Violent crime can be defined as a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. Violent crime in the United States is still prevalent, although it is has been decreasing over the years. Examples of violent crime include robbery, assault, murder, or rape. Although violent crime is decreasing in the nation, the amount varies from city to city. This is a major social issue that needs to be brought to attention because it has negative effects to society. If the awareness of violent crime increases, less violent crime will occur. But most importantly, people must know an explanation for these violent crimes.
One city that has violent crime is Phoenix, Arizona. There is one article that gives an explanation on how urbanization and warming of Phoenix impacts the city. Craig Anderson, a professor at Phoenix University, studied the relationship between temperature and crime in Phoenix. “Elevated temperatures increase irritability and aggression in controlled laboratory experiments and numerous studies have shown positive correlations between temperature and violent crime” (Baker 6). Anderson used crime statistics from 50 U.S. cities and estimated that violent crimes increased .45% every 1 degree Fahrenheit increase in annual temperature. An explanation for why violent crime occurs more frequently than others is warm weather. The warmer it is, the more people there are outside which leads to a higher chance of violent crime.
Another article that gives an explanation for violent crime exists in Phoenix is the relationship between schools and crime. Dale Willits, Lisa Broidy, and Kristine Denman conducted a study in Arizona schools to see if there was a link between schools and neighborhood crime rates...
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Burglaries, robberies, and shootings, all of which may leave victims or innocent bystanders severely hurt or dead, are now frequent enough to concern all urban and many suburban residents. Living in a dangerous environment places young people at risk of falling victim to such malicious and aggressive behavior observed and learned from others. Social institution such as education, family, religion, peer groups, etc., play a major role in the influence of crime in the urban neighborhoods that Anderson describes. As said in the essay, "although almost everyone in poor inner-...
Looking back at the number of homicides in the city of San Jose, CA for the year 2000 it was 20, then there was an average increase of 8 murders per year for the next 8 years. Then in 2010, despite a population increase of over one hundred thousand people, there were only 20 murders in the city of San Jose. Now in 2011, up to the month of July, there have been 26 homicides, which means based upon the current rate San Jose is on track to have more than 50 homicides in 2011, which would theoretically be over a two decade maximum. Now despite having lived in a small town, I consider San Jose as a home away from home because I go there often. I have had a job there and my dad has worked in San Jose for 28 years. In 2009 the San Jose area was rated as the seventh safest area in the country and when that happened it made me feel thankful that my family and I have lived in such a safe area. Yet nowadays it seems like I have been reading about a different murder every week, which has caused me to ask many questions about the possible causes of this rise in murders. From the research I have done, the cause seems to be a rise in gang violence and rival gang murders. In San Jose, the two rival gangs, Norteños and Sureños, have begun to be bolder with their killings as shown with the already high and rising murder rate of 2011. Solutions must be determined in conjunction with the San Jose Police Department and governmental gang task forces to establish the best course of action to stop the continuing rise in violence (Associated Press).
Weather and Crime: Relationship Between Hot Weather and Violent Crime Rates in the Rio Grande Valley
Poor minority neighborhoods have been overly regulated by police resources to arrest inner city residents (Mauer, 2006, pg 165). Inner cities like east St. Louis not only have over policing and crack issues but also have high levels of joblessness, high dropout rates(over 50 percent) and many other social problems (Provine, 2007, p 3). These factors can be positively correlated with crime and victimization and among African
Travis, J., & Waul, M. (2002). Reflections on the crime decline: Lessons for the future. Proceedings from the Urban Institute Crime Decline Forum (pp. 1-38). Washington, D. C.: Urban Institute Justice Policy Center.
The strength of this theory is that it clearly explains the cause of highest crime rates in inner slum areas. It points out factors that produce crime and provides solid explanation for high crime rates in poor neighborhoods. Shaw and McKay’s theory, however, fails to answer the questions of why the middle class commits crime, as well as why most of the lower class remains law-abiding.
Why are some neighborhoods more prone to experience violent episodes than others? What is the extent and in what sociologically measurable ways do communities contribute to the causation and prevention of crime in their neighborhoods? Are neighborhood-level predictors adequate to explain differences in violent crime rates in the respective communities? These are some of the questions addressed by this statistically intense paper published in Science 1997, by Sampson, Raudenbush and Earls.
society. In the last few years, a slight dip in violent crime has been noted,
Table 1 of the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January-June, 2015 demonstrates the percent change by population group. The population group is broken down into cities and counties according to population. According to table 1, the crimes with the highest arrest rates were murder, rape, and aggravated assault, followed by robbery and motor vehicle theft. Murder, rape, and aggravated assault fall under Violent Crime Index whereas robbery and motor vehicle theft
Then all of a sudden, instead of going up and up and up, the crime rate began to fall. And fall and fall and fall some more. The crime drop was startling in several respects. It was ubiquitous, with every category of crime in every part of the country. It was persistent, with incremental decreases year after year. And it was entirely unanticipated, especially because the public had been anticipating the opposite...
One of the biggest issues in America today is crime. It is a large problem that continues to erode our country economically as well as morally. Because of the vastness of the problem, many have speculated what the cause for crime may be in hopes that a solution will be found. Many believe that a bad family life, location of residence, and poverty hold a few of the answers to why an individual becomes involved in criminal activity.
together not only in the time of need, but at all times and in every
Is it a coincidence that highly urbanized areas are full of crime and always statistically higher than small towns and rural areas? A child that is being brought up in a metropolitan area that is full of violent crimes is flooded in a sense and has nothing to do but to breath in some of the negative influences that go on around him. Therefore, I believe that the most influential scene in a child’s life is the neighborhood that he grows up in. Parents cannot constantly watch over their children, ask about whom they are hanging out with, constantly check where they are, and find out what they are getting themselves into? (Statistics p348)
During most of America’s recorded history, measuring crime and violence was not an accurate science. Crime statistics were recorded at local levels, but oftentimes this was not a priority of law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, statistics were often skewed to reflect better performance of these agencies than was the case. Only recently, during the last generation, has crime statistics been measured on a national level to determine crime patterns. The easiest crimes to measure, because of their nature, were homicide and auto theft.
The U.S. Department of Labor (2011) reported the national average of unemployment for 2008 was 5.8 percent. The rate dramatically increased in 2009 with an average of 9.3 percent and 9.6 percent for 2010. While unemployment rates have increased, the FBI’s preliminary reports for 2010 show that law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have reported a decrease of 6.2 percent in the number of violent crimes for the first 6 months of 2010 when compared to figures reported for the same time in 2009. The violent crime category includes rape, murder, robbery, and aggravated result. The number of property crimes also decreased 2.8 percent when compared to the same time last year. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson decreased 14.6 percent when compared to the same time periods of 2009 (FBI, 2011).