NCJ Number
87552
Date Published
Unknown
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This paper notes the alarming increase in homicide rates in the United States over the past 20 years and seeks explanations for why the American people continue to tolerate such high levels of killing.
Abstract
Homicide in the 1980's is estimated to become the cause of death of 1 percent of all Americans, 2 percent of urban residents, 3 percent of urban males, and 5 percent of black urban males born last decade. Despite these statistics, three circumstances suggest that the public does not consider reduction of homicide an urgent national priority. First, there is little incentive for new policy experiments against homicide. Secondly, crime seriousness surveys rank simple homicide relatively low in relation to other crime forms -- e.g., twice as serious as a politician's accepting a $10,000 bribe. Finally, short prison terms are meted out for those convicted of homicide -- e.g., convicted killers in Brooklyn, N.Y., released on probation in 1977 had served a median of less than 2 years in prison. It appears that unless the public identifies with its victims, as it did in the Zebra killings in San Francisco and the Son of Sam killings in New York, homicide loses much of its horror and public interest wanes in the conviction that the death risks are being borne by others.