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Advantages and disadvantages of crime statistics
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Terror is rising day by day all over the world, and United States is no exception. There have been mass shootings at schools, shopping malls, music concerts and even at a movie theatre. So far, there have been 398 mass shootings recorded only in the past 50 years which resulted in 1996 deaths and 2488 people injured[1]. According to Van Dorn et al., a history of childhood abuse, binge drinking, and male gender are all predictive risk factors for serious violence[2]. The average number of genocides is 7 per year for last 50 years which took 39 lives and 48 person injuries per year[1]. These incidents affect the society on a high rate which in turn contributes for such situations again indirectly.
There is no denial in the fact that such happenings result in loss of both life and materials. Also, people remain in a state of panic and assume every other race to be a terrorist. This in turn reduces
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They suggested that not only mental illness but other factors such as social relationships, firearm access during emotional moments etc also lead to gun violence. However, they failed to cite this with strong facts, numbers etc. Reports suggest that up to 60% of executioners of mass shootings in the United States since 1970 displayed symptoms including acute paranoia, delusions, and depression before committing their crimes[4,5]. In another article “Rates of Household Firearm Ownership and Homicide Across US Regions and States, 1988–1997”[6], the authors emphasized on the “association between rates of household firearm ownership and homicide across the United States, by age group”. In this analysis, they failed to take gender, mental health and other factors into consideration which helps more to analyze that which type of people (mentally ill) and/ or which gender are doing these cruel
“Guns don’t kill people, people do.” This is a well known statement that is oftentimes considered true. However, it is not completely true. Someone who is mentally ill may be unable to make logical decisions and the perception they receive of reality may be tainted by the illness. Gun laws pertaining to those suffering mental illnesses should be more restrictive. Weapons such as guns make committing an act of violence, especially when there are multiple victims, much easier. It is difficult to assess the probability of a person to commit a violent act that harms anyone including himself/herself. Therefore, gun laws need be monitored very closely and made more consistent throughout each state in order to prevent violence that could occur in the future. To make any system effective, every state must have the same laws and regulations, as it is easy for a person to travel to a state more lenient on gun control and purchase a gun from a store that will sell firearms more openly.
The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms, but only in cases of self-defense and hunting for food. However, the use of guns has drastically changed since 1791 when the amendment was implemented. Today, guns are not solely used in their intended ways. Since 2010, over eighty-seven school shootings have occurred within American grade schools, high schools, and universities, resulting in approximately 107 injuries and 109 murders of innocent students. The two most deadly shootings in the world occurred in the United States: the Virginia Tech University Massacre which left thirty-two dead and Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting which left twenty-eight dead. Each new shooting prompts a debate about gun control laws and leaves citizens wondering about the accessibility of guns; any United States citizen over the age of twenty-one that does not have any previous felonies is able to easily receive a gun license. Forty-nine out of the sixty-one school shootings that occurred between 1982 and 2012 legally obtained firearms. The statistics become even more outstanding: seventy nine percent of all shooters have been diagnosed with a mental illness or disability, including the Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook shooters, Seung-Hui Cho and Adam Lanza. Cho and Lanza were diagnosed with mental illnesses and disabilities, depression and autism, respectively. Even so, they were still able to acquire the guns they needed because extensive mental health background checks did not and still do not exist; Cho purchased his own weapon and Lanza stole his mother’s guns. Although the case studies of Lanza and Cho are only two out of the many school shootings, they should be considered prime examples to illustrate the necessity to add stri...
Over the last decade or so, the United States of America has been shaken by an epidemic of terrifying mass shootings, devastating slayings of unexpecting victims, and unnerving annihilations of the innocent. There is no specific target, no explicitly sought-out group, nor definite individual. From a classroom of first-graders, to a crowded movie theatre, to a U.S. Naval yard, the location seems at most, random, other than that it is almost always a public place. The perpetrators responsible for these horrific murders also vary, and often surprise those who thought they knew them. However, while the occurrences of mass shootings are unpredictable and always shocking, most have one thing in common: the use, or rather misuse, of assault weapons-automatic or semiautomatic military style rifles. To ensure the safety, security, and well-being of the people of the United States, the government should ban assault weapons.
Although no one can be entirely sure what motivates teens to commit mass shootings, there are theories that must be examined to develop solutions. One theory states that there are ten factors that contribute to the likelihood of a teen committing murder. These factors include an unstable home life, being bullied at school, obsession with violent entertainment, being suicidal, involvement with drugs or alcohol, involvement with gangs or cults, and mental illness. Usually at least four of these qualities are present in homicidal teens (Khadaroo). While many of these causes stem from home lif...
A series of shots being fired in the near distance can be heard. A crew of ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks are seen speeding down the streets while blaring their sirens to warn people to move out of the way rapidly. Then, crowds of people are seen running down the street franticly. Sounds of earsplitting yells fill the air. Their eyes are filled with tears of fear and terror. They look as if they were running for their lives. There is a wave of worry and curiosity that washes over everyone’s face as they stand there from a distance watching it take place. There was a sense of wanting to run towards the chaos to see what was going on. But the panic of the people running gave off the feeling of “Warning! Do NOT come this way!” What was happening? Later that night, the news reports that another mass shooting took place earlier on in the day. In the 21st century, many crimes involving mass shootings are the main focus of the public eye in the media. With the technology of the 21st century, investigators are able to look more into depth of the criminal’s background to see if they have a history of mental illness.
Gun violence has been and continues to be one of the major problems in American. The U.S. has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world and consequently the highest rate of gun violence and fatalities compared to other developed countries. In a study by the University of Sydney it is estimated that there are 270,000,000 to 310,000,000 guns in the United States. According to the same study in 2010 there were 31,672 fatalities caused by firearms and on the following year the number went up to 32,163. Homicides resulting from guns are high in the United States and they are claiming more than eleven thousand lives every year (Guns in the United States: Firearms, Armed Violence and Gun Law). According to Vision for Humanity, an initiative for the Economics and Peace, the United States is ranked 99 out of 162 countries in the 2013 global peace index, homicide rates and violent crimes are among the various criteria used to determine the ranking (Vision of Humanity). Mass shootings at work places, schools, shopping malls and places of worship are happening in an a...
Gun control is an extremely hot-button topic right now in all over the world. The issue is not likely to go away any time soon. Many societies are questioning whether guns really are the helpful tool that many of us have been saying they are, or if they are the killing machines they have recently been publicised as. Over the past decade, recent shootings that have occurred across the country along with the push for law banning or regulating certain types of firearms have all caused many to review the gun control pros and cons that are believed to shape future debate. In this modern era, owning a gun among the people can cause many glitches. One of them is homicide which is broadly seen by the public as one of the most vital hiccups facing our society. According to Hoskin (2011), USA is an outlier in both high levels of gun possession and high rates of homicide compared to other industrialised countries. Homicides are much more likely to involve guns in the USA. In 2009, 67% of slaughters were committed with a gun compared to one-third in Canada. Although critics argue owning a gun can help to ensure our own safety, it is still harmful to society because most violent crimes are perpetrated with guns, the risk of death increases and suicides are higher with gun availability.
Over the past years media has been overwhelmed with news about mass shootings happening around America and if mental illness is the primary cause of the violent act. On February 2014, Jonathan M. Metzl and Kenneth T. MacLeish published their article “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms” in the American Journal of Public Health that addresses the issue that mental illness has very little to do mass shootings which is commonly used on the aftermath of the shooting
I am so tired of the sickly platitudes: “our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims.” And I am sick to death of the rationalizations: “guns don’t kill people; people kill people.”
...t: (http://www.psych.org/public_info/VIOLEN~1.HTM) Government Survey (1990) Violence and Psychiatric Disorders in the Community: Evidence from the Epidemiological Catchment Area Surveys. Hospital and Community Psychiatry (41:761770) Holy Bible (1998) Leviticus Chapter 19 verse 18, King James version (204:2049) Hudson, Thomas (1978) The Laws of Psychic Phenomena. Internet: (http://www.appi.org/pnews/sep20/jail.htm1) (pg.1 & 2) Illinois State Police (1999) Violence in the Workplace Characteristics. Internet: (http://www.state.il.us/ISPviowkplc/vwpp4.htm) Modestin, Jiri (1997) Is Depression A Risk Factor for Crime? Crime Times, Internet: (http://www.crime~times.org/97d/w97dp6.htm) (p.1) National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) (1999) The Criminalization of People with Mental Illness. Summary of the NAMI Policy Platform (1:8) National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) (1999) The Criminalization of People with Mental Illness. Summary of the NAMI Policy Platform (3:8) Taridiff, K. (1980) Assault, Suicide and Mental Illness. Archives of General Psychiatry (37:164169) Webster Dictionary (1988) Unabridged Yapko, Micheal D. (1997) The Art of Avoiding Depression. Psychology Today
The common knowledge is that majority of the mass shooters have been found to have severe mental illness that could have received treatment for their participation in the shooting. The fact that the access to most of these mental treatment facilities is available to those people with money leaves those without the money to access to the medical treatment a security risk. I this case the combination of an assortment of factors are making the young people helpless in the society whose chief drive is seeking money. The rising cases of drug abuse such as the use of Xanax as well as other antipsychotic and mood altering prescription drugs are inflating the problem of drug abuse. The 1980s saw the use of these drugs become popular in the society and consequently resulted in the rise of the horrific shooting incidences (Grier, 2014). Additionally, it has been found that almost every other shooter has been found to have been using a certain type of these prescription
My subtopic was gun violence in schools “school shootings.” There have been many schools shooting and most of them had many innocent people dying because of one or two people who had committed these horrible crimes. There are many things that should be done to help innocent people from getting hurt and prevent this from happening again. One thing that should happen is to put guns away or just getting rid of them. People get guns many different ways as you may already know. Sometimes we would just want guns to vanish and everyone one to have peace in the world. Gun violence in schools occurs around the world not only in the United States. The news inform us about the many other countries that are attacked and children or students that have been killed because of terroirs groups. People aren’t safe now days in places that we should believe schools are safe. Many parents are nervous sending their children to school because of the different stories they hear about on the news and from others.
Literature Analysis and Research Proposal of the Correlation between Mental Illness and Violence and Crime Over the past few decades, many researches have strived to test and explain the correlation between violence and crime and mental illness. Moore and Hiday (2006) assert that up 22% of inmates has a mental illness, sometimes containing more mental illness patients than many psychiatric units. Due to these statistics it is evident how important it is to understand the causes of the correlations between crime and violence and mental disorders. This proposal wishes to explain and understand the possible correlation and the reasons for such correlation between mental health illnesses and violence and crime. Further research to test these theories of crime and mental disorders will also be presented.
The stereotype that goes hand in hand with mental illness that though seems to have improved over the years is still pervasive. Teplin, Abram & McClelland (1994) state that people in general, believe that people with mental illness are more likely to commit violent crime with those without mental illness. In their study they seek to find evidence to that statement – to learn if having a mental illness increases the likeliness of violent crime and recidivism after release from prison. This author seeks to discover the same using similar data to learn if there is a connection between violent crime and mental illness.
Today, young people are frequently exposed to gun violence. Exposure can be through observation or engagement. This exposure to gun violence has a psychological impact on youth. Bushman, Newman, Calvert, Downey, Dredze, Gottfredson, Jablonski, Masten, Morrill, Neill, Romer, and Webster (2016) define the term “psychological impact” as “referring to feelings or emotions experienced by youth that impact their ability to function normally.” These feelings or emotions can range from anger and/or aggressive behavior to withdrawal and/or antisocial behavior. Garbarino, Bradshaw, and Vorassi (2002) explain how youth exposed to gun violence can suffer from said psychological impact and can become all together desensitized to violence.