The most important variable... (Score 2, Insightful)

... do you live in America? Number of homicides in the US in 2004: 16137 ~= 537 per 100,000 population (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/tables/circ umsttab.htm) Number of homicides in the in England and Wales 2004/05: 825 = 1.5 per 100,000 population (http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/output/page40.a sp)