Discussions
Is America More Violent Than Ever?
Posted by Agit8r • 11/06/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: 24hr-news-cycle, common myths
I have heard similar statements in a few different threads, and wanted to set the record straight (see graph)
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Viort.gif
User Comments
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Of course it is, 2012 is coming!
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Discussions like these could have a lulling effect.. -
I tend to agree that America is not more violent, nor are the crimes more horrific, we just have more press coverage now -
Not too surprising. Since 1990 or so America's inner cities, and especially NYC, Atlanta, and LA, have drastically improved, attracting wealthier residents, new business and industry, and becoming as central as they once were. As the inner cities improve, the drive towards crime lessens. -
I agree w/ ArsenicCookies - I think that with the internet and national news so readily available that we just KNOW more. However, in my little community, our number of murders as of August had surpassed the last three years....so we've definitely seen a spike in all sorts of crime in our area in the last couple of years...-
economic downturns tend to have that effect
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No way. The reporting is just much greater. Also, if you have 1 policeman, you'll have x number of crimes. If you have 10 policemen, you'll have 10x number of crimes. With more police, come more arrests, which yields more reporting, which leads people to believe crime is up.
Think back to the killing, scalping, mutilating that was done when the USA was just a toddler. Per capita, I'm betting it was a MUCH more violent time! -
I tend to agree that America is not more violent, nor are the crimes more horrific, we just have more press coverage now-
That is a new way of spamming, copying verbatim a comment already posted. Shame on you! -
hey wtf? haha at least quote your source there Autoheat
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A major factor in the perception of greater violence is that there is more news coverage today than there used to be. When I was a kid, back in the Stone Age, there were no 24-hour news networks and there was no Internet. The news media need something to fill up all of their time/space.
"Nothing much happened on Maple Road" is not news. "There was a murder on Oak Street" is news. The truth is there are way more "Maple Roads" than "Oak Streets", but it's the "Oak Streets" that get reported, not the "Maple Roads."
I'm not blaming the media for that. They are doing their job. News is about reporting the exceptions, not about reporting the normal. Nobody would watch if a news channel listed each of the 1,000 streets where nothing much happened and then said, "Oh, by the way, someone was murdered on the east side today."
It would be nice if every once in a while the media gave us the context, but it's also our job to realize that if they're reporting something it's because that something is the exception, not the rule. -
Statistics will probably contradict me, but I think there was a big spike in random violence in the early 60s, with the introduction of drugs and other social disruptions. I think that continued to peak into the 70s and since then there's been a leveling off and perhaps even a decline. -
you'll have 10x number of crimes. With more police, come more arrests, which yields more reporting, which leads people to believe crime is up.
Think back to the killing, scalping, mutilating that was done when the USA was just a toddler. Per capita, I'm betting it was a MUCH more violent time! -
"Nothing much happened on Maple Road" is not news. "There was a murder on Oak Street" is news. The truth is there are way more "Maple Roads" than "Oak Streets", but it's the "Oak Streets" that get reported, not the "Maple Roads."
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I think that with the internet and national news so readily available that we just KNOW more. However, in my little community, our number of murders as of August had surpassed the last three years.
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They can change for the better like what Mr.Obama said. It seems a lot of improvement.
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