Criminal activity, or crime, has been around since the beginning of history. Because of all of the criminal activity that has happened in the past fifty years, it has shaped the criminal justice system that we have today. Throughout the history of America, our country has gone through crime waves. In the late 19th century there was thirty years of crime that swept across our nation due to large numbers of immigrants and the Civil War. Once that epidemic stopped, Prohibition came along with the banning of alcohol and this caused a widespread spurt throughout the country. After World War II, crime rates remained relatively stable for a few decades.
During the sixties and seventies, there was a major push for civil rights for all races, including women and the disabled. With the emphasis on equality of opportunity and respect for individuals of all races, colors, genders, creeds, and personal attributes spiked the criminal activity. With the Civil Rights Movement going on during the seventies, crimes such as murder, rape, and assault increased dramatically due to fear of losing white supremacy especially in the Southern States. During the eighties, illicit drugs seemed to be the thing to do, and because of the increase in sales and usage of these drugs the crime rates in America again spiked. With the drugs seeming to be all over the country the crime was everywhere. The only difference was large cities became the homes of large drug gangs, which contributed to the loss in property values and the quality of life in these areas.
As America was at war with drugs in the eighties, in the early nineties an African American was videotaped being beaten by a police officer in Los Angeles. This outraged many people, especially the African American race and showed the abuse of police power to the country. By the mid to late nineties, the citizens of the country could see that crime rates were rising and that many of the criminals were not being punished correctly, or even at all. With the citizens seeing that criminals weren't getting punished, they felt unsafe and the era of "get tough on crime" came about. This caused the biggest crime drop in history, until the 2000's.
In 2001, America was shown that crime doesn't have to be domestic, it can be foreign as well. On September 11, 2001 there were four planes that were hijacked and crashed into government buildings in New York and Washington DC. Two were crashed into the World Trade Center, one in the Pentagon, and the last one in a field in Pennsylvania. With this foreign attack on America, it changed the focus of law enforcement to a safer and more global approach. Because of this foreign attack, the USA PATRIOT Act was passed to dramatically increase the authority of federal, state, and local police agencies to investigate. After the attacks on the USA, crime rates did stick out more than usual, especially in hate crimes against Muslim-looking people. In Arizona, and Sikh man was shot dead outside of his gas station because of the way he looked and dressed and how Americans associated that with the attacks. There was a series of backlash crimes due to the attacks, such as arson, murder, and vandalism to mosques and people.
In 2009 white collar crimes started making their way to be known in America. Bernard Madoff, and Wall Street Financier, committed fraud that shook the nation's faith in it's financial and legal systems. With Madoff being found out, many investigations went on for other suspicions about other financiers. With Madoff bringing White-collar crime into focus for Americans, it came as a serious threat to the way of life in the country. In the year of 2010, the FBI released statistics that showed the decrease in violent crime in the US dropping by six percent and property crimes were down once again, for the eighth year in a row and fell 2.7 percent. Robbery also fell 10 percent, rape by 5 percent, and murder, manslaughter, and non-negligent assault by more than four percent.
In 2011, Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by US special operations, leading to fear across America for retaliation in terrorism yet again. In America, crime rates continued to decline especially juvenile crimes which dropped by over eleven percent. In 2012, the US was safer than ever before experiencing less crimes such as murder, rape, and assault. We can remember all of the things that happened in 2012, such as the shootings of movie theaters and elementary schools and high schools and think that because of these incidents crime rates have gone up in America, but the results of studies show different. This was all a result of changes in technology and policing throughout the country. Not only were these two reasons some of the main causes for the lowest criminal activity since the 1980s but what also helped was the waning of crack cocaine to society and longer incarcerations for criminals.
Although in present day and present year, 2013, you can remember all of the crimes that have struck us and maybe even shook society from the inside out. The Boston Marathon Bombings took place this year on April 15th, killing three people and injuries hundreds from homemade bombs. The school shootings in all over, in the past year and still think that America is unsafe for us to live, but gun crimes have gone down since the ban on guns. But because of all of the past years crimes, there has been arguments over the "right to bare arms" and because of the ban and strict laws the crime rates have gone down so far. The bad thing is, we do not yet know if the crime rate has increased or decreased from 2012 because the year is still in session. But what we do know, is that because policing and society have become a whole lot smarter due to technology and waning fads, crime rates have continued to go down since the past.
