“Man charged with throwing alligator into fast food restaurant”, read the headlines when this Florida fast food restaurant got a customer it wasn’t expecting who tossed a live alligator through a drive-thru window. Joshua James, 23, of Jupiter, Florida, had wanted to play a practical joke on a friend working at the Wendy’s restaurant in Royal Palm Beach when he […]
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Dresden, Germany A German police officer has confessed to murdering a businessman who had a sexual fantasy of being killed and eaten. The officer, 55, identified as Detlev G., said he met his victim in an Internet chat room billed as “the No. 1 website for exotic meat,” where those who want to be cannibalized meet those who want to […]
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The question has puzzled criminologists for decades: Why did violent crime rates start to soar across the U.S. from the 1960s, before beginning “a spectacular decline” in the 1990s—a decline that’s continued ever since? Theories abound, from improved policing strategies to the end of the crack epidemic. But a more likely possibility is a molecule, said Kevin Drum in Mother […]
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A man died on in Germany after he was hit in the head by a flying piece of metal from a blown up condom machine that he and two accomplices destroyed in an apparent robbery attempt. The 29-year-old man was taken to the hospital in the western town of Schoeppingen, near the Dutch border, by the two other men who […]
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Tokyo ‘Silver shoplifters’: Facing cuts in welfare and pensions, Japan’s swelling ranks of the elderly are turning to crime—many of them stealing food. Shoplifters are now more likely to be over 65 than under 18. Criminal offenses by the over-65 set have doubled in the past decade, even as overall crime has dropped. “Senior citizens shoplift lunch boxes and bread […]
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Chimpanzees, our closest relatives, turn a blind eye to crimes that don’t affect them directly, suggesting that third-party punishment— the foundation of complex societies governed by laws s and courts—is a uniquely human development. German researchers trained chimpanzees to 1 play one of three roles while facing one another in cages: One was given access to food within reach of […]
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Johannesburg With cameras rolling, a South African journalist was robbed by two men just moments before he was to give a report. The video shows the two assailants scuffling with reporter Vuyo Mvoko, who shouts, “Hey we’re being mugged!” as he gives up his cellphone and a laptop. “Every South African lives with the reality of crime,” said the South […]
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In the United States, a theft occurs every 4 seconds, a burglary every 10 seconds, an assault every 29 seconds, a rape every 5 minutes and a murder every 21 minutes.
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Radioactive residue from the Cold War could provide a valuable tool for stemming the deadly trade in illegal ivory, National Geographic News reports. Poachers killed an estimated 30,000 African elephants last year alone for their tusks—an ongoing slaughter that threatens the long-term survival of the species, whose population numbers about 500,000. Ending poaching has been nearly impossible because it is […]
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