However, some experts believe the rates have declined because the baby boomer generations are aging, so the percentage of young adults has declined. Some believe that the tougher or harsher sentences for crimes are a cause and there is evidence of this based on the increased prison populations. According to "Where Have All The Burglars Gone?" (2013), "Could more criminals being locked up be the answer? The number of people behind bars has grown substantially in many countries over the past 20 years.” (para.
If we look at the statistics alone we see in many areas we are already winning. According to the Uniform Crime Reports and Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests for drug law violations this year are expected to exceed the 1,663,582 arrests of 2009. Law enforcement made more arrests for drug abuse violations (an estimated 1.6 million arrests, or 13.0 percent of the total number of arrests) than for any other offense in 2009. Someone is arrested for violating a drug law every 19 seconds.3 The current Commissioner of the New York City Police Department Raymond Kelly said “If you look back in history, if you look back 20 years ago, we had about 25 million drug users in this country. They say that we are down below 13 million now.
Legal Drugs, Deadly Consequences As law-enforcement officials spend $15 billion a year combating the use and trafficking of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and other illegal narcotics, a more urgent crisis is emanating from the nation's pharmacies. According to a report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), overdoses from prescription drug medication have tripled in the past decade. Deaths from prescription painkillers- a class of drugs that includes hydrocodone, methadone, oxycodone and oxymorphone- have reached epidemic levels. These drugs are widely misused and abused. Every year, nearly 15,000 people die from overdoses involving these drugs.
We decided as an organization that a program was needed to be implemented to help the at risk population. In the past few years there have been reports of higher truancy rates, dropouts, poorer academics and testing scores, and other high risk behaviors. The problem first started in lower socio-economic areas of the city and has slowly started to spread across Party Falls. Through the research that we have performed, we discovered a high increase in use of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, K2, and bath salts. Reports have reached the national level of attention.
• In an average classroom of 20 children, there are most likely at least three children who are either victims or bullies. • One-half of motor vehicle accidents involving adolescents are associated with alcohol and other drugs. Methodology: This is a Quantitative study providing seemingly countless statistics, percents, and relationships between children and the “critical issues” they face today. Findings: Although poverty rates have gone down in the last 15 years, with the recent economic downturn, it is anticipated that we will again experience significant increases in children living poverty. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that children, adolescents, and young adults are disproportionately affected by violent injury and death.
“In 2008, law enforcement agencies in the United States made an estimated 2.11 million arrests of persons younger than age 18. * Overall, there were 3% fewer juvenile arrests in 2008 than in 2007, and juvenile violent crime arrests fell 2%” (Puzzanchera, 2009, p. 1). Although there was a small increase in juvenile offenses during 2008 it was
Juvenile Crime Statistics After a decade of growth, the incidence of violent crime in America suddenly began to drop in the mid-1990s. Criminologists propose various reasons for the sudden turnaround in violent crime. Explanations include a strong economy, changing demographics, changes in the market for illegal drugs and the use of firearms, expanded imprisonment, policing innovations, and a growing cultural intolerance for violent behavior. Regardless of which explanation one favors, it is clear that previous increases as well as recent decreases in violent crime were disproportionately generated by the nation’s youth. Criminal behavior has always been more prevalent among young people.
Task 1-Analysis Gun Crime Statistics for Newham East London I have selected statistics on gun crime in Newham East London from the official Metropolitan Police statistics, as the Borough of Newham has one of the highest recorded gun crime incident hot spots in London from September 2008 to September 2010 From the 12 months leading up to September 2009 there were 127 recorded incidents of guns being used this works out as an average of 10 incidents being reported a month. From 12 months leading up to September 2010 there were 200 recorded incidents of guns being used this works out as an average of 16 incidents being reported a month. In total this works out to be an increase of 57% from the previous year, this is a very significant increase in gun crime and must be addressed as if these statistics were to continue like this over the following years gun crime would be completely out of control. To draw further information from these statistics it would be very helpful to know such things as the size of the population of the Borough of Newham compared to the other Boroughs of London as this would give a better indication of the overall problem of gun crime in this area, also if there has been tensions between ethnic minorities there due to immigration of immigrants and also if the area is socially deprived and has a high unemployment rate and high levels of substance misuse leading to high levels of crime. Another problem could be gang related violence that has led to this increase in violence that would also have an effect on Newham’s neighbouring boroughs.
Gang violence, still largely confined to Belize City, is a significant contributor to the high murder rate. There were 125 murders recorded for 2011, four less than 2010, likely due to the gang truce in Belize City that began in September 2011. There was a Government of Belize (GOB)-supported gang truce, which was agreed to in September 2011, by all active gangs of Belize City which later dramatically reduced the number of homicides during the final four months of 2011. Due to the amount of criminal activity taken place in Belize City, it has changed drastically the way the society has gone about with their lives. Before people wouldn’t mind attending public functions in the city, taking their family out to parks, and other outdoor activities, but this steady increase in criminal activity has led people to be afraid to attend these functions since they can become a victim and a statistic.
“Last year, 15,890 Americans became victims of violent crime each day” (Brinkerhoff). Property crimes are the most committed crimes in the U.S. (Crime). I am shocked how many crimes are committed daily in the U.S. What causes people to commit criminal behavior? Are they born to be aggressive? Are criminals made from their environment?