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I'd like to get a good, candid discussion on why the United States is such a violent nation compared to other "First World" (i.e. nations that are equally as wealthy as we are) nations such as those in Western Europe and East Asia. I look forward to the discussion but I'm also doing this for a survey in my research paper, so please respond to the poll.
You can vote for more than one option on this poll. I understand this is a complex issue and there is no single answer to this question, just as I'm sure there is no single solution.
Last edited by jco; 10-03-2007 at 07:14 PM..
Reason: Request fulfilled
I'd like to get a good, candid discussion on why the United States is such a violent nation compared to other "First World" (i.e. nations that are equally as wealthy as we are) nations such as those in Western Europe and East Asia. I look forward to the discussion but I'm also doing this for a survey in my research paper, so please respond to the poll.
According to a 2005 study by the UN (which is not known for having a love affair with the US, so we can guess they aren't pulling their punches), the violent crime rate is far higher in the UK than the US. Google it. I did.
Even if the U.K. is a violent nation, it still leaves questions unanswered for the U.S. The general theory that poverty breeds crime doesn't seem to apply in the U.S. Our poor would live like kings in most of the rest of the world.
i voted for #2 and #4. #2 being the main culprit. but i do believe that music and media are powerful tools, and misuse can certainly help shape a culture's already unstable shape.
What it comes down to is a total lack of respect for the law. Literally, many feel there's nothing wrong with crime, and it's just an unfortunate turn of events when they get caught. Occasionally getting caught committing a violent criminal act is nothing more than a routine cost of doing business. And this comes from a combination of things. In some cases it's that the parents are setting bad examples for their children, in other cases it's that the parents aren't around. Which means the kids on the street corner and the TV have more to say about how their children are raised than the actual parents do. Dealing drugs, shooting people and stealing is as much a part of their lives as joining the boy scouts is for others.
As an ex-corrections officer I noticed a few things that are relevant to this topic. First of all I don't think most people realize just how violent gang bangers in this country are. Most will shoot you without a second thought, and not care one way or another if you live. All they know is crime. They grow up with it, and frequently learn it from their parents, and they have usually graduated and become even more violent than their parents were.
Another problem is when we have so called civil rights leaders justifying or excusing violent crime. There's never an excuse for committing an act of predatory violence. Yet over and over we see civil rights leaders excuse violent behavior and at times, reward it.
Add in the fact that we have millions and millions of criminal illegal aliens here that have absolutely no respect for anyone or anything and the result is chaos. Our prisons and jails nationwide are averaging somewhere around 30% illegal alien occupancy. They are here for profit and no other reason. They will murder, rape, steal, deal and transport drugs and they're outright willing to kill you for doing nothing more than looking at them wrong.
Things are definitely not looking up, and things are definitely going to get a whole lot worse before they get better. If they get better that is. Things are so bad in so many areas of the country it's all armed police can do to just contain the violence. In other words, in many neighborhoods armed police officers aren't even trying to clean up the violence, they are just struggling to keep it from spilling over into other areas.
While there is certainly violence here, I wouldn't say we stand out from the rest of the world. There are some better than us on that, but the majority are at least as bad or worse.
One option that you failed to put up there, is Lenient Laws. While I truly hear the things that you are saying about poverty; music/media; gang bangers, etc. - you're talking about the inner city. There are other crimes as well, such as sexual predators/child molestors, serial killers, etc. which I would classify into the violent category as well.
With that being said, there is an issue of enforcing laws. I also firmly believe that if we were to have stiffer penalities or better yet:
Stealing/robbing, etc. = cut off a finger or hand
Child Molestation/Rape = torture (i.e. cut off private part)
Murder = death by firing squad
The only problem that I see with this, is that America is full of corrupt police officers and many people have been wrongfully charged and/or convicted of crimes that they did not commit. Hence the great divide over the death penalty. So, I believe that if there is a police officer or any person responsible for enforcing the law, who is caught abusing his/her authority, they should be punished in the same manner as the convicted would be and I'm sure that this would more than likely ensure that the next person would think twice about his/her actions.
America was founded on violence and it will probably end itself in violence. From Presidential assassinations to lynching blacks to dropping atomic bombs to the countless wars we've been involved we are a violent people. It seems ingrained in us sadly.
While there is certainly violence here, I wouldn't say we stand out from the rest of the world. There are some better than us on that, but the majority are at least as bad or worse.
True. But that's why I tried to make it fair by comparing the U.S. to other economically well off nations. Obviously the world has no shortage of Somalias, Liberias, and Iraqs.
@ Hawkeye48:
For the most part I agree with you, but one major point I feel I must make - though it's the police's job to contain the violence or at least enforce the law, I don't see the police as being the good guys. In my personal experience, most cops have a certain type of personality - the type of personality that likes to bully or intimidate people. In other words, at best cops are the lesser of the two evils (they're only *slightly* better than criminals); at worst I feel like the police are criminals themselves who get away with doing the same stuff criminals do by hiding under the umbrella of the legal system and a good ol' boy network in every respective major city in the U.S. Not saying you or any of your C.O. buddies or any other law enforcement official is a bad guy, but let's be real - many, if not most cops are basically bullies with badges. They tend to be the type of people who get a power trip from their job and that's why they do it despite the crappy pay in almost every police jurisdiction, particularly the ones where they're "working" the hardest.
I'm by no means militant, but as a young black man born and raised in the inner city, I know that this is a sad reality in America today and I feel it's something that must be said. For those of you who are curious, I did vote in this poll - I picked black on black crime as well as government's callousness toward poor minorites as being the main culprits for violence in America. MiamiRob's point about the U.S. always being a violent country is one I hadn't thought of but I wish I had - from the slave ships traversing the Middle Passage and the virtual genocide of hundreds of Native American tribes throughout the present day United States, to the present day where we wage wars on countries we *think* might attack us sometime in the future, this country was literally founded on violence and lives by violence. Violence begets violence and in America we live by the sword and will die by the sword, as MiamiRob pointed out.
America historically has been populated by people who felt (and rightfully so) that they had to take what they could get by any means necessary. I say rightfully so because historically we have been an extremely capitalist society; only after the Great Depression did the government institute socialist-style programs that provided a social "safety net" for people in this country. Other than that, it's every man for himself and make all the money you can any way you can in the land of the free, home of the brave. That's the American Way.
Last edited by AQUEMINI331; 10-03-2007 at 06:40 PM..
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
26,700 posts, read 41,801,766 times
Reputation: 41398
i voted for the first 4
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