I was looking for a quiz that might asses my risk of being murdered. Why? Oh, no reason, I was just up early this morning thinking about it. Considering that:
I don’t go to bars, I live in the suburbs, I don’t have a firearm in the house, I have a great marriage to a non-jealous spouse (and I don’t cheat), I work in a sedate corporate environment, have no friends or family members with mental issues, have never fired anyone, and have no enemies, I would imagine my risk of being murdered is very low.
I would essentially need to be a victim of random violence such as a corporate shooting spree or a home invasion gone bad.
I think it would be interesting to try to compare that to a 19 year old living in an urban environment slinging drugs on the corner, which is in the middle of a turf war (e.g. The Wire).
So I found a quizonline that is supposed to assess your risk of being murdered. Some of the questions are interesting. Examples:
How many Brothers and sisters above 16 years old do you have?
I guess the more brothers and sisters you have, the more likelihood that one of them are crazy and may kill you?
Do you purposely vary your routes to work each day?
I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Maybe you would be safer if you vary your route to work because you would be harder to find, but… if you purposely vary your route to work to avoid someone, it seems like you already realize that someone really doesn’t like you. Not good.
Do you have a parking spot with your name or title on it?
Same as above I guess. Can you be found? Maybe backlash against the 1%?
Do you screen and instruct babysitters and servants?
Is there a spree murders committed by babysitters? Would instruction help? “This is a strictly no-murder household. If you are not onboard with that, you cannot have this job.”
Are your children released from school only with prior arrangements?
Is this to prevent them from sneaking up behind you and murdering you?
I ot a 14. here is the results page.
[QUOTE=Risk Quiz]
Your total is: 14.
•(Less than 20)The Metropolitan Police Department is hiring. Look at our main page for hiring details if you think you qualify as a police officer
•(Less than 70) You are probably a middle class person who faces a normal (low) risk of murder in today’s society.
•(71 to 100) You are at moderate risk. It would be advisable to alter your schedule and traveling techniques. Cut down your public exposure.
•(More than 100) The higher you go over one hundred, the more risk you are facing. You could be in a dangerous category. It’d be a good idea to change your habits lest you be tomorrow’s headlines. You are either a target or you suffer from a wanton lifestyle.
Warnings:
•You face more criminals (per capita) in the big city. That adds to some of your risk, but hey…
•Divorce often means emotional upset. Police always consider ex-wives or ex-husbands in murders because they are so often the culprit.
[/QUOTE]
I will be interested in seeing what others get and what they think may have added to their scores. So many of the questions don’t apply to me. The questions about federal police response time seemed odd, and I had to guess.
Here’s one set of questions I was curious about, so I retook the quiz to see what happened. I always have a loaded pistol in my house, and almost always in my car. When I removed those facts from my answers, my score (my risk) went up to 24.
I took the quiz and got an 18. Apparently I’m so low risk the police department wants to hire me? pssh, yea right.
The one interesting you me is that apparently having one drink with dinner on the weekend increases your murder risk by 5. Or at a party with friends. I’m not saying alcohol is never involved in murders but I think the vast majority of us can have a glass of wine without needing a flak jacket.
I’m guessing that it’s not so much you getting in drunken bar fights, it’s the next guy getting in drunken bar fights & pulling out a gun/knife. Though my experience (which consists of the news reporting the time of the bar fight/murder) is that the vast majority of drunken bar fight/murders tend to occur at a time when I’m long since home & in bed.
I got a **12 **but these questions are pretty silly. How many drinks do I have on an *average *weekend? zero. But if they mean if I was to go out what would I drink, and I picked 1-2, it gives the warning message “You are drinking too much in public.”
And knowing the response time of police & fire? Well, I have never had a need to call them so I have no idea. I guess less then 15 minutes since there’s a police station & firehouse a couple blocks away.
And why does it give the warning about divorce? I didn’t answer anything about divorce, no one in my family has been divorced.
Seems like the only thing relevant is that I live in a major city.
I got 9, so I guess I should check out opportunities to become a police officer. What? You mean they don’t want a 69-year-old overweight woman? I had to guess about police and Federal police response times. Since I can drive from one end of town to the other in 15 minutes or less (and I’m no speed demon), I assume our local police would be able to get there quickly. But Federal police? I don’t have a clue where the nearest Federal police might be. I don’t even know what that means. FBI? Military police? (I do live within a half hour of Wright Patterson AFB.) Population of the nearest town or city? Not the population of the city where I live and work? As for guns, I personally have nothing to do with them, but I know that my husband owns 2. I think he keeps them unloaded but I don’t know. (But I did find them and hide them when he was hospitalized a year ago and seemed to be having some issues. By the time he was released, the issues were resolved but I forgot to put them back. It took a while before he even noticed that they were not where he left them.) My only warning was about divorce, but my only divorce was in 1980. I don’t even know where my ex is these days and seriously doubt that he knows where I am. I have no idea how I got any points at all. Maybe they just didn’t want me to feel overconfident.
I got 26, and I’m guessing it’s because here in the boonies, we rely on volunteers for fire and rescue, so the response time is most likely more than 15 minutes. And while there’s a Navy base about 20 miles from here, I’m pretty sure the nearest federal law enforcement folks are probably in DC, well over an hour away.
I love the one about varying my route to work. Before I retired, my commute was 25 miles or so. Any meaningful variation on that would add at least 10 miles, and probably more. And for the couple of post-retirement temp jobs, I pretty much had 2 possible routes, not including potential stupid detours that would get me off the main roads and deeper into the boonies - not a smart choice if you think someone is gunning for you…
I got 41. I’m guessing some of that is because I have been in media a couple of times for the charity I work with. Also I don’t know if owning guns lowered or raised my score.
There are a lot of questions aimed at executives with chauffeurs and dedicated parking spots. This seems a bit off to me; most of the murders I hear about are done by and to drug dealers, whores and jealous ex-spouses.
I got a 43…so at least if we’re gonna get murdered, it looks like we’ll go together?
I have to wonder, though…**Rhiannon8404 **and I don’t exactly live a high-profile, on-the-edge sort of lifestyle; how is it that most of you have such extremely low scores? Do you all live across the street from a police station, in a guarded compound or something?
