In the final week leading up to a big election there’s never any shortage of political news. Know what else there isn’t a shortage of? Exhaustion over political news. Last week at Law Street, though, our top three stories came from the world of crime. The Crime in America team produced the number one article of the week with the first-ever definitive coverage of the Killers of Craigslist; writer Anneliese Mahoney covered the disturbing case of California highway cops who routinely steal nude photos from detained women’s cell phones; and the third most popular article detailed Americans’ biggests fears — both warranted (identity theft) and not (mass shootings, which you are highly unlikely to ever experience firsthand). ICYMI, here is the best of the week from Law Street.

#1 Killers of Craigslist

Since the arrest in 2009 of Philip Markoff, aka the “Craigslist Killer,” the website has faced increased scrutiny by the media. Law Street decided to take a closer look at the site and its media coverage to see how dangerous Craigslist really is. We wanted to know: Was Markoff’s an isolated act, or an incident on a continuum? Our findings are noteworthy. This marks the first tabulation of all Craigslist murders since 2009. Law Street identified 58 murderers and 45 murder victims connected to Craigslist postings through last June. Read full article here.

#2 California Police Officers Found Stealing Suspects’ Nude Photos

Today’s “wow, people really suck” story comes straight to you from the California highways. Or, to be more specific, California’s Highway Police. Apparently, a few officers from Contra Costa County, California, have created a new, sick game to pass the time. They began accessing the cell phones of female suspects brought into custody, and then sending nude or semi-nude photos of these women to themselves. Allegedly, the pictures were then passed to the other officers playing the “game.” Read full article here.

#3 Just in Time for Halloween: What Are Americans’ Top Fears?

What scares you the most? That’s the question that Chapman University decided to ask America in a recently released study called the “Chapman Survey on American Fears.” In the study, researchers surveyed 1,500 Americans from different walks of life in order to create a strong representative sample. They split the types of fears into four categories: personal fears, crime, natural disasters, and fear factors. They were able to determine the most pressing concerns in each of the categories, as well as overall. Read full article here.

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post ICYMI: Best of the Week appeared first on Law Street.

What scares you the most? That’s the question that Chapman University decided to ask America in a recently released study called the “Chapman Survey on American Fears.” In the study, researchers surveyed 1,500 Americans from different walks of life in order to create a strong representative sample. They split the types of fears into four categories: personal fears, crime, natural disasters, and fear factors. They were able to determine the most pressing concerns in each of the categories, as well as overall. Based on this study, Chapman University was able to come up with the five most common fears in the United States:

• Walking alone at night
• Becoming the victim of identity theft
• Safety on the internet
• Being the victim of a mass/random shooting
• Public speaking

The top five worries/concerns in the United States were:

• Having identity stolen on the Internet
• Corporate surveillance of Internet activity
• Running out of money in the future
• Government surveillance of Internet activity
• Becoming ill/sick

The survey also polled people about what kind of natural disasters they would find the most frightening. Tornado/hurricane, earthquake, flood, pandemic, and power outage ranked the highest on the survey. Despite that fact, the survey found that very few people have any sort of emergency preparedness plan in place.

Overall impressions of crime in the United States were also taken into account by Chapman University, and they were very interesting. The fears and concerns really don’t make that much sense. For example, the study discovered that most Americans think that crime rates are going up, and that’s not really the case. As one of the study’s co-authors, Dr. Edward Day, put it:

What we found when we asked a series of questions pertaining to fears of various crimes is that a majority of Americans not only fear crimes such as child abduction, gang violence, sexual assaults, and others; but they also believe these crimes (and others have increased over the past 20 years. When we looked at statistical data from police and FBI records, it showed crime has actually decreased in America in the past 20 years.

There’s really not that much logic to a lot of what people are now fearing if you look at it objectively. Public speaking is uncomfortable for many, but will probably not be life-altering. And while mass shootings are, of course, terrifying, they’re still statistically unlikely. The overwhelming feeling I get from this list is that people are scared of the unknown, and they’re scared of crimes that have been sensationalized. If you really think about things that are dangerous and should incite fear — car accidents, cancer, and obesity — they’re almost so ubiquitous that they don’t get coverage.

That would certainly make sense, given the way that people are panicking about Ebola to the point of failing to employ any sort of logic, or ISIS, or any other issue that never fails to get the talking heads on cable news flailing their arms. While there’s nothing wrong or flat-out incorrect about the concerns that people have, it is an interesting look at how susceptible we are to incensed media coverage.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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