Category: MuggaStackz Portfolio

Annotated Bibliography- muggastackz

1.

Brown, Brittni. “Is the Media Altering Our Perceptions of Crime?” International Policy Digest, International Policy Digest, 6 Nov. 2018, intpolicydigest.org/2015/03/11/is-the-media-altering-our-perceptions-of-crime/.

Background: This article explains how the media is fixing the correct outlook on crime that is happening in the United States. It brings ideas together from previous decades to today’s world.

How I Used It: I used this article to talk about social media and crime playing hand and hand. I used this is the article to talk about how social media is creating more crime in regards to events happening in the news each day.

2. Casey, Michael. “Do Violent Video Games Lead to Criminal Behavior?” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 17 Aug. 2015, www.cbsnews.com/news/do-violent-video-games-lead-to-criminal-behavior/.

Background: This article reflects on video games leading to criminal behavior. It also reflects on school shootings and how violent video games are causing these shootings to happen. Certain games cause aggression or depression in the youth of today.

How I Used It: I used the article when talking about technology and crime. I explained how technology is causing youth to go out and commit a crime like a robbery or a gang-related activity.

3. Davey, Monica, and Mitch Smith. “Murder Rates Rising Sharply in Many U.S. Cities.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/us/murder-rates-rising-sharply-in-many-us-cities.html

Background: This article explains how murder rates are rising in cities. In many cities, homicide rates are increasing while the regular crimes like burglary are slowly decreasing. The article provides credible people like a chief of polices, a criminologist and a mayor to give information on why these rates are increasing.

How I Used It: I used this article in context for how crime is increasing in certain areas and regions in the country. The facts that are given help justify that not every area of the country has the same crime rates.

4.  Donziger, Steven. “Measures of Crime” Www.andrew.cmu.edu, www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/79-331/measures.html.

Background: This article was suggested by the professor. This article shows two different measures of crime and what it means to measure crime.

How I Used It: I used this article in my section about victims attempting to report crime and statistics that reflect on crime victimization.

5.Gramlich, John. “5 Facts about Crime in the U.S.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Jan. 2018, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/30/5-facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/.

Background: This article gives five facts about a crime that is in the United States. Each numbered point has a different truth about violent and property crime along with reporting and not reporting a crime.

How I Used It:  I used this in two ways. I used this article when talking about citizens reporting crimes to help reduce crime in the community.  I also used this article to give statistics regarding property and violent crime.

6.Gorman, Joe. “Local Crime Rates Close to National Trends.” Vindy.com, 28 Sept. 2018, www.vindy.com/news/2018/sep/28/fbi-statistics-crime-report-local-nation/.

Background: This article gives statistical data regarding local cities that mirror national crime rates. The article talks about two local towns whose homicide rates increased as well as decreased.  Chief of Police from the local cities made remarks on why these crimes are frequently happening and how things could lower the crime rates.

How I Used It: I used this article to give an insight into a small town crime

7.Jacobs, Tom. “How to Bring Down Crime Rates.” Pacific Standard, Pacific Standard, 29 Sept. 2015, psmag.com/news/how-to-bring-down-crime-rates.

Background: This article reflects on theories that could help reduce crime. They try to find punishments that could help influence society along with economists in those urban areas.

How I Used It: I used this article to talk about how crime levels are higher in areas that have high poverty rates. I found this article to think of theories to reduce crime in neighborhoods that need it the most.

8. Jencks, Christopher. “Is Violent Crime Increasing?” The American Prospect, prospect.org/article/violent-crime-increasing.

Background: The article talks about how crimes are increasing by racial and social groups. The article gives data regarding on the ages of different groups and how they affect crime rates in America. Political people give their thoughts on how the criminal justice system works.

How I Used It: I used this in the article in two ways. I used this article to talk about race and social background in regards to how crime is increasing and decreasing. I also used this to talk about the increase in crime.

9.Lind, Dara, and German Lopez. “16 Theories for Why Crime Plummeted in the US.” Vox.com, Vox Media, 20 May 2015, www.vox.com/2015/2/13/8032231/crime-drop.

Background: This article gives 16 theories on why crime is decreasing in the U.S. This article provides a for and an against an argument for each of the 16 theories.

How I Used It: I used this to talk about how crime will decrease by putting people in jail, along with trying to put more police officers in the field. I looked at each theory to value where I wanted to use each theory.

10.“ Number of Murders: U.S. Homicide Rate.” Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/195331/number-of-murders-in-the-us-by-state/.

Background: This article talks about the murder rate in the United States in 2017 by the state. This also gives an insight on what the crime was in each state and how it differs from other states.

How I Used It: I used this article to show that there are different crime rates for different regions. In the article, I found that Louisana had a high murder rate compared to New Hampshire.

