Lately the magazines and paper I read have been rehashing a handful of old murders. I assume it’s all about selling copies and interest in gossip; only one of them’s up for retrial. The journalism here is usually closer to tabloids than the magazines and papers I read in the US. Those stories generate a lot of interest, though–letters to the editor keep coming in those longer than on articles of current import.
What’s surprising is not that New Zealand has a lower murder rate than the US (as does almost every country), but that the rate is so high by OECD standards. As usual, the rates are much higher for marginalized minorities; the rate for Maoris is three times that for non-Maoris.
Leave a Reply