(2015).
The following Data now compares the number of students who attended the youth group when compared to the number who went on a mission trip.
(Merge 2002-2015 Attendance, 2015) (High School STT Participation, 2015.)
The amount of students attending the mission trips has drastically increased throughout the years when compared to the number of students attending Merge. Whereas in 2008 through 2010 when on Mississippi was offered, only an average of 21.3% of students would attend a mission trip. But in 2011 when international trips are offered, 52% participated in the mission trips. Now, in 2015, 116% of students participate in the mission trips (Merge 2002-2015 Attendance, 2015) (High School STT Participation, 2015).
Next, one must decide what factors are responsible for these trends. Based on world-wide culture trends, safety, media, and social media have had the largest and most dramatic change. By dissecting each of the three factors and correlating it to the above trends, the trends will have a basis that can be factored into the reason for the international missions. …show more content…
In Alvin Mitchel’s research “Determinants of Safety in Urban and Suburban Areas”, it was found that one’s perception of safety outweighs the reality. This is because crime is emotional and often time’s emotion outweighs other aspects (Mitchel 2004, pg 98-111). Because of this perception of crime, one does not often put his or herself in a position where he or she would be affected by crime. Hamilton County, Indiana in 2010 has a crime rate of 48.15 while Marion County in 2010 has a crime rate of 300.5 (FBI URC Statistics). When one lives in Hamilton Country and is used to a low crime rate, one’s perception of Marion County’s crime rate is that it is a lot dangerous there. While it is, they do not take into consideration the crime of third world countries they travel to instead. Crime rates are unavailable for these countries due to the remote and undeveloped characteristics of the countries, and therefore it is more difficult to understand the risks at stake overseas. While in fact, crime is more prevalent in third world countries due to low crime control and corrupt governments, which leads to a high amount of drug use, human trafficking, and gun use (Berthet & Lopez,