Our World

Rising Violence

I have just finished reading a very interesting and surprising article about violence in the United States. This article reported that during 2005, the United States violent crime rates increased 2.3%, and it is predicting a rise this year as well. This surprised me very much! I think that overall, this is a huge jump for violence in one years time.

The FBI's crime data shows that there was nearly 1.4 million violent crimes reported just this last year. These crimes included robbery, murder, and aggravated assault. The number of robberies increased by 3.9%, murders increased by 3.4%, and aggravated assault increased by 1.8%. Rape was the only crime that dropped, and this category only decreased by 1.2%.

There are many reasons for this sudden increase of violence in the United States. I think that the most visible and reasonable cause for this jump is the growing number of people joining gangs and the problematic spreading of methamphetamines in our country today. This growth is said to be on the rise particularly in small and mid-sized cities.

Another possible reason for this major increase of violence in the United States could have to do with global terrorism. This article suggests that global terrorism has taken away the focus from the local crimes committed in our own states and neighborhoods. Police say that this rise in violence may have been caused by the decrease of police funding for work unrelated to terrorism.

After reading all of this information, I can see that our nation has a serious dilema. Violent crimes have increased tremendously over the last year and seem to be continually increasing. This rise has been caused by growing gang populations, the spreading of methampnhetamines across our nation, and possibly terrorism. As I look over the causes of this dramatic change, I can't help but feel skeptical. I am not positively sure that the increase of violence has been caused by only these few reasons, and I don't know if the subject of terrorism can be held totally responsible for this enormous increase of violence here in the United States.

What do you think? I would really like to hear your thoughts on this subject. Do you think that these facts are alarming? Please share your opinion on the relationship between the rapid growth of violence and terrorism.

Here is a link to the article I read.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060918/ts_nm/crime_usa_dc

posted by Anonymous @ 9/18/2006 08:59:00 PM