Patterns of offenses and victimization

Patterns of offenses and victimization
Name
Institution affiliation
Victimization overview
For a long time now, the US has witnessed a decline in crime, a pattern that is soon about to change in the coming century owing to wavering immigration laws, the vast number of youths, and technological sophistication. Voluminous data from criminal and defense organizations indicate a commendable shift in the statistics regarding victimizations and violence. Although statistics depict a long-term downward spiral of crime from the year 1997 to 2006, recent research project a rise in violent crimes thus raising eyebrows as regards the most recent crime control measures. For instance, in the year 2016, the felony numbers were 1,417, 745, a 13.5 decrease from the year 1997. Ironically, this figure was a 1.9 increase from 2005.
Murder and aggravated assault data
Out of all the 2016 transgressions, aggravated assaults totaled to 60.7, robbery with violence scooped 31 percent while murder represented a 1.2 percent. A total 1,700,000 were murdered nationwide (Hamby, Finkelhor, & Turner, 2013). Of these, 90 percent occurred in the metropolitan cities of the US depicting that overpopulation is a causal factor. The same year witnessed a two-third decrease in violent crimes in many major cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. New York particularly recorded a drop from 6.7 percent in 2005 to 4 percent in 2015. The murder rate for the particular year stood at 5 percent; a decrease from the 8 percent witnessed in 2006.

Trends and rates
Looking at these consistent tendencies, one can argue that the murder instances have reduced significantly in the city of New York. One would reason in effect because the city continues to set stringent laws of combating the use of force and weapons. According to McDonald and Finn (2000, p. 12), ‘this trend has improved because the police are arresting larger numbers of people for weapon violation.’ The police, in 2016, made 56,000 such arrests, which were equivalent to a 56 percent rise from 1998. The local police also devised a plan of working with federal agencies like the DEA and the FBI to form a federally inspired task force that takes down high-end criminals like gang leaders. Another factor that possibly accounts for these downward trends could be poor reporting and documentation. Most felons today are technology savvy, and police only rely on the criminals they catch. There exists an enormous gap in reporting which contributes to close to 34 percent of crimes. The sudden surge of national crime witnessed from 2015 is attributed to the influx of immigrants in the country.
The differentiation of the crimes
Aggravated assault refers to the attempt to cause serious injury on an individual knowingly, intentionally, and recklessly with the use of an extremely lethal weapon. A typical case happened in 2017 December in Manhattan where a man attacked his friend and stabbed him in the leg twice with a knife. The former then argued that he did all this because the friend declined to clear his debt. Luckily, witnesses arrived quickly to end the clash before significant damage could happen.
Murder, on the other hand, refers to the illegal premeditated taking of a person’s life by an individual. The perpetrator has to have the intent to do so and tends to overpower the victim. A typical case happened in Toronto whether Heather, a librarian was murdered in cold blood by an angry boyfriend. She stabbed her five times in the chest leaving her to die. The police never got there in time, as upon their arrival, she was already dead.
5. Differences in arrests and clearance rates
In the year 2010, murder had the highest frequency of clearance, which was 65 percent. It was followed by aggravated assault, which stood at 59 percent, then rape, which was at 40 percent. An FBI report for the same year stipulated that the arrest rate for violent assaults was 119 per 100,000 people with that of murder being 8.6. These statistics show that while murder cases were minimal, they had an urgency factor hence solved as hurriedly as possible. This incidence is as opposed to aggravated assault that witnessed boundless number of arrests and average clearance. In essence, the cases are indeed familiar, and the government does not consider them of an urgent value (Hamby, Finkelhor, & Turner, 2013).
b. Why people commit crime
Strain theory best explains why people in New York tend to be more crime prone. It holds that while people have similar goals, others may lack the means to boost themselves into the standards of the community. This urge to conform to the standards set by the society, like getting rich, forces most youths to involve in vices like drug dealing, violent crimes, and even burglary, to achieve wealth. Most New Yorkers are low-income earners thus may result in illicit means to enrich themselves.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY l 1033 Hamby, S., Finkelhor, D., & Turner, H. (2013). Perpetrator and victim gender patterns for 21 forms of youth victimization in the National Survey of Children Exposure to Violence. Violence and Victims, 28 (6), 915.
McDonald, D., & Finn, P. (2000). Crime and Justice Trends in the United States During the Past Three Decades. Cambridge, MA: National Institute of Justice.