Violent Crime Research Paper Nothing does more to tear our families apart than violent crime, guns, gangs, drugs, and the fear that walks alongside those terrors. Violent crime and victim rights have become a major concern for most citizens in the United States of America. Statistics indicate adecline in violent crimes in our country and an increase in our national prison population. Released prisoners commit most violentcrimes. Gun control legislation, reform programs, victim rights awareness, and other programs are abundant in our country, but dolittle to alleviate violent crime. In this paper I will try to present the liberal and conservative views on this issue as well as my ownviews. Violent crime is a complex problem and can only be responded to in complex ways. "Quick fix" solutions to the problem are likely tobe misguided. There was a decline in crime during the 1990s. Our country enjoyed seven years of declining crime for the period 1991-98, the mostrecent data available. During this period crime declined by 22% and violent crime by 25%. These are welcome developments,particularly following the surge of crime and violence of the late 1980s. This decline occurred during a time when the national prisonpopulation has increased substantially, rising from 789,60 in 1991 to 1,252,830, a 59% rise in just seven years and a 47% increasein the rate of incarceration, taking into account changes in the national population (Mauer 21-24). Many observers have drawn a simple correlation between these two trends. Putting more offenders in prison caused the reduction incrime. The Sentencing project has just completed a study that examines this issue in great detail and concludes that any suchcorrelation is ambiguous at best. In examining the relationship between incarceration and crime in the 1990s the picture iscomplicated by the seven year period just prior to this, 1984-91. In this period, incarceration also rose substantially, at a rate o...
