Jackson Crime Essay

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.

A civil rights lawyer, Mary Howell, included her input by saying, “We had police officers involved in kidnappings, rape, murders, drugs, bank robberies. There was a guy who used to do, like, bank robberies on his lunch hour. It was just astonishing- at one point we had four police officers facing first-degree murder charges” (Kahn, 2010). Following the spur of bad behavior from the officers, a new mayor and police chief were instated into the system, hoping to bring reform to the city. After holding office for some time, numerous officers were fired, the murder rate dropped, and relations improved.

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.

Why is crime such a large part of our everyday society? Since the beginning of time, crime has been a large part of history, which gradually increased throughout the years, and continues today in everyday life. Crime is something that people do out of either force, impulse, fun, by accident, or their environment. Some people have been raised since childhood in areas where crime rates were at an high and maybe that caused them to follow what they learned while growing up and pursuing crimes as well. Malcolm Gladwell, author of Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime, mentions how these key concepts shape the way in which crimes are performed through their involvement with their environment and communities.

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.”

The relationship between Lonnie’s community and the police was quite untrusting. The entire community felt as if there was a lack of concern within the department for black people. Police officers would arrive if someone called and wouldn’t even ask about what they witnessed. They would immediately ask if the witness as used drugs recently and ask questions irrelevant to the situation at hand and that’s why nobody ever reported to them. The LA Police department was a victim of corruption.

On the flip side, the government failed, particularly in the South where segregation and discrimination was at one of the all time peaks. In the documentary “Rise!: 1940-1968,” from The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross” sponsored by PBS, around 9 minutes in; by the second day of the riots in Detroit during this time, about 24 African Americans were dead and more than half of the deaths were due to police brutality. (PBS, Rise!: 1940-1968,” from The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, 8:45/56:13) With more than half deaths due to police brutality was only one of the many examples that briefly explain the first 2 main reasons on civil right abuses wanting to be redressed. With the last reason being the economic discrimination towards Black people. This limited their ability to achieve financial security and prosperity.

There were a lot of social and structural forces that lead to crime. During this time period, it was very hard to make money to support yourself or a family. Because of the lack of money it almost always led to crime. Crime and the lack of money influenced by yours or your family status, which made it almost impossible to climb the social ladder. There were also many structural forces such as a corrupt government and police force.

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.

When boundaries are crossed or someone steps out of line, violence is used to correct the situation (Matsuda el al. 2013). Police are not respected in these neighborhoods which is socially unacceptable in white neighborhoods. This leads to the factor, political insecurity and the lack of help inner city neighborhoods

Saint Louis, Missouri Crime: Why Does it Persist Saint Louis, Missouri is experiencing a massive amount of crime, but this is nowhere close to being a recent development. Over the last several decades, it has remained one of the most dangerous, crime-ridden cities in the continental United States. While known factors are causing this like redlining, segregation, police violence, and equity of treatment toward minority groups in the area, plenty of these components are out of the hands of the citizens being most impacted. Communities are struggling and the local government refuses to address the issue, in turn, making the problem worse.

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.

Stud Terkel quoted in his book "Hard Times," “What I remember most of those times is that poverty creates desperation, and desperation creates violence.” (pg. 195). During the Hard Times crime rate increased as the family lost everything. This ultimately led people, to do anything to gain money. Hence, the growth in crime

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.