iPods Cause Crime
Times wunderkind Sewell Chan looks at a recent Urban Institute report entitled "Is There an iCrime Wave?" which speculates that "the proliferation of iPods helps account for the nationwide rise in violent crime in 2005 and 2006." (In 2005, violent crime rose nationally for the first time in eleven years.) But why would thieves target iPods and their owners?
The authors also offer four reasons iPod owners might be particularly susceptible to crime. First, iPods have "no easily accessible antitheft protection," unlike, say, automobiles and laptop computers. Second, unlike cellphones, iPods do not require a subscription, so a robber can continue to use them even after a victim reports the theft. Third, iPods may be "stolen for their status," and not merely as items to be resold.
Fourth, that incredibly smug look on the face of anyone who owns an Apple product with an "i" at the front of its name is enough to incite even the most pacifist of people to cause physical harm. We wouldn't be surprised if rape was on the rise since the introduction of the iPhone: sometimes theft and assault just don't get the message across.
