Crime Change Trend

Crime Change Trend

Introduction

The crime rates in the current world are devastating especially in the developed countries where the U.S tops the list with the highest number of violent crimes. The trend begun the 20th century and has been considerable high compared to other developed areas like the European region.

Over 2 million cases of murder were recorded in the U.S between 1916 and 1998 while Europe had less than 100,000 cases.

The Trends: The violent crimes rates in the U.S are very alarming as indicated by the Uniform crime report. Aggravated assaults, rape cases, homicides and violent robbery increased

drastically from the 1970s to the beginning of the 21 st century with few downturns in some crimes. The cases or violent robbery slowed a bit generally the cases increased. Homicide however did not shoe a clear trend of increase during this period of time (O’Brien 2003). It has been up and down all through. The studies of crime rates indicated that the long-term rise in rape cases, assaults, and violent robberies were not a true representation of the criminal-generated violent acts but an effective reporting system and record keeping. Critically, the rates of increase of violent crimes were at peak in 1960s through 1970s and were fairly stable in 1990s and presently they are quite low.

Non violent crimes like abortions, drug trafficking, internet crimes have been ion the increase as well only that their records is not clear as in the offenders are very sophisticated and only few case reach the FBI

Reasons for the Increase: The increases is attributed to the fact that there are more guns readily accessible by the public that ever before. Furthermore there are other aspects of the society like human activists and protective laws which have come up strongly to defend the

Crime Change Trend

rights of offenders. Another basic reason for increase is the exposure by the youths at a tender age. In fact the rates from childhood exposure indicate the highest effect of increased crime rates and particularly the aggravated assault which constitutes about 60% of the violent crimes (Walker & Maddan 2005).

Conclusion

The crime trends are very important top policy makers, researchers and the government at large. This is because they help to gauge the systems and also allows for planning. The recent statistics indicate that though criminal activities are still on the increase, the rates have considerably slowed down.

Crime Change Trend

References

O’Brien R.M. (2003). UCR Violent Crime Rates, 1958–2000: Recorded And Offender-Generated Trends. Social Science Research, Vol. 32 Issue 3 Pp 500- 520

Walker J.T & Maddan S. (2005). Statistics In Criminology And Criminal Justice- -Analysis And Interpretation. Jones & Bartlett Publishers