Northern Ireland's statistics

The article "Crime Bills in Congress Are Said to Offer Only Incremental Change," June 20, includes a reference to US murder rates as "far higher than those of any other country that keeps records except Northern Ireland."As representatives for the Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland, we feel compelled to offer you updated information regarding the actual crime rates in Northern Ireland. The author's reference was based on 1984 homicide statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics' Special Report on International Crime Rates and was misreported in the story. Northern Ireland's actual homicide rate is roughly half that of the US - 4.0 per 100,000 people as compared with 7.9. In addition, the author failed to mention that Chile, at 5.8 per 100,000 people, has a higher homicide rate than Northern Ireland. Dawn Murphy, Los Angeles

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