What Was Crime Like in Malcolm Gladwell's Hometown?

Malcolm Gladwell learned about American crime from Time magazine, in a childhood with no crime of his own. He grew up in rural Ontario with no television and no newspaper. Books and Time were what came into the house.

Time arrived every week, and as a kid he read it from beginning to end. Around eight, in rural Ontario, the magazine was his picture of a country he had never visited, only 100 miles away. He grew obsessed with America and later read enormous amounts on American politics. The articles were full of people getting shot and murdered. His town had one police officer, the husband of his mother's friend, who would stop kids and say he would tell their parents. Gladwell had never seen a gun, had never heard of anyone getting shot, and nobody had ever broken into their house.

Once a week he went to the library with his mother and came home with an armful of books. The glossy pictures in Time stayed with him, and he still recognizes some of them in archives.