11. Thompson, Sam. “Brandon Police Encourage Residents to ‘Lock It up’ as Property Crime Climbs.” Global News, Global News, 19 Nov. 2018, globalnews.ca/news/4676675/brandon-police-encourage-residents-to-lock-it-up-as-property-crime-climbs/.

Background: The background of this article talks about property crimes in small neighborhoods. This article also states how property crimes is a crime that is being done only at certain times of the day.

How I Used It: I used this article to give justification from police officers to show that property crime happens very much often in small suburban areas than in urban cities.

12. US Legal, Inc. “Crime Rate Law and Legal Definition.” Fraud Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc., definitions.uslegal.com/c/crime-rate/.

Background: The primary purpose of this article is to give a proper definition of the crime rate and how crime rates are calculated. These calculations help with giving examples for FBI to use in their research

How I Used It: I used this article to provide what crime rates are. I used the statistics when talking about property crime in America.

 

Research- muggastackz

An American Crime

American singer/songwriter and political activist Ted Nugent said, “Where you have the most armed citizens in America, you have the lowest violent crime rate. Where you have the worst gun control, you have the highest crime rate.” There is crime happening all over America, whether it may be a small or a larger crime. But what is the true meaning of crime? Crime is the illegal act that someone commits and is punished by the government. There is also a difference between a crime and a crime rate. A crime rate is based on the number of crimes per 100,000 population. Many people in society find that crime in urban areas is more frequent than it is in the suburbs or in rural areas; which could be true. There are different categories and classifications for each crime and the criminals doing the crime. As years go on, crime could be hard to fight in urban areas because it is uncontrollable. Criminal activity is a chain effect; once it happens, it continues to happen prevalently

Over the past decade, crime rates and crime have been a huge problem in the United States. Violent crime has been around for as long as people can remember. Violent crimes would be considered murder, manslaughter, rape, aggravated assault, etc. There was a great increase in violent crimes between 1985 and 1990, right around the time Reagan was elected president. During this time, crime rates and crime played ‘hand and hand to show that there was an incline in crime and incarceration. The U.S. breaks the charts in murder rates and other crimes than other affluent countries. Christopher Jencks, a writer for The American Post, writes murder rates are far higher in the United States than in Europe, Japan, or even Canada.” Jencks states that the United States also has more rapes, robberies, and assaults than other rich countries. All of these crimes are considered violent crimes. 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. What makes other serious crimes like homicide or murder nonreportable?

Along with violent crimes, property crimes are also committed very frequently in the U.S. 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.”

According to US Legal, Burglaries/total population is the standard “crime rate” reported by the FBI and used by social scientists. These may be small crimes, but they are reported more often because these are personal items owned by homeowners or business owners. Property crimes happen to individuals during the night hours. Sam Thompson, Global News writer, interviewed police officers regarding a property crime incident. “The main thing is, we’ve had an increase in some minor property crimes, vandalism at night, theft from vehicles, theft from sheds, bicycle theft from yards, stuff like that,” he said. Smaller cities are known to have more property crimes than violent crimes. Thompson quotes a staff sergeant of Brandon Township saying, “Brandon’s a smaller city, around 50,000 people, so we have a little bit of that small-town attitude in some areas.” Officers in small suburban or rural areas aren’t patrolling streets that much because they feel that nothing would be expected to happen in their town. All crime should be reported regardless of how much damage is done; this only helps the community better.

Crime rates and crime differ in some regions of the country. Every city and town do not commit the same crime or have similar crime rates. Different regions of the country will have a higher crime rate or even high crime in that area than an another. Most urban cities have more crime and crime rates. Popular urban cities are bound to be talked about for crime rate, low employment, and impoverished areas. Violent crimes and property crimes are both happening a lot in those communities who need help the most. 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. The statistics given are four violent crime categories: murder and non-negligent manslaughter; forcible rape; robbery; and aggravated assault. The major urban cities that are known for their ‘crime,’ there isn’t much business coming in and out because no one wants to be around a crime infested area. No business results in low employment rates and when people in that area have no job; they find their self-doing criminal activity. A chain effect continues.

There are at least a couple states in each of the five regions which have high crime and crime rates in the U.S.In 2017, Lousiana had the highest murders in the country with a manslaughter rate of 12.4 which is twice the national average. Smaller states like Vermont or New Hampshire have murder rates of 1. A tremendous amount of cities in the U.S have reported an increase in crime in their cities. New York Times writers Monica Davey and Mitch Smith state that “ In New Orleans, 120 people had been killed by late August, compared with 98 during the same period a year earlier. In Baltimore, homicides had hit 215, up from 138 at the same point in 2014. In Washington, the toll was 105, compared with 73 people a year ago. And in St. Louis, 136 people had been killed this year, a 60 percent rise from the 85 murders the city had by the same time last year.” Crime has changed over the years. Some of the crimes happening today are senseless crimes or crimes that have occurred on accident.

