More On The Exploding iCrime Wave
03.05.08 - 04:11pm
The iPod has been the talk of crime fighting units everywhere for some time as they have sent out many warnings to iPod owners to get different colored earbuds or hide them when out in public. The police have often warned people not to flaunt their iPod when walking down the street and to try to be aware of the surroundings while engrossed in the music.
Multiple deaths have also occurred when iPod users were listening to their music too loudly and didn’t hear the train coming, or the car honking, or were trying to switch songs while driving.
Now there is a new study out that reinforces the policeman’s view; iPods and their cult-like popularity have helped fuel a massive crime wave. The study was done by Urban Institutes’s Justice Police Center and is called, “Is there an iCrime Wave” written by John Roman and Aaron Chalfin. It looks at how, after a 14 year lull, there was a sudden huge spike in violent crimes involving robberies in the U.S. between 2005 and 2006. This coincided with the huge rise in sales of iPods jumping to over 90 million.
Why the iPods? America’s often thwarted sense of belonging seems to come by owning something cool and the iPod is cool and expensive. Also due to the distraction of listeners they are easy targets. Last the iPod has no code to prevent one from stealing and using it as cell phones do, so resale value is also high. (Apple has been asked in the past by the police to put in these codes which would most likely highly reduce iPod crimes.)
While there has been numerous incidents in all cities of people being mugged, stabbed, and even murdered for their iPod the iCrime wave is still just speculative. The only real tracking that has been done other than story after story is on places such as subways where 11% of crime muggings involve iPods.
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