Crime and Violence in American Society - An Overview

• NCJ Number: 81853
• Journal: American Behavioral Scientist Volume: 23 Issue: 5 Dated: (May/June 1980) Pages: 637-652
• Author(s): E E Flynn
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 16 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article presents a brief overview of the extent and causes of crime and violence in society and outlines the thrust of research studies on the topic.

Abstract

Violent crime is a persistent and major social and political problem in the United States. The rates of criminal violence began to climb at the beginning of the 1960's, slowed significantly during the years between 1975 and 1978, and rose again in 1978. Ever-accelerating social change combined with the cumulative effects of unemployment, racism, declining resources and production, inflation, and an unresponsive bureaucracy are among the factors known to influence crime. Although bilions of dollars have been spent to reduce the level of crime, none of these efforts has had much of an effect. One obstacle standing in the way of a more complete understanding of violence is that of definition, as researchers find it difficult to conceptually discriminate between licit and illicit violence. One researcher addressing this problem recommends that a multifaceted approach to the study of violence be deployed in which normative as well as illicit violence is studied along a continuum. Another study, focusing on youth violence, finds that the number and rate of arrests for violent crime committed by youth has dropped since 1975 and that the downward trend has been steady since the 1975 peak year for juvenile arrests for violent crime. Other studies found in the text address violence in business settings, victims and aggressors in marital violence, television violence and victimization, and theories of collective violence in prisons. The final article on prison violence presents a model of riot prevention and riot control derived from some of the principal tenets of the theory of collective behavior. Five notes and about 50 references are included. For individual research studies in this volume, NCJ 81853-57, 77235, and 77984.