murder and crime

Much in the same way you feel like crap when allergies attack, it turns out criminals are less likely to go about their regular day when they’re not feeling up to snuff.

Image Credit: Pixabay

We know this because of a study recently published in the Journal of Health Economics, which found that when large cities experience a drop in violent crime, it typically happens while the pollen count is unusually high.

“Leveraging daily variation in local pollen counts in 16 US cities, we present novel evidence that violent crime declines by approximately 4% on days in which the local pollen count is unusually high. …While this might sound like a small behavioral response, it is on par with the change in crime that would be expected to accrue from a 10% increase in the size of a city’s police force.”

The researchers looked at crime levels in Chicago, Georgia, and New York, and while the results matched up when it came to violent crime – even domestic violence – property crimes did not seem to be affected.

Image Credit: Pixabay

It seems that if a plan to rob a house or a bank is already in progress, no one is going to cancel because they’re under the weather. Gotta pay the bills and all that.

“Given that the effects we observe are driven by a decline in a residential, mostly family violence, despite the fact that, if anything, there is more residential interaction on high pollen days, this is not merely a story about a change in opportunity or routine activities.”

It’s pretty remarkable when you think about it – even though people are more likely to be at home, where domestic violence typically occurs – these violent crimes are still less frequent.

“Violence responds to other situational factors which shift the costs and benefits of offending and precaution: malaise driven by pollen allergies.”

Image Credit: Pixabay

Basically, people may be too drowsy or unwell to commit crimes of passion.

The authors of the study believe that their findings show not just how crime is sensitive to allergens, but how it can be affected by changes to public health altogether.

“Our results do not show evidence of temporal displacement or state dependence, and hence the data are most consistent with the proportion that high pollen days prevent crime rather than delay it.”

So, people don’t “make up” for their drowsy, crime-free days by doing more crime afterward – the high allergy days actually seem to prevent crime.

I’m not sure how local law enforcement could take all of this into consideration, but I feel like they should be able to, don’t you?

Let’s figure it out together in the comments…

The post When the Pollen Count Goes Up, Violent Crime Goes Down appeared first on UberFacts.

We all love stories about a creepy, small town, lost in the woods – the sort of place where things…happen…

It’s the myth that launched a million horror movies, but the thing is, maybe it isn’t so fictional.

When AskReddit posed the question, “Redditor’s who live in secluded towns, what is the darkest thing that happened in your town but is kept secret?” they got some very spooky answers.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

Photo Credit: Pexels, Valeria Boltneva

10. Oh hell, no.

My mom told me this story once that back when she was growing up in a small farming community in Ohio, there was some kind of neighborhood party attended by a bunch of families with kids all around the same age. All the kids (including herself) had this like big slumber party in the basement.

They wake up the next morning and one of the kids is found in the middle of the road, having been hit with a truck, but with his whole body zipped all the way up in his sleeping bag. None of the kids owned up to doing and it the adults could never figure it out either. After a while people just started moving on with their lives and everyone pretty much forgot about it.

9. What town is this? Never going there.

So there is this building that used to be a hotel and one day this guy shows up and he takes multiple trips going in and out with a bunch of equipment. They found him a little while later in his room. He had assembled an entire guillotine and cut his head off.

8. This doctor must not be into killing children…

I was delivered by a serial killer doctor. I don’t remember all the details but he was killing patients in Canada.

7. Did M. Night Shyamalan use this in a movie?

Small Town of about 2000-2500 in the Midwest, when suddenly about 1/4th of the population just up and left. No word, no nothing. None of them had kids or extended family and none of the papers said anything about it. This was back in maybe the late 80’s.

This happened when I was pretty young but I just remember one day one of my teachers wasn’t there and I found out from my parents a ton of people had just left overnight. Most personal belongings were taken with them but mattresses and furniture was still in their houses.

I still have no clue what that was about and when I’ve asked my parents more recently they said the rumor around town was that all those people worked for the CIA or FBI and were re-assigned all of a sudden.

6. Love never dies.

The “doctor” who tried all these wacky treatments to save his young patient from tuberculosis and became infatuated with her. After she died he eventually robbed her grave, mummified her and lived with her body for seven years before being found out. Did not go to jail and lived his years out in town I believe.

5. So sad.

Over the summer there was a guy found hanging from a tree on the sheriffs property.

The sheriff disliked this young man and treated him poorly during his incarceration at the county jail. Many witnesses said that the day he got released from jail, the sheriff invited him to his secluded property and told him he could help him get back on his feet.

2 days later, a couple of teenage boys fishing in a creek discovered the guy hanging in a tree. Authorities was notified, no investigation was done, and it was immediately ruled a suicide.

This boy was a known drug addict with no family or friends, so there was really no one to press the issue. The local news wrote a small article on “man found dead from apparent suicide” and then it was hush hush after that… It’s just one of those things we will never know.

4. This makes me ill…

I wouldn’t say we live in a secluded town, but when my mother was in school her best friend got a job working for the Sheriff. She later came to school and told them that the sheriff had been molesting her.

She also began telling people about what they have been using the tunnels under the town for. The police supposedly, had been filming child pornography.

After that day she never made it home. She was found later naked, hog tied and shot in the back of the head. No one could prove it, and the sheriff had been suspected of many things but nothing ever came of it. They just announced that there was a man seen in a white van abducting people.

But her friends knew. Her family knows.

This is Red Bluff California btw. The tunnels were originally used by Chinese immigrants, they go through our Main Street and through Rio Street, they lead to houses and some businesses but they have been condemned. There are sensors down there though so if you get in the police are right there to get you out.

3. Justice finally served.

Nothing with me but when my mom was a kid she lived near a state park in New Hampshire. It’s called bear brook. In the 80s multiple dismembered body parts were found in a blue barrel. An investigation happened but the killer was never found. In the early 00s another barrel was found, dating back to the time of the first barrel. The killer was recently found. His name was Robert Evans. The park is in Allenstown if you want to look it up.

2. Straight up horror movie worthy.

When my mom was growing up, a teacher and his wife were killed by an axe murderer. Someone broke into their house and killed them in the middle of the night. They found the husband in the house and the wife in the woods behind it, indicating that she tried to escape and was chased down. Really gruesome stuff. The attack was seemingly random, and they never caught the person responsible. My elementary school was named after the teacher, which wouldn’t necessarily be morbid except for the fact that there was a dedication plaque that mentioned his murder. In an elementary school. The 90’s were fucking wild.

1. JEEZ.

A guy in my hometown was dismembered and left on someones doorstep.

The info is this, the guy who did it had enough dirt on cops/district attorneys/judges to not be arrested for pushing meth working with the Dixie Mafia (yes a real group)

The victim, who was a couple of grades below me, was rumored to be working with the FEDS to get his POS dad off his 6th or 7th drug conviction. The victim, who was friends with another kid, (lived at the house) was dismembered and left on the doorstep in a move to intimidate.

Are you officially creeped out? Go lock your doors and stay away from secluded towns! YIKES!

The post 10 Chilling True Stories from Residents of Small, Secluded Towns appeared first on UberFacts.