Violent Crime - Violent Crimes Are Down, A Century Of Murder, The Poorer You Are, The More Vulnerable To Violent Crime

This chapter focuses on violent crimes. These are the ones that send a chill down the spine. Violent crimes include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault and simple assault. After two and a half decades of high rates of violent crime, trends in all violent crimes during the late 1990s have been down. Fewer of such crimes are being committed.

The first panels in this chapter provide an overview of the subject, covering all violent crimes by type over a twenty seven year period and murder over the entire 20th century. What becomes clear is that crime is the male domain. Many more men than women commit crimes of all types and far more men are victimized by crime than are women. Even among male infants this fact holds. Violent crime is also a youthful activity. The rate at which young people age 18 to 24 years commit homicide, for example, is five times the rate seen in the population over age of 35.

Striking differentials in violent crime rates between the races, between our poorest and our most affluent, and among residential area types (urban, suburban and rural) are discussed in three different panels.

The 1980s and 1990s witnessed an explosion in youth gang violence which coincided with the rise of crack cocaine. The fuzzy official data on youth gang membership tell an unsettling story of steadily increasing numbers. Although membership in youth gangs has continued to increase through the end of the century, gang related crime dropped. The possible reasons for this are discussed in a series of panels.

Approximately 40% of all American households count among their belongings at least one gun. We take a look at data on violent crimes committed with a firearm and review the history of gun control legislation in America.

Next, we try to uncover data on the sad and often silent subject of domestic violence, focusing primarily on violence between intimate partners. Here, women take the brunt. Rape and sexual assault, the least reported violent crimes, are also covered in a separate panel.

Finally, a look at the most dangerous jobs in terms of violence on the job is presented. The most dangerous jobs in this regard are; law enforcement officers, mental health workers, and retail store clerks. Nonetheless, in a study of the locations in which violent acts occur, the home is still the number one spot. One third of all violent acts occur at or near the victim's home.