Crime and Violence 149
consequences of guns in the wrong hands, the NRA has become more vocal in their
campaign that "guns don't kill people do.” The NRA promotes the idea that
greater gun ownership in the right hands, of course) actually promotes safety. The
NRA has experienced its largest jump in membership ever, and public opinion is
swinging in their direction.
Going Beyond Left and Right
No one likes crime, except perhaps the crin nals themselves. Americans are con-
cerned about crime and violence, regardless of political persuasion. However, what
differs between conservatives and liberals is the opinion on the best ways to tackle
crime and violence in the community. Conservatives are less likely to support gun
control and see gun ownership as a potential solution to crime, while liberals are more
likely to believe that access to guns is a cause of crime, particularly violent crime.
While the political debate continues, there have been some efforts to decrease the
number of available guns in high-risk communities—that is, places where there have
been recent histories of high murder rates and deaths of bystanders. Congress and
the Justice Department have cooperated in instituting a number of programs such as
the Kansas City experiment that attempted to show a relationship between seizures
of guns and reduced numbers of crimes committed with guns. A target police beat
covering a neighborhood where homicides were twenty times above the national
average was selected. Officers with special training in detecting people who were car-
rying weapons patrolled the beat. On another beat, similar in demographic and crime
characteristics, the police continued to use their traditional methods. After 29 weeks of
operations, statistics revealed that gun crimes had dropped significantly on the beat
with the special patrols. Drive-by shootings also decreased, as did homicides of all
kinds. Programs like this one can appeal to both liberals and conservatives, if the price
is right
Summary
• A crime is any act or omission of an act for which the
state can apply sanctions. According to the Uniform
Crime Reports (UCR) of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) there has been a steady decline in
the number and the rate of violent and property crime
in the United States. However, exact statistics are
difficult because of ambiguity about whether certain
acts are crimes, police discretion regarding what laws
to ignore and which ones to enforce, and reporting
accuracy.
• Violent personal crimes include rape, assault,
robbery, and various types of homicide—acts in
which physical injury is inflicted or threatened.
Occasional property crimes include vandalism,
check forgery, shoplifting, and some kinds of
automobile theft. White-collar crimes are those in
which people break the law as part of their normal
business activity. Corporate crimes are committed by
a corporation or an individual working on behalf of
an organization (rather than an individual working
on his or her own behalf), usually for monetary gain.
Organized crime is a term that includes many types
of criminal organizations, from large global crime
syndicates to smaller local organizations whose
membership may be more transient. Public-order
offenses include prostitution, gambling, use of illegal
substances, drunkenness, vagrancy, disorderly
conduct, and traffic violations. Hate crimes include
traditional offenses such as murder, arson, or
vandalism with an added element of bias against a
race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity,
gender, or gender identity. Gender-based violence
includes acts likely to result in physical, sexual,
or psychological harm and suffering to women,
including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary
deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public
or private life.
Early criminologists proposed that crime and violence
had a biological basis in some people; however,
most experts now argue that, although aggression is
natural, violence is not. Men commit far more crime
than do women, which may be explained by men's
.
150 Chapter 5
greater level of aggression and the different ways that
men and women are socialized.
of how people drift toward criminal subcultures and
become socialized for criminal careers.
.
• Conflict theory proposes that most crime is either
a form of rebellion by members of disadvantaged
groups or a form of illegal exploitation by those who
are rich and powerful. The functionalist perspective
holds that crime stems from the uncertainty about
norms of
proper conduct that accompanies rapid
social change and social disorganization. The
interactionist perspective tends to focus on the study
• Efforts by the police, courts, and other agencies to
control crime include (a) retribution and deterrence,
(b) rehabilitating offenders, and (c) crime prevention.
Support for gun control usually correlates closely
with the nation's murder rate. However, with the
recent media attention around mass shootings, the
NRA has become more vocal in their campaign that
"guns don't kill ... people do."
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