In the world today, society links everything together to receive satisfaction regardless if it is negative or positive. There will always be a crime in the world, but there are ways to help to reduce the amount of crime happening and to reduce the crime rate. Communities are in fearful trouble because crime gradually gets worse each day and they just want things to go back to normal.

Crime and crime rate comes with many questions and analysis that leave members of society puzzled. If there is a failure to reporting the crime, will crime get worst? Is social media and technology helping create more crime? Can police help reduce the amount of crime?

Failure to report crimes will lead to more crime. Society is fearful for what is going to happen next if they tell the police or people in the neighborhood. People in each community knows what is going on in the area, but they are nervous that they will be the next victim. People in urban areas will be called names like a ‘snitch’ if they told the police what they saw or heard. People in the community who are aware of the crime is only making their community better. When a crime isn’t reported, this will continue to grow in areas and will continue to get worst yearly. Most crime goes unreported in some urban areas. 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. Reported crimes are what makes statistics go down each year.

Steven Donziger writes, “The National Crime Victimization Survey, begun in 1973, is administered by the US Census Bureau. Approximately 40,000 households to determine how many people were victimized by one of seven crimes in the past year. The crimes recorded are rape, robbery, assault, personal theft, household theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft.” Victims of crime will continue to feel that they are victims. According to John Gramlich, a researcher for Pew Research Center finds “In 2016, only 42% of the violent crime tracked by BJS was reported; And in the much more common category of property crime, only about a third (36%) were reported.” Society feels that nothing will happen if they report a crime. The more crime is reported, people in communities can feel safe knowing that a person has been found.

Everyone in the world uses social media, whether it is used to keep in touch with family, being updated with daily news or worldly events, or to show photos dealing with personal life. Children of today use social media and technology more than adults do. The media creates more crime daily; police brutality, discrimination, self-defense, etc. Brittni Brown, writer for International Policy Digest, states “In listening to and reading all of these reports about police and crime in the media, it is not hard to conclude that crime is on the rise everywhere and that the United States is no longer a safe place and allowing children to play in the front yard is risky.” Everything that deals with a crime is being plastered in the media to make a situation bigger. Media can be useful to keep people update, and it can also be harmful because jumping to conclusions can create a war that effects everyone.

Technology is Connected to an increase in crime. Both this paragraph and the previous are connected to one another. If a child in an urban community is inside on their phones or playing games systems, they are less likely to be influenced by their neighborhoods friends. If a child in an urban community is inside on their phones or playing games systems, they are less likely to be affected by their neighborhoods friends, but these video games are very violent. These video games are introducing guns, drugs, robbery, gang affiliation at a young age. Michael Casey, a journalist for CBS News, writes “Over 90 percent of children play video games, with 85 percent of those games containing some violence.” Violent games result in violent behavior. We see mass shooting happening frequently; these shootings are always in the media which allows individuals to do the exact same thing. Casey finds that “Adam Lanza gunned down 20 children and six teachers Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. It later turned out that he was obsessed with violent video games.” Young people pick this trait up from the games they are playing. Videos games that are violent are giving youth a lousy outlook for their lives and others around them.

Crime prevention is something police officers do as a part of their job along with enforcing the law. Reporting crime will reduce the attractiveness of crime. The government and the police work together to try to reduce crime and how crime rates could drop. The criminal justice system is finding theories that could help urban communities reduce the amount of crime happening in those areas. Police and the government see that crime will increase each and every day so what can they do to fix everything. If police are brought on the street to help communities, less crime will happen. Lind and Lopez, writers for Vox.com, write, “while the number of police can affect crime rates, crime rates also affect the number of police. When crime rises, cities hire more police in response.” Lind and Lopez also state that “Research on specific areas, as well as the US as a whole, found that hiring more police helped decrease crime.” Crime, in general, was worst decades ago then what it is now and those models didn’t affect anyway in society. Crime, drugs, and gangs were more so a problem in the ’80s, and 90’s then in the 00’s and present day.

Cleary, crime in the United States will always continue to be around. It’s never-ending, or people can’t even wrap their head around the amount of crime happening. Many feel that crime is decreasing throughout the years. It’s not so much fair to think that there can be an increase and a decrease in crime. There are many outcomes to how crime is decreasing in the world. Incarceration is a reason why there is a decrease in crime. The community plays a role as well when talking about crime. Nevertheless, corruption will continue to be in the world.

