Saw some comments today on a new rape of a minor case involving football players of age that referred to things 'getting worse', it's 'getting worse for women not better', 'rape culture is worsening', etc. I see similar comments in diaries about shootings, airplane crashes that happen in a close time proximity to each other, etc.
My (unsolicited) advice to those who write or give heed to such comments: Set your emotions aside and understand the different reasons as to WHY you're hearing about these tragedies more often.
Yes, you could be hearing about tragedy X more often because its happening more often.
But, you could also be hearing about tragedy X more often because of other reasons completely unrelated as to whether or not tragedy X is happening more often, including:
1. Higher public interest forcing traditional media to cover similar events with high frequency
2. Exponential increase in people using social media to gather information and news
3. A statistical outlier that a high number of tragedy X occurrences happen near you or to people you know.
Could it be a combination of the above 3 AND something happening more frequently overall? Absolutely. BUT, it does logically follow that if 1 and/or 2 are true, it could be forcing the # of incidents DOWN as any criminal element to these tragedies may think twice before becoming involved in them, given the public attention.
Just some food for thought, not meant to downplay the importance of recognizing these tragedies, but at least to ease your anxiety about an 'apparent' increase in them.