During the sixties and seventies, there was a major push for civil rights for all races, including women and the disabled. With the emphasis on equality of opportunity and respect for individuals of all races, colors, genders, creeds, and personal attributes spiked the criminal activity. With the Civil Rights Movement going on during the seventies, crimes such as murder, rape, and assault increased dramatically due to fear of losing white supremacy especially in the Southern States. During the eighties, illicit drugs seemed to be the thing to do, and because of the increase in sales and usage of these drugs the crime rates in America again spiked. With the drugs seeming to be all over the country the crime was everywhere. The only difference was large cities became the homes of large drug gangs, which contributed to the loss in property values and the quality of life in these areas.
As America was at war with drugs in the eighties, in the early nineties an African American was videotaped being beaten by a police officer in Los Angeles. This outraged many people, especially the African American race and showed the abuse of police power to the country. By the mid to late nineties, the citizens of the country could see that crime rates were rising and that many of the criminals were not being punished correctly, or even at all. With the citizens seeing that criminals weren't getting punished, they felt unsafe and the era of "get tough on crime" came about. This caused the biggest crime drop in history, until the 2000's.
In 2001, America was shown that crime doesn't have to be domestic, it can be foreign as well. On September 11, 2001 there were four planes that were hijacked and crashed into government buildings in New York and Washington DC. Two were crashed into the World Trade Center, one in the Pentagon, and the last one in a field in Pennsylvania. With this foreign attack on America, it changed the focus of law enforcement to a safer and more global approach. Because of this foreign attack, the USA PATRIOT Act was passed to dramatically increase the authority of federal, state, and local police agencies to investigate. After the attacks on the USA, crime rates did stick out more than usual, especially in hate crimes against Muslim-looking people. In Arizona, and Sikh man was shot dead outside of his gas station because of the way he looked and dressed and how Americans associated that with the attacks. There was a series of backlash crimes due to the attacks, such as arson, murder, and vandalism to mosques and people.
In 2009 white collar crimes started making their way to be known in America. Bernard Madoff, and Wall Street Financier, committed fraud that shook the nation's faith in it's financial and legal systems. With Madoff being found out, many investigations went on for other suspicions about other financiers. With Madoff bringing White-collar crime into focus for Americans, it came as a serious threat to the way of life in the country. In the year of 2010, the FBI released statistics that showed the decrease in violent crime in the US dropping by six percent and property crimes were down once again, for the eighth year in a row and fell 2.7 percent. Robbery also fell 10 percent, rape by 5 percent, and murder, manslaughter, and non-negligent assault by more than four percent.
In 2011, Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by US special operations, leading to fear across America for retaliation in terrorism yet again. In America, crime rates continued to decline especially juvenile crimes which dropped by over eleven percent. In 2012, the US was safer than ever before experiencing less crimes such as murder, rape, and assault. We can remember all of the things that happened in 2012, such as the shootings of movie theaters and elementary schools and high schools and think that because of these incidents crime rates have gone up in America, but the results of studies show different. This was all a result of changes in technology and policing throughout the country. Not only were these two reasons some of the main causes for the lowest criminal activity since the 1980s but what also helped was the waning of crack cocaine to society and longer incarcerations for criminals.
Although in present day and present year, 2013, you can remember all of the crimes that have struck us and maybe even shook society from the inside out. The Boston Marathon Bombings took place this year on April 15th, killing three people and injuries hundreds from homemade bombs. The school shootings in all over, in the past year and still think that America is unsafe for us to live, but gun crimes have gone down since the ban on guns. But because of all of the past years crimes, there has been arguments over the "right to bare arms" and because of the ban and strict laws the crime rates have gone down so far. The bad thing is, we do not yet know if the crime rate has increased or decreased from 2012 because the year is still in session. But what we do know, is that because policing and society have become a whole lot smarter due to technology and waning fads, crime rates have continued to go down since the past.