John Gramlich, a researcher, found that “In 2016, there were more than 600 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in Alaska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Tennessee. By contrast, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont had rates below 200 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.” Crimes are dropping because criminals that committed violent crimes are incarcerated. Because they are locked up, the perpetrators aren’t going to commit the murder or severe crime. When previous crime commiters are locked up, the crime rates will go down. In the online article from Vox.com, “The Brennan Center report estimates that incarceration played even less of a role than that: up to 12 percent of the drop in property crime during the 1990s was due to the rise in incarceration, but it was probably more like 6 percent. And it contributed to 1 percent, at most, of the continued property crime decline in the 2000s.” People who are incarcerated begins to age out of the crime they commit. While being locked up they find that they don’t want to do what brought them to jail, Christoper Jencks writes, “Murders are more likely to be reported to the police because they are easier to detect what happened. Not only is murder better recorded than other crimes, but there is less reason to think that the police have changed the way in which they record murders.” Incarcerating people who have done violent crimes allows a decline in crime.

More people in society think that a violent city will have more violent and property crimes. Researchers found that “higher poverty levels are associated with higher crime levels.” When thinking about poverty, instantly it is found upon that more killings and robberies are taking place at each second. It was found that this was only true for property crimes and not violent crimes. Now logically thinking,  it would make sense that violent crime is happening because certain gangs have feuds between them, or even accidentally killings are always happening in neighborhoods in poverty. In an article written by Tom Jacobs, it states, “ Social disorganization theory argues that certain neighborhood characteristics—a low-income, transient population composed of people from different ethnic groups—”would lead to higher levels of crime, as this would weaken the structural bonds within a community.” Neighborhoods are big reasons on why certain crimes frequently happen than they should in areas. Many feel that crime will be reduced if criminals are starting to get convicted for their crimes and if the neighborhoods are starting to become more positive and have a better outlook on the community as a whole. If more neighborhoods have programs or events that can bring a community together than diminish them and allow them to create more violence. A real neighborhood could reduce crime and property crime will start to decrease instead of increasing steadily.

Along with the fact that urban communities are diminishing people, the police force is also adding to crime rates in America. Cops are killing African-Americans due to police brutality in the world. These are reported crimes because either victims or witnesses see this cruel activity and take it to social media or at least tell someone about what they saw. Now that police brutality is becoming popular in the past couple of years; police try to stay away from black neighborhoods to try to reduce conflict. Blacks tend to stay away from the police now because they see what happens to other people who are just like them. Since cops stay away from black neighborhoods, they have no control over people in that community.

They are staying away which means people in urban communities think that they can get away with anything because no one is reprimanding them. When people see police brutality happening in social media, this encourages them to do criminal activity. Michael Barone, a writer for National Review, states “Black Americans were the primary victims of the huge crime increase starting in the late 1960s, and they will be the primary victims again if the Ferguson effect continues to result in more homicides.”Police officers break down people in the community which allows them to feel less than what they are. Resulting in the fact that police brutality is affected mental health, this also attracts people to do criminal behavior because they aren’t in the right state of mind. Police brutality is creating crime to increase. People in society demand more police to come in and help, but what is that going to do? Many theories have been tried to help bring police and people together. They have even decided to bring back specific models to maybe help reduce crime as a whole. This effect only created more people to go against this, and it failed. We think that police are supposed to help when in today’s world they are defeating the purpose. If police brutality weren’t as bad as it is, there wouldn’t be skyrocketing crimes happening.

There is no way to get around the fact that crime is going to go away completely. Whether it may be a small or severe crime, it still classifies as a crime in the United States. People do senseless crimes that result with them getting arrested and added to the statistics. The only way to bring down the crime rate is to report crimes, cooperate with police, and penalize criminals. The crime rate might rise temporarily as more crimes are reported, but they’ll fall again when the threat of swift justice deters criminals.

References
Brown, Brittni. “Is the Media Altering Our Perceptions of Crime?” International Policy Digest, International Policy Digest, 6 Nov. 2018, intpolicydigest.org/2015/03/11/is-the-media-altering-our-perceptions-of-crime/.

Casey, Michael. “Do Violent Video Games Lead to Criminal Behavior?” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 17 Aug. 2015, www.cbsnews.com/news/do-violent-video-games-lead-to-criminal-behavior/.

Davey, Monica, and Mitch Smith. “Murder Rates Rising Sharply in Many U.S. Cities.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/us/murder-rates-rising-sharply-in-many-us-cities.html

Donziger, Steven. “Measures of Crime” Www.andrew.cmu.edu, www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/79-331/measures.html.

Gramlich, John. “5 Facts about Crime in the U.S.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Jan. 2018, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/30/5-facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/.

Gorman, Joe. “Local Crime Rates Close to National Trends.” Vindy.com, 28 Sept. 2018, www.vindy.com/news/2018/sep/28/fbi-statistics-crime-report-local-nation/.

Jacobs, Tom. “How to Bring Down Crime Rates.” Pacific Standard, Pacific Standard, 29 Sept. 2015, psmag.com/news/how-to-bring-down-crime-rates.

Jencks, Christopher. “Is Violent Crime Increasing?” The American Prospect, prospect.org/article/violent-crime-increasing.

