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As world leaders are gathering this week Copenhagen to discuss cooperating on measures to address climate change, the solutions they seek might serve not only to make us safer from hurricanes and rising oceans, but from each other, too.<\/p>\n
Studies have shown that hot days — and hot cities — often have higher rates of violent crime than cooler days and cooler cities. As the world\u2019s temperature rises, will violent crime rise, too?<\/p>\n
One study<\/a> compared the murder rate with the annual average temperature and found a correlation. The research, done by psychologists at the University of Missouri and Iowa State found that over from 1950-1995, the violent crime rate has increased along with the temperature. When controlling for poverty, age shifts and the \u201cgeneral upward drift of violent crime,\u201d the study found that for each degree Farenheit in the Earth\u2019s average temperature, the U.S. murder rate rises by 3.68 per 100,000 people. That means for every degree we add, the U.S. will see nearly 10,000 additional murders a year. The study was published in 1998, so it\u2019s a bit dusty.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n