The Busy Life in America

CRIME
By, Stephanie Meese Intro to Sociology

Dr. Deidre Tyler

Table Of Content

Reflection Page one, What I know already 5 different research articles

Reflection page, what I learned

Reflection page, What I learned I didnt already

know

Work cited

Billions of Americans are in their own routines every day of their lives. Todays world is extremely busy and there seems to be no time for leisure. Some have the comforts of enjoying more leisure times than others, for many reasons. For example; being a hard worker, Inheritance, stealing or being an active money saver. Restaurants are in high demand because they are fast and can feed any amount of people needed. However how healthy is this? What risks are you taking and having your loved ones take by eating processed foods? Do we even know what we eat when we eat out? Im not really sure, thats why I choose not to feed my family foods Im not familiar with. Do families really get to sit down and have a meal together? Watch a movie? Play games? It sure does not seem like it anymore. More families seem to be more interested in playing on their cell phones, messaging or checking their face book. This is a very interesting subject to me, because as of last year I had the family I always wanted. It was shattered when I lost my husband and our boys lost their father. Everything seemed to stop and I am still trying to pick up the pieces. Our boys help make this possible, and show me that we can get through this difficult time together as a family. I really wish families knew that tomorrow is not promised and family is truly the most important part of life. What about crime? I cant help but notice more shootings in schools and public places than I have ever before. I see people resorting to stealing and resorting to activities just to make some money to live. I also have noticed more online classes being offered to college students. This shows me that students are busy with work and other responsibilities instead of the opportunity to go into the class for the real effect. Race still seems to be a problem in society as well as ethnicity. We still see hate crimes, we still see racism and we still hear about racist groups after all of this time. I wonder if there will ever be a world that will not be racist, busy, and judgmental, in competition and so on. That is probably asking too much however I believe change can start with you, just one person having an effect on another and hope the outcome can be pay it forward. I am very interested in learning more about crime and the impact it truly has on Society. I hope I can bring forth some understanding and some answers I wish to seek for myself as well as you.

What I already know

Reflection page one

Is there more crime now than before?

Police Estimates of Crime

By calculating the number of crimes and forwarding both estimates to the local news media and FBI in their jurisdiction, police get an estimate of a number of crimes nationwide. With evidence they suggest violent crime has increased by factor of four since 1960, and now at a all time high. (Wiener, American Prospect 2013)

FBI Estimate of Crime

FBI doesnt estimate the number of crimes per year as does the police, their estimates are from number of crimes known to the police. If a crime wasnt recorded by police, then the FBI know nothing about it. (Wiener, American Prospect 2013)

Why is there more crime now?

There could be many reasons why the crime rate has reached a high point. For example, employment has dropped and more home.

families are desperate to keep food on the table and a place to call

Many crimes however are not

reported, leaving many cases

unheard and untouched.

So what kind of crimes are there?

Crimes against

people, also called

rape, murder and robbery

Crimes against

personal crimes. Such as, aggravated assault,

property, these are

without bodily harm. theft, burglary and arson.

Includes, larceny, auto

Crimes against
victimless crimes,

White-Collar
people with high

crimes, involving
statuses. Including embezzling and tax evasion

Organized

Morality, also called

including prostitution, illegal drug use and illegal gambling.

crimes, committed
by large structured groups involving illegal distribution of goods and services.

Who commits crimes?

The young- The young make poorer choices that lead to not so smart choices. Young

people generally find delaying gratification or resisting temptations difficult to

which in return demands more responsibility.

do.(Briggs,Criminology 2009) As people get older, they are more likely to have families Males- take first place in crimes. 75% of all arrest in 2007, involved men. Men accounted for 82% of all crime arrests and 67% of property crime arrests.(Briggs,Criminology 2009) However crime rates are dropping for men and rising for woman, due to the fact that woman are rising in their professional positions, they have greater opportunities to commit certain acts such as embezzlement.

Income- Although there is no way to track the income status of criminals, police can track locations of where these people come from. Most are from lower income regions such as inner cities that have higher crime rates than other areas.

Race and education Inmate percentages

Race-

Education13.4%

African American U.S population- 12.8% White U.S population- 65.6% Latino U.S population- 15.4% Other- 5.5%

Less than high School, U.S populationHigh School Graduate U.S population31.2% Some College U.S population- 26.0% College graduate U.S population- 29.4%

Hate Crimes

2000-2008
Race-Ethnicity and number of victims

African Americans

Whites

Latinos

3,596

829

792

Multiracial

Asian Americans

Native Americans

276

170

63

Last Reflection paper

This entire course, taught me so much that I can carry with me throughout life. When I started this project I thought Crime would be the best subject for me to focus, because there is so much involved with crime. There are also many reason why crimes are committed, however I just focused on a couple. By focusing on this subject I was able to learn, why crime happens, who commits crime, who is affected by crime and what impact it has on Society. One type of crime, White-collar Crime I learned is generates less concern to the public. This is the least investigated crime and least prosecuted because they involve individuals with higher social status, leaving most of society unaware of the issue. However the dollar amount that may be embezzled can be very high, which affects society because of the people that have money invested. By looking at arrest data, we can see that the pattern of arrests in term of gender, race and class are usually consistent. Those that commit personal and property crimes are those such as; racial minorities, young, urban and the poor. A question of concern that I noticed with Sociologists is if crime actually depends on the different groups of people or the judicial treatment of the criminals. As I was researching and studying I came to a conclusion, and that is both. Certain groups of people, such as those with certain inequalities in the Untied States, and the treatment of these people in the Judicial courts are linked to crimes. The Judicial system is not always fair, we have heard many stories of it being unjust and unfair to many, because of race and ethnicity. This includes the treatment that police and prisons inflict on individuals as well, from the beginning of the crime all the way to the treatment in prison. Hate crime was another type of crime that I learned more about. Going into this subject all I knew was the basics, people or groups harming another person or people because of their race or sexual orientation. Upon learning more, hate crime also involves crimes against a person because of their possible disabilities, religion or national origin as well. To me this is a very sad subject, because so many people are so hateful because another individual is different. Some however change the way they feel because of experiences they go through, such as the movie, American History X. Although the movie has many graphic scenes, the story is inspiring and takes you through a story of change and realization that this person goes through. Over all Im really happy I picked this subject because there

was so much to learn. I feel like I have a better understanding on who commits crimes, why they commit it and how by committing crime affects society. When
crimes are committed it puts a lot of fear in Society, it pushes people away from one another, and trust between strangers can decrease. Not everyone that fits the profile of a criminal will commit a crime, its up to us to remember that everyone is different and facing their own life struggles. My advise, dont be to quick to judge, stay open in understanding others, but be cautious.

Work cited page

Malcolm Wiener (Professor of Social Policy at Harvard University), American Prospects-2013, prospect.org Barcharts, Inc.(2000) Sociology: The Basic principles of

Sociology

Anderson, M.L. & Taylor, H.F.(2009). Sociology: The essentials. Belmont, Ca Steven Briggs (2009) Criminology for Dummies James Henslin (2014) Sociology: Mastering Sociology