Philadelphia and Homicide Over the years Philadelphia has become one of the most violent cities in the US. It was listed in the top ten murders cities in America and seventy percent of these crimes were committed by African American males between the ages of eighteen to forty. In Eric Schneider’s, article Homicide in the Hood, he believes that most of these homicides are due to the low employment opportunities in the urban areas. I agree with his argument. This plays a major factor in the homicide rate in Philadelphia, although it’s not the only factor.
“It engenders stress and fear in many prospective victims. To its direct victims, the experience usually brings about extreme anger and annoyance, and in some cases, may occasion lasting psychological injury” (Grabosky, 1995, p.1). Residential burglary is one of the most prevalent crimes in the United States as well as in other countries (Grabosky, 1995; Shover, 1991; Weisel, 2004). Burglary accounts for 18% of all serious crime in the United States, and is the second most common serious crime, just behind larceny-theft. In addition, it is believed that as many as half of all burglaries go unreported, which might account for the low clearance average clearance rate of 14 % in the U.S. A significant factor related to the low clearance rate is that about 65 percent of residential burglaries investigated do not produce enough evidence or information about the crime, therefore making it one of the most difficult crimes to solve (Weisel, 2004, p. 1).
Moreover, violent deaths are becoming a larger proportion of all youth mortality. Suicides and homicides accounted for less than 8 percent of all youth deaths; two decades later they accounted for 20 percent. While many recent studies have noted the increasing role of drugs, crime,
A large number (33 percent) of the poor live in inner cities, the suburbs, small towns, and rural communities. In 2008, one third of the nation's poor lived in suburbs. Myth #4: Most of the poor are single mothers. Of all families living in poverty,51 percent are single mothers and their children, but 40 percent of married-couple families and 9 percent of father-headed households are poor. Myth #5: Most of the poor are older Americans.
The primary cause of violence in the African-American community is gang activity. These sobering statistics are affecting our community in a terrible way. Street gangs have been around since the nineteenth century. (CITATION) Gang violence is a problem in every major city in the United States and membership in gangs is on the rise The FBI’s 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment report states that there are more than 1.4 million active gang members in the United States. This is a 40% increase over the estimated 1-million gang members in 2009.
The murder rate has done more increasing than decreasing over the last few years. In 2009 Philadelphia ended the year with 406 murders, about 70% of them went unsolved. As time passed the murder rate only decreased by a few people. Murders weren’t the only thing that increased, in 2008 the cities rape rate went high it reached a maximum of 1,038 cases. The lowest the city had in the past few years was in 2009, it ended with 896 cases.
They claimed that violent crimes fell about 28 percent, with property crime rates fell about 26 percent. Exactly what caused the reduction of crime during those years, and if it is a positive cause what can we do to mimic those years? Atlanta, Chicago and a few other cities saw even bigger decrease in crime with 33 percent to 53 percent (Corman, Hope, 2005). New York’s Mayor Rudolph Giuliani idea with its get tough on crime may have had an effect on New York’s crime reduction, but it appears to be a little hard to know for sure because of the economic boom during those years for which Clinton gotten
The median household income in Detroit dropped from $29,526 in 2000 to $26,098 in 2009. It was only a year later that it dropped again to $25,787. In 2010, the mean income fell below the US average by thousands. Every 1 in 3 residents in the city of Detroit is in poverty. Detroit reported more burglaries in 2010 than 2012.
Over half of all Americans say their concern about drug use has increased over the past five years (53%).”(The Gallup Organization) The public awareness of drug use and abuse has increased, causing people to be less accepting of drug use. There are different purposes for music festivals in the 2000s than there was in the 1960s. More and more charitable music
Police layoffs have sparkled new concern about crime in metropolitan areas that have seen progress, raising fears that cops on the beat are getting thrown into dangerous situations with less backup and fewer resources. Newark, which ranks 23rd on the list of dangerous cities, laid off 33 percent of its force in December 2011, and crime has since spiked. In the 11th week period, since the layoffs, auto thefts are up 40 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the city's data on reported crimes. Murders are up 73 percent and carjackings have increased more than fourfold. The number of shooting victims has more than doubled.