Some statistics, such as the murder rate in Washington, D.C., bear out the apprehension with which people face the world. The brutality of crime increases almost exponentially each decade, so that what once horrified us we now accept as sadly routine.

       "The climate is changing," says Dennis Martin, a former police chief who is president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. "We are working on a comprehensive study with Columbia University that shows our attitudes have clearly changed. We have become almost desensitized to crime and violence."

       In a study involving 374 mayors or municipal executives from cities with populations over 10,000, the National League of Cities found a growing sense of unease among those living in urban or suburban areas.

       For 1993, more than 4 in 10 felt violent crime had worsened in their city in the past year. Another 5 in 10 thought the number of gangs involved in criminal activity had grown. Only 2 in 10 thought violent crime had lessened, and fewer than 1 in 10 believed their cities were less at risk from gangs.

       The increase in the number of civic officials who admitted their crime was worsening was greater than in any other year in the past decade.

       The study Martin worked on contains an analysis of how college students respond to violent imagery. "The reaction to violence by young people today is significantly different than it was in 1960," he says.

       Martin echoes the sentiments of other current and former law enforcement officials as he catalogs reasons why.

       Early release of criminals. "One thing we are finding is that when someone is arrested for burglary today, he has committed between 40 and 100 previous crimes," says Martin. "That makes effective law enforcement impossible."