The iPod isn't just a tool for turning your life into one long movie with the perfect soundtrack -- it's also a great way to become the victim of violent crime. So says crime think tank the Urban Institute, whose latestreport posits that iPod-muggings have been the main factor behind a rise in the U.S. violent crime rate the last couple of years.
Robberies began a dramatic increase in 2005, posits the institute, right around the time iPods became commonplace, providing an easily identified, readily fenced high-value item for muggers to focus on. There are several potential holes in the theory, including the fact that the biggest increases in violent crime were in small and medium-sized cities, which would seem to provide less snatch-and-grab opportunities than crowded urban environments.
