Definition: Crime
Crime is the illegal act that someone commits and is punished by the government. Many people in society find that crime in urban areas is frequent than it is in the suburbs or in rural areas; which is true. Crime is happening all over the place right now as we speak, regardless if its a small crime or something severe. Crime has fallen by roughly half, with violent crimes plummeting by roughly 51 percent and property crimes decreasing by about 43 percent. (Lind & Lopez) and this is why America has crime rates going down while crime continues to increase.
Over the past decade, it has been prevalent that crime rates have always been a problem in the country. Along with crime rates, the amount of crime has also been prevalent in the US. Americans in the U.S. think and know that violent crime is increasing daily. Violent crime increased between 1985-1990 when Reagan was in office. Crime rates and Violent crime play hand and hand in today’s society. The U.S. breaks the charts in murder rates and other crimes than other rich countries. Christopher Jenkins, a writer for The American Post, writes that murder rates are far higher in the United States than in Europe, Japan, or even Canada. (Jencks) He also states that as a nation, we also have more rapes, robberies, and assaults than other rich countries. The U.S. crime rates are very much higher than other nations who are affluent. Looking at other countries compared to the United States, it gives people in society reasons why our crime is increasing and why this continues to skyrocket throughout the years. The ideas behind both crime rates and crime are in fact false. Crime rates go down when crime goes up.
The term crime rate is the number of crimes that have been affected or told to the police. Members of society see a crime, and they want to report it, but they fear that will have a target on their back. People in the community feel that not reporting the crime rate will help the situation when in reality, everything is getting worse. More crimes will continue to happen if they aren’t reported to the police because the community will be afraid that they will be the next victims of the future crime committed. Burglaries/total population is the standard “crime rate” reported by the FBI and used by social scientists. (US Legal). These small crimes are being reported because these are homes of people or businesses being robbed, things like that have to be reported just in case the perpetrator returns these items, or the police find them. Joe Gorman, author for The Vindicator, shares statistics from a local town whose property crimes were reported.” The local numbers for property crimes – which the FBI classifies as burglaries, motor vehicle thefts, vandalism, and shoplifting – decreased slightly for local police departments. Nationally, the FBI said property crimes decreased 3 percent in 2017 from 2016.” (Gorman) These types of crimes will get reported because they are personal items that are being taken. What makes other serious crimes like homicide or murder nonreportable? All crime should be reported regardless of how much damage is done; this only helps the community better.
Many people may say that different areas of the country have all have the same crime rate; which is not true. Different regions of the country will have a higher crime rate or even high crime in that area than an another. In most urban areas the crime is what justifies the city. In Chicago or St.Louis they are always talked about for there crime. People barely hear about a crime that happens in Iowa or Montana. Most of the crime that occurs in urban cities are murders or homicides. In the rural areas, the crime committed is agricultural crimes. As stated before, different areas have different crime. According to Statista, St.Louis had the highest violent crime in 2017. 2,082 crimes per 100,000 residents were recorded, and Detroit is running a close race with 2,057 crimes per 100,000. (Statista) These cities have a massive amount of police that can help stop crime. The smaller towns may have less policing because there aren’t many crimes that need to be reported.
It is prevalent that more crimes rates are starting to drop because the people that are out doing violent crimes like murders or homicide are incarcerated. The increased amount of incarceration rates allow there to be a reduction in crime. There was a 58 percent decline in violent crime because people were put in jail. (Lind & Lopez) If more people are being put in prison, those people were most likely the ones who were doing the severe crimes are put in jail this allows crime rates to drop because this would be considered a violent crime. Petty crimes would only result in minor offenses, even though they may happen frequently; the statistical analysis for crime rates wouldn’t be so high. When the more serious crimes are reported this would give the nation as a whole a decline in crime rates.
References
“Crime Rate Law and Legal Definition. ” USLegal.com
https://definitions.uslegal.com/c/crime-rate/
Gorman, Joe, ” Local Crime Rates Close to National Trends”, The Vindicator, 28 September 2018. http://www.vindy.com/news/2018/sep/28/fbi-statistics-crime-report-local-nation/
Jencks, Christopher, “Is Violent Crime Increasing?” , The American Prospect, http://prospect.org/article/violent-crime-increasing
Lind, Dara & Lopez, German, “16 Theories for Why Crime Plummeted in the US”Vox, 20 May 2015. https://www.vox.com/2015/2/13/8032231/crime-drop
“U.S. Most Dangerous Cities in North America by Crime Rate” Statista.com https://www.statista.com/statistics/217685/most-dangerous-cities-in-north-america-by-crime-rate/
Counterintuitive 