Lind, Dara, and German Lopez. “16 Theories for Why Crime Plummeted in the US.” Vox.com, Vox Media, 20 May 2015, www.vox.com/2015/2/13/8032231/crime-drop.

“Number of Murders: U.S. Homicide Rate.” Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/195331/number-of-murders-in-the-us-by-state/.

Thompson, Sam. “Brandon Police Encourage Residents to ‘Lock It up’ as Property Crime Climbs.” Global News, Global News, 19 Nov. 2018, globalnews.ca/news/4676675/brandon-police-encourage-residents-to-lock-it-up-as-property-crime-climbs/.

US Legal, Inc. “Crime Rate Law and Legal Definition.” Fraud Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc., definitions.uslegal.com/c/crime-rate/.

 

Causal Rewrite-muggastackz

Applying Pressure

In the world today, society links everything together to receive satisfaction regardless if it is negative or positive. There will always be a crime in the world, but there are ways to help to reduce the amount of crime happening and to reduce the crime rate. Communities are in fearful trouble because crime gradually gets worse each day and they want things to go back to normal. Crime and crime rate comes with many questions and analysis that leave members of society puzzled. If there is a failure to reporting the crime, will crime get worst? Is social media and technology helping create more crime? Can police help reduce the amount of crime?

Failure to report crimes will lead to more crime. Society is fearful for what is going to happen next if they tell the police or people in the neighborhood. People in each community knows what is going on in the area, but they are nervous that they will be the next victim. People in urban areas will be called names like a ‘snitch’ if they told the police what they saw or heard. People in the community who are aware of the crime is only making their community better. When a crime isn’t reported, this will continue to grow in areas and will continue to get worst yearly. Most crime goes unreported in some urban areas. 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. Reported crimes are what makes statistics go down each year.

Steven Donziger writes, “The National Crime Victimization Survey, begun in 1973, is administered by the US Census Bureau. Approximately 40,000 households to determine how many people were victimized by one of seven crimes in the past year. The crimes recorded are rape, robbery, assault, personal theft, household theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft.” Victims of crime will continue to feel that they are victims. According to John Gramlich, a researcher for Pew Research Center finds “In 2016, only 42% of the violent crime tracked by BJS was reported; And in the much more common category of property crime, only about a third (36%) were reported.” Society feels that nothing will happen if they report a crime. The more crime is reported, people in communities can feel safe knowing that a person has been found.

Everyone in the world uses social media, whether it is used to keep in touch with family, being updated with daily news or worldly events, or to show photos dealing with personal life. Children of today use social media and technology more than adults do. The press creates more crime daily; police brutality, discrimination, self-defense, etc. Brittni Brown, writer for International Policy Digest, states “In listening to and reading all of these reports about police and crime in the media, it is not hard to conclude that crime is on the rise everywhere and that the United States is no longer a safe place and allowing children to play in the front yard is risky.” Everything that deals with a crime is being plastered in the media to make a situation bigger. Media can be useful to keep people update, and it can also be harmful because jumping to conclusions can create a war that effects everyone.
Technology is Connected to an increase in crime. Both this paragraph and the previous are connected. If a child in an urban community is inside on their phones or playing games systems, they are less likely to be influenced by their neighborhoods friends. If a child in an urban city is inside on their phones or playing games systems, they are less likely to be affected by their neighborhoods friends, but these video games are very violent. These video games are introducing guns, drugs, robbery, gang affiliation at a young age. Michael Casey, a journalist for CBS News, writes “Over 90 percent of children play video games, with 85 percent of those games containing some violence.” Violent games result in violent behavior. We see mass shooting happening frequently; these shootings are always in the media which allows individuals to do the same thing. Casey finds that “Adam Lanza gunned down 20 children and six teachers Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. It later turned out that he was obsessed with violent video games.” Young people pick this trait up from the games they are playing. Videos games that are violent are giving youth a lousy outlook for their lives and others around them.

Crime prevention is something police officers do as a part of their job along with enforcing the law. Reporting crime will reduce the attractiveness of crime. The government and the police work together to try to reduce crime and how crime rates could drop. The criminal justice system is finding theories that could help urban communities reduce the amount of crime happening in those areas. Police and the government see that crime will increase every day so what can they do to fix everything. If police are brought on the street to help communities, less crime will happen. Lind and Lopez, writers for Vox.com, write, “while the number of police can affect crime rates, crime rates also affect the number of police. When crime rises, cities hire more police in response.” Lind and Lopez also state that “Research on specific areas, as well as the US as a whole, found that hiring more police helped decrease crime.” Crime, in general, was worst decades ago then what it is now and those models didn’t affect anyway in society. Crime, drugs, and gangs were more so a problem in the ’80s, and 90’s then in the 00’s and present day.

