Celebrations have been a major target for thieves and criminals. Caught off guard in the carefree mood, people often remain unprepared to fight back in such instances. Over the years, there has become an important link noticeable between Halloween, a much-celebrated festival, and the increasing crime rate associated with it.
With people dressing up in costumes and disguises during this day, leaving their homes, it becomes quite easy for criminals to nudge in and get their way. Often it’s thought that year-end holidays are the ones with more number of crime rates. However, Halloween has emerged as an equally notorious time period of the year with an average increase by seventeen percentage. A day dedicated to the remembering for the dead has ironically now become a day of the dead. Sexual offences and pick-pocketing is not behind in statistics either.
James Alan Fox of Northeastern University brings in an important statistical data on the topic that the rate of violent crime in the evenings is fifty percent higher on October 31st than on any other date. Further, Fox adds on that this is more than twice the crime count from the daily average. What such a statistics points out to us is the important trend emerging in crime where what is being taken advantage of is people’s freedom during celebrations.
With a society that is going down in its morality standards at this rate, all we can do is stay alert and watch out. What we need is not a complete shutting down of celebrations rather, a well-informed and smart approach to it that keeps our safety in consideration.
N Malavika Mohan