United States: Crime or Data Aficionado
Ryan Bass
Professor Webster
Pirate Paper
19 September, 2014
United States: Crime or Data Aficionado
Crime is and has been a constant problem in America for as long as one can remember. The problem is, there isn’t a definite definition as to why crime is much more prevalent in the United States than in other parts of the world. So I would propose that question. Although it has been studied constantly and extensively over the past centuries, there has been no definitive answer. Why is there so much crime in the US, especially in comparison to the rest of the World?
First of all, where does this definition come from? Who believes that there is more crime in the US than in the rest of the world? In response to this question, I would have to go based on experiences and things I personally know about criminology, or the study of crime. Although it may not appear so for those people who have lived here their entire lives, but the United States is seen as having a militarized government where firearms are legal in most states and drugs are a large problem. Thus, to other countries, there is more “crime” in the United States than there is in other parts of the world. But my question lies within that thought. I question whether or not that is true or not, and whether that number has been misconstrued in order to make the United States seem like a bad place in general.
I began my search with the parameters of “crime in the United States versus other countries” and that brought me to a website with an article titled “Crime > Total Crimes: Countries Compared.” Here, Edria Murray, a Staff Editor for NationMaster, wrote a post containing the statistics from multiple countries around the world and their total crime rate. According to her chart, the United States has 11.9 million total crimes reported in this study and tops the list for total crime. However, with the same exact data, she found that the United States is number 22 on the list when organized per capita,
Professor Webster
Pirate Paper
19 September, 2014
United States: Crime or Data Aficionado
Crime is and has been a constant problem in America for as long as one can remember. The problem is, there isn’t a definite definition as to why crime is much more prevalent in the United States than in other parts of the world. So I would propose that question. Although it has been studied constantly and extensively over the past centuries, there has been no definitive answer. Why is there so much crime in the US, especially in comparison to the rest of the World?
First of all, where does this definition come from? Who believes that there is more crime in the US than in the rest of the world? In response to this question, I would have to go based on experiences and things I personally know about criminology, or the study of crime. Although it may not appear so for those people who have lived here their entire lives, but the United States is seen as having a militarized government where firearms are legal in most states and drugs are a large problem. Thus, to other countries, there is more “crime” in the United States than there is in other parts of the world. But my question lies within that thought. I question whether or not that is true or not, and whether that number has been misconstrued in order to make the United States seem like a bad place in general.
I began my search with the parameters of “crime in the United States versus other countries” and that brought me to a website with an article titled “Crime > Total Crimes: Countries Compared.” Here, Edria Murray, a Staff Editor for NationMaster, wrote a post containing the statistics from multiple countries around the world and their total crime rate. According to her chart, the United States has 11.9 million total crimes reported in this study and tops the list for total crime. However, with the same exact data, she found that the United States is number 22 on the list when organized per capita,