Victimization Revisited: A National Statistical Analysis

Abstract

After an historical introduction to the problem of violence in society, and a short review of some important socio-juridical developments that took place during the first part of the 20th century, the authors review the crime rate in major United States cities during the past decade. They then present a statistical analysis of the murder rate in eight American cities from 1965 to 1990. The results reveal an appalling increase in the crime rate for that period. The result of this longitudinal analysis confirms that crime is rampant in American cities, that there is an interplay between mobility and crime rate, and that the widespread use of crack-cocaine coincides with the upsurge of the crime rate from 1985 to the present. In their reflections and suggestions the authors analyze socio-psychological factors leading to violent crime and discuss the apparent present impotence of societal agencies, the police, and the courts in dealing with crime. They also offer some of their views regarding the conflicting and counterproductive ways in which present-day society tends to deal with its offenders. They conclude that in order to deal efficiently with the soaring crime in the United States, in addition to a multidisciplinary approach, society and its people should try to address the primary causative factor: the organizational and moral disintegration of the American family unit. The authors believe that the lack of a socially educating, morally cohesive, affectively bound and economically self-sufficient family breeds social incompetence and crime among a large stratum of the population.