Brown, Brittni. “Is the Media Altering Our Perceptions of Crime?” International Policy Digest, International Policy Digest, 6 Nov. 2018, intpolicydigest.org/2015/03/11/is-the-media-altering-our-perceptions-of-crime/.

Casey, Michael. “Do Violent Video Games Lead to Criminal Behavior?” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 17 Aug. 2015, www.cbsnews.com/news/do-violent-video-games-lead-to-criminal-behavior/.

Donziger, Steven. “Measures of Crime.” Www.andrew.cmu.edu, www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/79-331/measures.html.

Gramlich, John. “5 Facts about Crime in the U.S.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Jan. 2018, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/30/5-facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/.

Lind, Dara, and German Lopez. “16 Theories for Why Crime Plummeted in the US.” Vox.com, Vox Media, 20 May 2015, www.vox.com/2015/2/13/8032231/crime-drop.

Definition Rewrite- muggastackz

American singer/songwriter and political activist Ted Nugent said, “Where you have the most armed citizens in America, you have the lowest violent crime rate. Where you have the worst gun control, you have the highest crime rate.” There is crime happening all over America, whether it may be a small or a more significant crime. But what is the true meaning of crime? Crime is the illegal act that someone commits and is punished for the crime by the government. There is also a difference between a crime and a crime rate. A crime rate is based on the number of crimes per 100,000 population. Many people in society find that crime in urban areas is more frequent than it is in the suburbs or in rural areas; which could be right. There are different categories and classifications for each crime and the criminals doing the crime. As years go on, crime could be hard to fight in urban areas because it is uncontrollable. Criminal activity is a chain effect; once it happens, it continues to occur prevalently.

Over the past decade, crime rates and crime have been a massive problem in the United States. Violent crime has been around for as long as people can remember. Violent crimes would be considered murder, manslaughter, rape, aggravated assault, etc. There was a significant increase in violent crimes between 1985 and 1990, right around the time Reagan was elected president. During this time, crime rates and crime played ‘hand and hand to show that there was an incline in crime and incarceration. The U.S. breaks the charts in murder rates and other crimes than other affluent countries. Christopher Jencks, a writer for The American Post, writes murder rates are far higher in the United States than in Europe, Japan, or even Canada.” Jencks states that the United States also has more rapes, robberies, and assaults than other rich countries. All of these crimes are considered violent offenses. 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. What makes other serious crimes like homicide or murder nonreportable?

Along with violent crimes, property crimes are also committed very frequently in the U.S. Joe Gorman, author for The Vindicator, shares statistics from a local town whose property crimes were reported during this period. “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.” According to US Legal, Burglaries/total population is the standard “crime rate” reported by the FBI and used by social scientists. These may be small crimes, but they are reported more often because these are personal items owned by homeowners or business owners. Property crimes happen to individuals during the night hours. Sam Thompson, Global News writer, interviewed police officers regarding a property crime incident. “The main thing is, we’ve had an increase in some minor property crimes, vandalism at night, theft from vehicles, theft from sheds, bicycle theft from yards, stuff like that,” he said. Smaller cities are known to have more property crimes than violent crimes. Thompson quotes a staff sergeant of Brandon Township saying, “Brandon’s a smaller city, around 50,000 people, so we have a little bit of that small-town attitude in some areas.” Officers in small suburban or rural areas aren’t patrolling streets that much because they feel that nothing would be expected to happen in their town. All crime should be reported regardless of how much damage is done; this only helps the community better.
Crime rates and crime differ in some regions of the country. Every city and town do not commit the same crime or have similar crime rates. Different areas of the country will have a higher crime rate or even high crime in that area than an another. Most urban cities have more crime and crime rates. Popular metropolitan cities are bound to be talked about for crime rate, low employment, and impoverished areas. Violent crimes and property crimes are both happening a lot in those communities who need help the most. 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. The statistics given are four violent crime categories: murder and non-negligent manslaughter; forcible rape; robbery; and aggravated assault. The major urban cities that are known for their ‘crime,’ there isn’t much business coming in and out because no one wants to be around a crime infested area. No business results in low employment rates and when people in that area have no job; they find their self-doing criminal activity. A chain effect continues.

There are at least a couple states in each of the five regions which have high crime and crime rates in the U.S.In 2017, Lousiana had the highest murders in the country with a manslaughter rate of 12.4 which is twice the national average. Smaller states like Vermont or New Hampshire have murder rates of 1. A tremendous amount of cities in the U.S have reported an increase in crime in their cities. New York Times writers Monica Davey and Mitch Smith state that “ In New Orleans, 120 people had been killed by late August, compared with 98 during the same period a year earlier. In Baltimore, homicides had hit 215, up from 138 at the same point in 2014. In Washington, the toll was 105, compared with 73 people a year ago. And in St. Louis, 136 people had been killed this year, a 60 percent rise from the 85 murders the city had by the same time last year.” Crime has changed over the years. Some of the crimes happening today are senseless crimes or crimes that have occurred on accident.

