Since 2005, the year Birmingham was claimed to be the ‘murder capital’ of the United States, over 889 homicides have occurred (DeSilver). Birmingham this year alone, is estimated for 47.5 homicides per 100,000 residents, more homicides than what granted them the ‘murder capital’ of the United States in 2005 (BHAM Wiki). Most, if not all, of these homicides are whitewashed as rapes, drugs, guns, robberies, and domestic violence, as the cause, but the question is what lead up for these homicides to happen? What happened that caused Birmingham to go from a record with low amount of homicides in 2014 to a 26% increase, placing it in the FBI’s most homicidal cities in 2015 & 2016? Birmingham is embedded with strain and tension built up over years of history, which derives from economic inequality and fractured race …show more content…
Murders in Birmingham are diverse and were whitewashed for different reasons by the law force. One major reason homicides were rising was due to the FBI crime report. According to FBI crime reports, Birmingham was cited to be the 5th in most violent crimes, which consists of rape, robbery, and assault, while also, in the same report, placing 4th in property crime, which consists of burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. The second main reason the police used to explain high homicide rates were due to drugs and guns in the community. The police and local government officials of Birmingham had the mindset that because violent and property crimes were increasing in Birmingham, and guns and drugs were accessible, it must be the correlation to the high murder rates. Even though the police came up with this conclusion, their reasoning and conclusion of the matter was still faced with great resistance; as Birmingham homicide Capt. Herman Hinton said, "There's no rhyme or reason [for homicide rates]" (“Homicides in
In the short run, they are right: Violent crime did increase between 1985 and 1990. But what really worries most people is not the short-run trend but their sense that violent crime has been climbing steadily for a long time and that the future will only bring further increases. Such worries are linked to anxiety about drugs, permissive childrearing, hedonism, declining academic standards, the growth of the ghetto underclass, and our collective inability to compete with the Japanese. Taken together, these fears have convinced many sensible people that American society is on the
Oshinsky describes Mississippi as the nation’s most violent state. Nearly half a century later, 1930’s, “Mississippians earned less, killed more and died younger than other Americans.” (Oshinsky, 1996; pp. 127) The violence present formed part of the criminal justice in American history; not surprisingly, convict leasing was invented in the same state.
Crime itself is an innate part of society, some may view it as a necessary component in one's society. New York city has had a history of high crime rates at one time. In the article, “How New York won the War on Crime” by Steve Chapman, the author discuss how New York City during the 1960s to the 1980s was viewed as “chaotic”, and mentioned that in 1984 there were at least “5 murders a day”. However, New York City now is not the same one it was during that time. The NYPD website provides a graph describing the crime rates and population growth in New York City between 1990s to to 2014.
The article by Karen Sternheimer provides some insight into the stats of murder in America. In doing so, the article also highlights some issues with the media today. We learn that the media turned a statistic in way to help themselves instead of properly providing the real statistic. What the media provided was based on a small number of people, but when looked at from a larger pool of people, it can be seen the opposite had occurred (the murder rate had decreased). We also learn that most murder victims are male, specifically, African American males.
During a time of social injustice Jeffrey Dahmer's gruesome crimes greatly affected the Milwaukee known today. HISTORICAL CONTEXT Along with many other cities during the 1970s, Milwaukee struggled with accepting African American and homosexual citizens Although the city seemed to simply ¨put up¨ with the black community
In the article “The Crime Bust” by Gordon Witkin, it is introduced that in 1994, after a 9 year soar in crime rates, they began falling (1). According to preliminary figures released by the FBI, all across the board, the amount of crime committals were declining at a drastic rate. (Witkin 1). To determine the source of this sudden decline, several factors were examined, such as the economy, dismissed as “Robbery and burglary fluctuate with economic conditions--but murders generally do not…” (Witkin, 1-2) Prevention and domestic abuse were also discredited since “Studies show that prevention programs don’t work, and others may or may not be effective…” and “...in 1996, there were only 447 fewer ‘domestics’ than in 1993, accounting for just 9 percent of the murder reduction.”
Recently the media has been covering stories of the amount of black lives being taken by the police. Statistics have shown that is not the case, that the loss of black lives are due to “black-on-black crime.” In this article, the mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu makes an effect to understand the root of this problem, of why African Americans are killing each other. The problem of race has been a continuous issue in America. New Orleans happens to be one of the top city in America with high rate of murder.
Did you know that there was a serial killer who was put to death in Missouri by the same drug Michael Jackson overdosed from and died from it? Joseph Paul Franklin, formerly named as James Clayton Vaughn, Jr. at birth, is a this serial killer that caught the FBI's attention because of just that: killing by intent of race, i.e., wiping out inferior races. Before Franklin came around, this was unheard of in the Criminal Justice system. Surprisingly, for a serial killer that never spoke to his victims, but killed them from afar at 100 yards, got caught in less than five years of his killing spree. Killings sprees are the equivalence of going shopping from one store to another, except that in this case, it involves killing people.
Violence is unacceptable We are living in a turbulent world. On average, there are about 150,000 deaths every day because of diseases, old age, traffic accidents, and especially violence. The data from FBI indicates that in 2013, an estimated 1,163,146 violent crimes occurred in America, and somebody commits a hate crime every hour ("Violent Crime”). The fact that more and more gruesome murders happen shows that we are living in fear of violence, and this violence is unacceptable. FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program states that, “violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault,” ("Violent Crime”).
These deaths, injuries and loss of property were a result of a racial attack on youth and the lack of concern from local police. This may not have been a direct murder from police, but it is an example of how the lack of proper policing did cause terror in Chicago nearly 100 years ago.
The initial thought of why crime was so bad in the past is because of segregation and what role it played. Blacks were being treated less than whites, where white people were making more money than blacks. These conditions sparked violence in the city. Another cause of violence was the work environment and how it was being left unnoticed.
Contrary to the common belief, crime has been on the decline for the past three decades. Yet, news and media have been covering crime more than ever, resulting in the public belief that crime is at an all time high. The sharp drop in crime since the early 1990s has left experts curious to discover the reasons for the decrease in crime. As I compare the article Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors that Explain the Decline and Six that Do Not by Steven D. Levitt and the article Evaluating Contemporary Crime Drop(s) in America, New York City, and Many Other Places by Eric P. Baumer and Kevin T. Wolff, I will briefly describe the articles, compare their agreements and disagreements, as well as discuss my personal preferences.
Through the perspectives of sociological criminology and psychiatric criminology, Andrea Yates crimes will be thoroughly explained. In 2002, she was initially charged and found guilty in the death of three her children; the crown did not try her on all five counts (Lezon, 2006, para. 3). In 2006, a jury in an appellate court the initial decision was reversed and Yates was not guilty by reason of insanity (CNN Library, 2016, para 1). Sociological criminology analyzes factors that include: race, gender, age, socio-economic status, and religion (Bartol, Bartol, 2016, p.7). This paper will specifically explain Yates crimes through a sociological lens accounting for various factors.
The 30 largest cities in America are seeing an increase in their homicide rates, and this includes places like San Antonio and Memphis, not typically known for this type of violence. Seven hundred and thirty two murders were projected in Chicago
No economic opportunities in a community can factor into high crime rates. Drug use and gangs can also factor into this. Other factors may include a lack of family support and a poor education system. 4. Location can be a factor of crime even if key factors are biological and psychological.