I think husband-on-wife violence is especially upsetting because it is so endemic and it was tacitly endorsed for so long. There was a bit I read today that was in a state's penal code (can't remember which one) about the Sanctity of Domestic Circle which basically says that men could use a reasonable degree of force necessary to control their wives.

Also creepy and sad is that more women seek treatment from injuries incurred from doemstic violence at ERs than mugging, rapes and accidents combined.

Also also, 1 in 5 homicides occur within that "family circle," meaning victim and perp are in the same family.

ita, I know what you mean. Looking for a knife seems to break the flow a good throwdown unless you're in the kitchen.

One of the things I'm struck by is how much of our national ethos is actually violence promoting (for example, the frontiersman image, the fact that rugged individualism is celebrated alongside the image of hyper masculinity from that image). That combined with ready access to guns and we're screwed.

In the US there are more gun dealers than gas stations.

Comment from the middle of Spooks episode 1, series 4:

Indeed. And their pagers, too, though I supposed paging during a funeral is less unspyworthy than ringing on a recon mission .

Also, because I just finished Spooks Season 3 They killed Danny! Those bastards. And they put him through the damn ringer several times before actually offing him. Heartless. But so good .

I'm depressing myself. I think I'll go back to thinking about historical violence, like the creepy Scots family that lived in a cave. They would rob travelers on the road then eat them to hide the evidence. And they were serious about the eating part. When they were discovered there were several bodies being cured.

They raised several children who began incestuous relationships and had children of their own, all living in that cave, stealing, murdering and cannibalizing.

Now that's a story to tell the kiddies to scare them at night. Too bad it's true.

more women seek treatment from injuries incurred from doemstic violence at ERs than mugging, rapes and accidents combined

Sweet fucking Jesus.

1 in 5 homicides occur within that "family circle,"

20%??? Oh, dear.

I suddenly feel strangely safer, because no one in my family is going to kill me, and I'm single.

the creepy Scots family that lived in a cave

I love that story!!!

Jen, my sister told me she was watching Spooks, and I told her that tidbit about S3. How was I to know that, despite living in England, she was watching on DVD and had only seen a few episodes of S1? Maybe she'll forget.

Would you?

I love that story!!!

HA!

I still vote that it's creepy as hell.

I don't want to know as much about crime as I am learning.

Actually, it just means Kristen and I can have a good crime convo one day.

Wow, highwaymen, cannibals, AND inbred? The Bad Social Skills trifecta!

I saw a documentary about American mythology and its subtext of violence. From that movie, I learned, among other things, that child-abuse cases in New York in the 1800s were reported to the ASPCA, because there was no organization dedicated to preventing cruelty to people.

That was also where I learned about the whole "postcards of lynchings as collector-items," which later became a museum exhibit that traveled the country. And you know, people talk about how we modern Americans are squeamish and weaklings, etc., but I'll scream all the girly screams you want, if the world will agree that postcards of murder-victims, post-murder, is an idea both unseemly and phenomenally stupid.

Nutty, what movie was it? The one I saw today was called Violence: An American Tradition. There were organizations dedicated to preventing cruelty to people, just not children, I think.

Also, not related to crime, The Sumo Championship! and I have that weekend off!

people talk about how we modern Americans are squeamish and weaklings, etc.

I didn't know that. I've heard more talk about modern Americans having lost touch of certain realistic things (like pork having been Babe), but not weak -- abusive of violence, more like, with much too little empathy for suffering of equals.