[knz]

> The per-capita homicide rate in the US is 5x higher than the UK and that difference is almost entirely composed of gun crime.

Is this because of the accessibility of firearms or other factors (specifically inequality and poverty)? While it's true that the US has a higher per capita rate of homicide, the impacts are not evenly distributed across society. Most Americans live in safe communities with crimes rates similar to other OECD countries. Even within cities with high rates of crime, homicide is usually restricted to a small geographic area.

[jahewson]

That's a good question. The US is only marginally more unequal than the UK, and has a considerably higher GDP per capita. Much like the US, cities in the UK are a mix of wealth and grittier post-industrial areas, and poverty is often rural and multi-generational. So, it would look like the answer is a fairly strong "no". The US has more money than Britain, and it's distributed in almost the same manner.