Davey, Monica, and Mitch Smith. “Murder Rates Rising Sharply in Many U.S. Cities.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/us/murder-rates-rising-sharply-in-many-us-cities.html

Jencks, Christopher. “Is Violent Crime Increasing?” The American Prospect, prospect.org/article/violent-crime-increasing.

“Number of Murders: U.S. Homicide Rate.” Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/195331/number-of-murders-in-the-us-by-state/.

Thompson, Sam. “Brandon Police Encourage Residents to ‘Lock It up’ as Property Crime Climbs.” Global News, Global News, 19 Nov. 2018, globalnews.ca/news/4676675/brandon-police-encourage-residents-to-lock-it-up-as-property-crime-climbs/.

US Legal, Inc. “Crime Rate Law and Legal Definition.” Fraud Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc., definitions.uslegal.com/c/crime-rate/.

 

 

 

 

Visual Rewrite- muggastackz

0:01: The clip starts off in the daytime as a Caucasian hand turns on the car. The person turns the key clockwise to start the engine of the vehicle. As we can see she is heading to her destination.

0:02-0:04: As the hand finishes turning the key until the car starts, a flashback footage of a red-haired Caucasian baby smiling. As we move forward, we can see that they could be remembering someone.

0:05-0:06: 6:24 March 30th on a Friday, the scene flashes back to the driver as she receives an imessage from Kenzie asking the driver “Wanna hang out tonight”.

0:07-0:10: The message fades out and transitions back to the red hair little girl opening gifts on Christmas Day with vibrant happiness but we aren’t aware of the relationship between the little girl and the driver. The driver begins to grab the phone to look or respond to the text before she starts driving.

0:11-0:13: As we can see that, it transitions back to a teenage girl who is smiling while playing the piano with an older woman who could be her piano teacher.

0:14-0:16: She is driving through her neighborhood focusing on both the road and the text. Another transition shows that it is her graduation. She is pleased while her family is taking pictures in her backyard. Graduation day is an accomplishment to the girl and her family. We can see that this is present day for the teenager.

0:17-0:18: The scene is back to the young teenager driving. Looking at the phone her phone for a spilt-second and returning her eyes to the road she gasps and jumps as she is startled by what happened as she was driving.

0:19-0:22: A black screen appears on the screen that says “Don’t end your life with a text.” We can conclude that she has been in an accident due to texting and driving.

0:23-0:30: The black screen continues to stay up as another phrase pops up. The phrase says, ” Drive distraction-free.” The website  StopTextsStopWrecks.org pops up along with organizations that helped with the no texting ad.

 

 

Reflective- muggastackz

Core Value 1. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

I am not the best writer, and I accept that so coming into this class I was nervous about how my work ethic was going to be throughout the semester. I figured my work would be decent work and seeing Professor Hodges expectations for the class I got nervous about how everything would go. My professor was very extremely helpful when it came to getting feedback for our writing samples. I knew that my Rebuttal Argument my paper would be my weakest short argument out of the other three. I didn’t know which angle to attack this knowing my topic was vast. My professor gave me the best critic, and it helped me a lot. Along with getting feedback, I feel that I am a better writer after Professor Hodges posted grammar links that could help us in our paper.

Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities.

Every class we had was something different. It allowed us to think about what we were going to write about and how everything links together at the end of the semester. It was one class, mainly where we talked about the importance of certain items in the world that we value so heavily. The class where we talked about money, it made me realize the value of money and how other people view money. As stated in my Stone Money post, I am a person who is money-oriented. I love spending money and having money all the time. The podcast explained how money was significant to people in other countries like the island Yap. Evaluating how other felt about money helped me write my blog.

Core Value 3. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

When looking at my work and looking at different articles helped when making arguments. Along with making arguments, claims should be made as well to support a better case. In my PTSD Claims , I found that there are different categories for each claim. The title of the article is called: Is PTSD contagious?, and it reflects a veteran and how he deals with having PTSD. The claims made in the article prove an argument for the readers. Claims attract the reader and allow them to keep reading the debate. All three of these points were made in my writing which reflected in my assignments. I found that claims-making is good for an essay and it helps give variety in an argument.

Core Value 4: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

Early in the semester, we did an assignment that allowed us to analyze video. Now, I figured this would be the easiest which it was; but we had to watch the video with no sound. We also had to stop the video second by second to get every aspect of the 30-second clip. When I picked the clip for my assignment, it wasn’t what I thought when I finished the clip. Each second was something different. The Visual Rhetoric is an excellent example of an argument that shows illustrations to support my ideas.  The person who is watching the video may have a different insight into what the director portrays it to be in the clip. This assignment made me focus on what was happening each detail to prove a valid point in the argument.

