Research Paper on Violent Crimes in the United States

Introduction

Violent crimes are one of the main challenges facing several nations globally. Crimes like mass murder and mass shooting contribute tremendous suffering to citizens and affect the governments economy through recovery attempts and destruction of infrastructure. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation defines violent crimes in the Uniform Crime Reporting program as crimes that involve threatening to use force or the use of force. They thus categorize violent crime like assault, robbery, forcible rape, and murder. Most of the time, the other offenses could take the form of genocide, terrorism, hate crimes, intimate partner violence, and child molestation. Violent crimes are as well known as "crimes against the person," that means that an individual's physical body is harmed. The U.S is among the primary victims of such forms of crime, leading to uncountable losses and many deaths. This research seeks to dig deep into the issue of murder as a violent crime in the United States with the example of Ted Bundy who was a famous serial killer.

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Murder as a Violent Crime

To many, murder is the offense of deliberately killing another individual and not in self-defense or other mitigating situations known by the judicial system. Manslaughter is not similar to death since it is illegally killing another person unintentionally or without prior planning. Negligence involves not using a proper level of care. Hence, accidents which lead to death do not fall under the legal definition of violent crime. Generally, the state data on murder does not include killings as a result of justifiable homicide, accidents, suicide, or negligence (Cole et al., 2018). Notice that in this type of crime, the threat of violence or violence is an essential factor of the offense.

History of Violent Crimes

Historically, the universe was a much worse place than today. For instance, the New Testament depicts events of long and painful crucifixions while the Old Testament talks of genocides (Latzer, 2010). In British, the monarchs killed their relatives and in Shakespeare's misfortunes lie gruesome mutilations. The founders of America would ferociously fight their adversaries. Violent crime is a multifaceted issue and could only be solved in complex ways. "quick fix" resolutions to the matter have a high chance of being misguided. In the 1990s, there was a significant crime decline (Alvarez & Bachman, 2016).

In the U.S, murder is the top cause of death for black American males. Between 1976 to 2008, blacks were victims of 329,825 killings. In 2006, the FBI reported that almost half of the 14,990 homicide cases that year were of African American origin (Latzer, 2010, p.412). In the current society, the advancement of trauma care affects the murder demographics, that has led to the reduction of lethality of violent crimes. Irrespective of the immense improvements in forensics in the past years, the rate of murder cases by guns has been on the decline in the U.S from fourteen thousand in 1994 to approximately 8,000 in 2008 (Alvarez & Bachman, 2016). This increase in rates of homicides in the mid-1990s was highly accredited to the rise in handgun murders.

Background of a Violent Criminal

The great murderers of history were those who killed their wives, and possibly slaughtered their family members with no mercy or even strangers. A standout amongst the most infamous murderers is Ted Bundy. Bundy was a heap of inconsistencies: he was a Peeing Tom that was explicitly unreliable, physically modest, enchanting, and good-looking that nobody could speculate of being engaged with the vanishings and killings of ladies around the states. Bundy did not have biological inferiority, to the degree of it being visible. He was physically active with an athletic toned body. Although shy, he reasonably had temper issues. Nevertheless, it was evident that Bundy never had the feeling of love towards others and had a hard time relating to others. Correspondingly, his wrongdoings could not be disregarded to anomie since he was aware of his expectations and those of others.

While in high school, Bundy began committing unlawful acts including burglary and shoplifting. He then proceeded to crimes of sexually abusing women which resulted in attacking and killing them. Based on his psychological profile, certain things were similar concerning his victims. They were thin, white, and single. There was a high likelihood that back then, women could not help or go out with men of an, unlike race (Riser & Kosson, 2013). Criminals also targeted persons of similar race as theirs.

Bundy had a distrustful worldview with enduring moods of holding grudges, resentment, and social oppression. Bundy was tormented by perceptions that there are those who are privileged to enjoy life while he must go through life struggles. Entitled and aggrieved, Bundy yearned for revenge and power to obliterate what he cannot have. The grudge that Bundy held against women relating to his experiences with the mother during his childhood and adolescent's life which brought him painfully, traumatic experiences influenced his crimes (Riser & Kosson, 2013). Continuously seeking revenge and power could have contributed to Bundy's continuous search for females and killing them.

Legal Implications

The United States government has the right to punish violent criminals for breaking the law. The less severe is revoking their liberties. Basically, by violating the law, the criminal forfeits some of their American citizenship rights such as the right to vote (Cole et al., 2018). The other criminal penalty for murder offenders is the loss of freedom, whereby the criminal is removed from the general population by being convicted in prisons. First-degree murder sentences typically draw the harshest penalties of any offense. As with the factors of the offense and available defenses, a conviction could fluctuate from region to region. Perpetrators convicted with murder felonies are allowed to have their cases heard by a jury who should consistently approve as to the guilt issue before returning a conviction. In states such as Florida, murder criminals are either given life imprisonment or the death penalty without the chance of parole. Other regions could apply a two-tier sentencing structure: one being the death penalty or life without parole, and some years behind cells (Latzer, 2010).

Social Implications

Murder crimes have significant implications on humanity including feelings of distress which interrupt the people's harmony, unwilling to walk in the dark, and damaging the community's image. The thought of society as crime controlled could discourage people from settling there and induces occupants to relocate. The presence of serial killers, the likes of Ted Bundy and other murderers puts in fear among the people, and this is damaging as the offense itself. The fear of murder criminals and crime could hurt the civilian's behavior, lessen societal association, and prevent potential industries from trying to invest in the area thus affecting the state's economy. Another implication is that victims and witnesses of this misconduct have to cope with trauma afterward. Even for those who are not affected directly, fear varies depending on the person's demographics. Gender is a factor, for instance in Bundy's targets, since women happen to be more vulnerable than men. The elderly, as well as those from black neighborhoods, are also more targeted and fearful of violent crimes (Jenkins, 2017). Such offenses could even alter the neighborhood's appearance since window guards, and gates lessen from the community's aesthetic look.

Conclusion

The most common solution behind violent crimes in the U.S is to investigate the major causes of offenses and the criminal's behavior. For instance, defining crime most properly permits the law enforcers to have a better understanding of the criminal justice system thus fully implement the law. On the justice system's role, a well distinct offense evades probable misunderstanding as well as incomplete execution. Additionally, it permits policymakers to generate operative rules which deter, control, and eventually eradicate the crime prevalence. Detectives need to remember the fact that normal human behavioral patterns and traits usually remain consistent, irrespective of the activity being carried out. Whether the serial criminal is aware or not, every act of murder they commit, they leave their unique mark in one way or another, and that makes it the leading key for law enforcers to punish the right offender

Equally, it is vital for law professionals to know the criminal's behaviors. Through this, the public gets can understand why an offense is committed hence permitting policymakers, law enforcers, and professionals to fix the system. Consequently, being considerate of violent criminal behaviors helps experts in creating a new policy or system for preventing a re-occurrence of such crimes.

References

Alvarez, A., & Bachman, R. (2016). Violence: The enduring problem. Sage Publications.

Cole, G. F., Smith, C. E., & DeJong, C. (2018). The American system of criminal justice. Cengage Learning.Jenkins, P. (2017). Using murder: The social construction of serial homicide. Routledge.

Latzer, B. (2010). Death penalty cases: Leading US Supreme Court cases on capital punishment. Elsevier.

Riser, R. E., & Kosson, D. S. (2013). Criminal behavior and cognitive processing in male offenders with antisocial personality disorder with and without comorbid psychopathy. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 4(4), 332-340. doi:10.1037/a0033303