iSchadenfreude

The iPod’s distinctive white earbuds have become a cultural icon. But people have long suspected they may also mark users as targets for crime. New research conducted by the Washington-based Urban Institute suggests just that. In 2005, the year sales of iPods skyrocketed, incidents of violent crime in the United States increased for the first time in more than a decade. Similar upticks happened in Britain and Canada. Could iCrime be partially to blame?

Consider New York City’s subway system, where major felonies increased by 18 percent in the first three months of 2005. The spike coincided with a boom in iPod sales. And, if iPod and mobilephone thefts are excluded, crime on New York’s subway actually fell by 3 percent. In Britain, officials now believe a surge in robberies in 2005—including a 42 percent increase in crime on London’s Underground—is linked in part to iPods. “They’re carrying around an expensive device that’s obvious to a potential robber [and] that tunes them out,” the Urban Institute’s John Roman says of iPod owners.

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