Core Value 5. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation.

The research paper idea required me to do a lot of research which causes a lot of sources. In my White Paper, I picked references and evaluated them to give the proper idea of each article that was selected. The purpose of the white paper is to help with what we will say in our research so the appropriate citation will go with each argument. For many years we were taught not to plagiarize in our essays, or there would be consequences. As years went on, we realize that citations help the paper become strong because proof or people is talking about the topic. I haven’t added much to my White Paper since I first did the assignment. I have so much more sources that help with my paper.

 

Causal Argument- muggastackz

Society thinks if one than the other, which is not the case between these two. They are two entirely different sections. As stated before, crime rates are each crime per population that is recorded. Crime is the illegal act that someone does. Can police help reduce the crime rates? What ways are people in society affected by crime? How can we get lessen the amount of violent crime along with a reduction in non-violent crimes? If crime is happening so frequently, how can crime rates decrease, while crime increases?

Most crime occurs in the most popular cites or towns in that country. Because the crime will be prevalent in those cities, it all continue to happen. Let’s take a look at the crime rates in different regions of the country; to justify why crime rates are going down. Many areas will have different crime rates. In 2016, there were more than 600 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in Alaska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Tennessee. By contrast, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont had rates below 200 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. (Pew Research) Crime rates are dropping because the actual criminals that committed the homicide are incarcerated. Because they are locked up, the perpetrators aren’t going to commit the murder or severe crime. When previous crime commiters are locked up, the crime rates will go down. The Brennan Center report estimates that incarceration played even less of a role than that: up to 12 percent of the drop in property crime during the 1990s was due to the rise in incarceration, but it was probably more like 6 percent. And it contributed to 1 percent, at most, of the continued property crime decline in the 2000s. (Lind &Lopez) Murders are more likely to be reported to the police because they are easier to detect what happened. Not only is murder better recorded than other crimes, but there is less reason to think that the police have changed the way in which they record murders (Jencks). Reported crimes are what makes statistics go down each year. Several opinion-based surveys show that people in the nation think crime rates increase when it is actually going down.

Along with the fact that incarceration is a reason on why crime rates decrease; technology and the media plays a key role as well. If a child in an urban community is inside on their phones or playing games systems, they are less likely to be influenced by their neighborhoods friends. If technology weren’t around, they would be introduced to drugs, gangs, and other crimes at a young age; which reflects on how their life would be when they are seventeen or eighteen. Many people may think that this idea on technology helping children stay away from negative influences will help and won’t help at the same time. This idea could be a start to helping fix why crime rates are going down. Youth in society may also use technology to help with crime. They play violent video games with guns, drugs, and robbery. These games will introduce them, and they will go out in the world and rob and steal. When young kids pick up that robbery or theft trait, this allows them to commit crimes. When they are taught at a young age about non-violent crimes, crime will continue to increase each year.

The government and the police work together to try to reduce crime and how crime rates could drop. Knowing the fact that police and the social media platform play hand and hand, more people are trying to stay away from police or potentially committing an offense. Social media shows what happens to people who experience police brutality or discrimination. When people in society see the things that happen in the world, and they either will continue to do crime or stay away from crime. Social media can stretch a story out and make it bigger than what it is. They want us to perceive our expectations of crime. In an article talking about social media and crime, it states The study also indicates that although most of the individuals surveyed in the study felt individual criminal events were well reported by the news, most other facets of crime reporting were not.

These areas included risk factors for victimization, underlying causes of crime, overall crime tends, and police/community efforts to reduce crime (Brown). The criminal justice systems are starting to crack down on laws and enforcing the law which keeps people from getting killed. The police are finding new ways to help urban communities reduce the amount of crime and crime rates. Police and the government see that crime will increase each and every day so what can they do to fix everything. If police are brought on the street to help communities, less crime will happen. Lind and Lopez, writers for Vox. com writes, “while the number of police can affect crime rates, crime rates also affect the number of police. When crime rises, cities hire more police in response” (Lind & Lopez). It may be hard to find that many cops to help reduce crime but it is very possible that it can help as time goes on.  Police systems are trying to stay away from models that were used decades ago because these models didn’t help as much as the government thought they would. Lind and Lopez also state that Research on specific areas, as well as the US as a whole, found that hiring more police helped decrease crime (Lind & Lopez). Crime, in general, was worst decades ago then what it is now and those models didn’t affect anyway in society. Crime, drugs, and gangs were more so a problem in the 80’s, and 90’s then in the 00’s and present day.

References

https://www.vox.com/2015/2/13/8032231/crime-drop

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/30/5-facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/

http://prospect.org/article/violent-crime-increasing

https://intpolicydigest.org/2015/03/11/is-the-media-altering-our-perceptions-of-crime/

Definition-muggastackz

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/