Is the destruction of social values more common place now than the 20 years ago?

Morality is at an all time low, with acts of violence, drug activity, and sexual assaults being more televised and sensationalized due to the media, I will be the firs to admit.





The question is not about morality, but rather the percentage of social disruptions and crimes per populace. Do more people do drugs now than back in the days of coke and 'ludes, or is it more known about? Are more rapes occuring per populace, or less per populace, but more reported each year because of an every increasing populace?





What are your thoughts about this topic?

Is the destruction of social values more common place now than the 20 years ago?
It often seems to us that morality is eroded, but there are several factors that make me skeptical of our gut feelings. One is that the media tends to overreport the bad and underreport the good (obviously, it's not newsworthy if kids are going to school, learning, and not committing crimes).





The second reason is that our memories are biased, and tend to remember bad things, especially if they confirm a pre-existing notion (such as something like "kids these days!" -- something every older generation declares of the one following it).





Statistical data show that crime is actually falling, and so are teenage pregnancies (at their lowest in 20 years). If you compare the culture of the current generation of young people with the culture of their parents at that age (during the 60s and 70s), there are a lot of things that today's young people are doing that's more responsible and more conforming to "traditional values."
Reply:I'd say that it is far less than twenty years ago. In the eighties it was still commonplace for women to be seen as the cause of rape. Most rape cases were thrown out of court for that reason. Pedophilia was also more common and far less frequently reported. Certainly drugs were more commonplace and accepted. Also violence was accorded far less media play. It was pretty common to get mugged in all the major US cities and carrying a handgun was considered part of being a man. I remember a retired police officer in Illinois describing the beating of a traffic offender because his skin color was not wanted in the neighborhood the officers were patrolling.





In fact, I would say with the media's constant promotion of every thing from failure to use a child seat to second hand smoking as felonious we have become a far less violent/criminal society albeit one with far less privacy. On the other hand we seem capable of ignoring enormous moral wrong-doing. In the seventies Nixon was impeached for wiretapping our current president, far from being impeached, has defended his staff and various secret agencies for doing it. In the sixties when it looked like a Catholic might be elected President America worried that the Pope might step in and attempted to control US politics. Now we have a Pope threatening excommunication of US political officials and not a word is said.





No, I do not believe we have become in anyway more criminal I think though that social values have slid enormously. We now as a country greatly resemble white crackers of the sixties civil rights movement. We are very concerned with criminal activity but we are not concerned at all with the actual mistreatment of others on a large scale. Political and religious leaders are given a pass on any immoral act as long as they are doing it to "fight crime!", "defend America from terrorists" or "protect a higher (religious dogma) law".
Reply:Absolutely. And you don't even have to refer to crime statistics. You see it in public rudeness and in things like road rage and air rage. People are being raised without manners or the social values behind them. The result is increasing anger, and antisocial and violent behavior. Don't get me started!