Violence linked to recession

NVDL: This - syburban violence - is going to be one of the most disturbing trends to emerge. Others will follow, including shortages and ordinary starvation. I was listening to the CEO of Mutual and Federal today (a South African insurer) who says weather related claims were up 30% year on year. Our troubles are escalating at an alarming rate.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Atlanta – Four Oakland, Calif., police officers shot down. An Alabama man strolling a small town with a rifle, looking for victims. Seven elderly people shot dead at a North Carolina nursing home. And on Sunday, six people, including four kids, died in an apparent murder-suicide in an upscale neighborhood in Santa Clara, Calif. The details in all these cases are still emerging. In most, the exact motive has yet to be determined – or may never be fully understood. On a broader level, however, such incidents may be happening more often because an increasing number of Americans feel desperate pressure from job losses and other economic hardship, criminologists say. "Most of these mass killings are precipitated by some catastrophic loss, and when the economy goes south, there are simply more of these losses," says Jack Levin, a noted criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston.