Violent Crime Research Paper

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Violent Crime Research Paper

Nothing does more to tear our families apart than violent crime, guns, gangs, drugs, and the fear that walks alongside those terrors. Violent crime and victim rights have become a major concern for most citizens in the United States of America. Statistics indicate a decline in violent crimes in our country and an increase in our national prison population. Released prisoners commit most violent crimes. Gun control legislation, reform programs, victim rights awareness, and other programs are abundant in our country, but do little to alleviate violent crime. In this paper I will try to present the liberal and conservative views on this issue as well as my own views.

Violent crime is a complex problem and can only be responded to in complex ways. "Quick fix" solutions to the problem are likely to be misguided.

There was a decline in crime during the 1990s. Our country enjoyed seven years of declining crime for the period 1991-98, the most recent data available. During this period crime declined by 22% and violent crime by 25%. These are welcome developments, particularly following the surge of crime and violence of the late 1980s. This decline occurred during a time when the national prison population has increased substantially, rising from 789,60 in 1991 to 1,252,830, a 59% rise in just seven years and a 47% increase in the rate of incarceration, taking into account changes in the national population (Mauer 21-24).

Many observers have drawn a simple correlation between these two trends. Putting more offenders in prison caused the reduction in crime. The Sentencing project has just completed a study that examines this issue in great detail and concludes that any such correlation is ambiguous at best. In examining the relationship between incarceration and crime in the 1990s the picture is complicated by the seven year period just prior to this, 1984-91. In this period, incarceration also rose substantially, at a rate of 65%. Yet crime rates increased during this time as well, by 17% nationally. Thus we see a continuous rise in incarceration for fourteen years, during which crime rose for seven years, then declined for seven years. This does not suggest that incarceration had no impact on crime, but any such connection is clearly influenced by other factors. A comparison with other nations is instructive in this rega...

... middle of paper ...

... “Megan’s Law” requiring that people should be told if a sex offender lives in their area. (Federal Sentencing Reporter 10).

Statistics indicate that strangers commit only one percent of violent crimes against women (The New American Magazine). I want to be protected, if I am in this small percentage. When a woman awakens and sees a male stranger crawling through her window and heading toward her bed, he is not a small percentage. He is a 100 percent fiend. But, if she had a pistol under her pillow and knew how to use it, she could make him a 100 percent corpse, and the world would be a far better place (The New American Magazine). That is my reason for supporting the second amendment.

Bibliography

Hammer, Marion. “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.” American Hunter June 1998

James Dao, New York Times, p. A18 May 3, 2000

Lee, Robert, “Gun Report” The New American Magazine, November 11, 1996

Mauer, Marc. "Preventing and Fighting Crime, What Works?" FDCH Congressional Testimony, 10/02/2000

“Where They Agree: Regarding Guns,” Associated Press. Los Angeles Timesn April 21, 2000

www.AlGore2000.com/issues/crime. May 16, 1999

www.georgebush.com/crime

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