture yet?
iPod made me kill my family,drink beer heated on the stove, then stuff their bodies with the empty cans. Oh Yeah- iPod also make me sew them back up with crude stitches. I only do what iPod tells me to do.
Did nobody NOT notice the temperature increases during this time?
It should be fairly obvious that it is the HEAT that is causing the rise in crime.
All the iPods did was cause global warming…..
Jim wrote: “No one is blaming an inanimate object. They’re saying that the existence of the object induces robbers to commit more crimes. Get it straight.”
_______________
A couple of synonyms for “induce” are “influence” and “persuade”. Excuse me, but an inanimate object does not induce, influence, or persusade. A selfish heart, narcissism, criminal mind, entitlement mentality, those are the what lead to crime. The criminal gets 100% the blame. Nothing else is the cause or the inducement. Get it straight!
I have an iHeadache!
MW, As in, I expect that I need to take an iS-it.
The show “Hero’s” has made me more violent. A connection…?
Perhaps the new iPod “Touch” will cause an increase in sexual assaults and rapes?
Another case of people using the words “Apple” and “iPod” to pickup more readers to their statistical studies?
maybe they should have bought the hide-a-pod Zune case!! … crime I bet would go down!
There are just some things you don’t do on the street… I’m talking New York City here…
If you’re plugged in, cannot hear clearly and are distracted by whatever it is you’re listening to… you are a target. Period.
It doesn’t have to be a criminal, you can get nailed by a taxi or a New Jersey driver whipping around a corner… tell me, which is more dangerous?
I NEVER use my iPod on the street.
Or on the subway… 100db (subway) + another 100 (iPod) = hearing aid.
Maybe the iPods have legs, and during the night, when we sleep they are murdering people and stealing Microsoft Zunes!
… To me that’s more believable then the dribble the idiot was talking about.
This is a good report ruined by making it sound like it is an iPod-specific phenomenon. Sure, I bet a lot of the devices stolen were/are iPods, but I bet a whole lot more are other stuff that distracts the user’s attention such as laptops, palmtops, cellphones, digital caremas, cd players, portable dvd players, PVPs and other mp3 player brands players. If someone had said “SanDisk playes cause crimewave” no one would have listened.
Good spin to get press coverage, shame it damages the integrity of the work. What WOULD be useful and iPod-specific is some statistics to show whether white earbuds attract thieves simply because they stand out more in the first place.
iGlobalWarming caused by iCriminals listening to hot music on their new iPods – news at 11!
Microsoft announces that it will campaign for international adoption of its products and the banning of all Apple products in order to see crime levels fall to zero.
Let’s use any tool at our disposal to promote mediocre crap shall we.
To counteract Apple’s iCrime wave of terror, MS released another load of crap few people want, but practically everyone already has. This resulted in a collective sigh and group nap.
iCrime Wave averted, Apple. Your move!