I was just reading an article entitled "A Continent of Broken Windows," by Gerard Alexander, associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia. The piece was written following the riots in France, detailing a rise in European violence in comparison to the United States and the common misconception that Europe is the land where the Care Bears are from and America is home to The Warriors.

At any rate, here's what I found interesting:

"The latest [crime] figures, scattered from 2000 to 2005, suggest that more assaults are committed per capita in England than in America, while Swedes, Norwegians, and Dutch experience roughly the same assault rates as Americans. Robberies (which involve force or the threat of force) are as common in England and the Netherlands as in the United States."

"Moreover, some European cities suffer certain crimes that Americans don't know at all. As the New York Times understatedly observed, the French government was slow to respond to the recent riots 'in part because the initial nights of unrest did not seem particularly unusual in a country where an average of more than 80 cars a day were set on fire this year even before' the riots began."

Yikes! And the murder rate?

"America is even losing its distinctiveness among the advanced industrial countries when it comes to murder, as European homicide rates edge upward. Twenty and thirty years ago, Europeans experienced a tiny fraction of U.S. murder rates, and individual murders were still shocking. By 2001, though, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Vienna, and Brussels were suffering 40 percent or more the homicide rate that New York City has today."

To be sure, a homicide rate that is half of one city is pretty significant. The article is pointing out, however, that violence is in the U.S. has either leveled off or declined while Europe has been experiencing an increase. Will the increase continue? Who is to say? It's certainly worth examining, though.

My favorite part is addressing the issue of the welfare state.

"France's riots probably cannot be understood without reference to a welfare state so expensive that it stifles job-creation and closes the doors of social advancement to young people, especially minorities."

"Ironically, Europeans used to lecture Americans that expensive welfare states at least ensured social peace by preventing the rise of an alienated underclass of the kind seen in American inner cities. Higher taxes for lower crime was a tradeoff many Europeans were prepared to make. Now they find themselves saddles with both high welfare costs and high crime."

Giving some credit, though, the author does say "placing blame on the welfare state only gets us so far...because crime is also high in the Netherlands and Scandanavia, where unemployment is lower thanks to serious reforms of their welfare states."

At any rate, I thought this was an interesting piece. I'm sure we'll see European domestic policy examined more in the wake of the French rioting, especially if there should be more unrest in other European cities.