Crimes in USA

In USA, one of the most famous crime is gun crime, which involved the use of guns, ranging from handguns to even machine guns. Such weapons could be easily bought illegally from even hardware stores in chaotic neighborhoods. Gun crimes in the USA have doubled over the last six years and there are more people now using illegal firearms than before. In Alabama, which has a history of gun crimes, it has a murder rate of 70 per year, more than the whole of West Midlands put together. However, the Birmingham police has ever since developed a harsher way to deal with such crimes. For example, anyone caught selling drugs within a three metres radius of a school or housing estate is hit with a 5 year jail charge on top of any other charges if in possession of illegal firearm. Every since, it has reduced gun related crimes by half and has been successful in isolating criminals found in possession of any firearms.

Another crime, which could caused huge sums of money to be lost, is internet crime. Internet crimes are usually committed by hackers. Bank account information, credit card information all could be easily accessed by these hackers if the user is not careful when making online purchases. Also, professional hackers could also have the ability to get hold of state secrets and top-classified information. When such information are in the wrong hands, disasters like war may even happen. Huge sums of money would also be lost during the process. Another aspect of internet crime is obscenities. Explicit contents like child pornography could be easily accessed even though it is a crime for child pornography to be distributed in many countries today.

Other violent crime includes forcible rape, robbery, burglary, property crimes, motor vehicle theft and arson. Petty crimes like robbery have been exceptionally on the rise through the years. In New York, the state which has the highest crime rate in the USA, it could be seen that petty crimes have been rising at least by 50% as the years gone by, the state with the highest statistic for petty crime is Missouri, with over 10 000 of such crimes reported in 2008.

Crimes cause the lives of people to be affected in a way, making some feeling insecure about the environment they live in. Many live in fear that one day, they might be hurt by criminals who just want to get hands on their valuables and hurt them. In order to stop this, much still needs to be done by the state government to stop the increase in crimes in the USA.

By Clement Ong (10S25)

2 comments:

Eliza Isa said...

I feel appalled about the crimes in USA, especially gun-related ones. They do not occur as often in other parts of this world unlike USA. However, its not surprising at all since guns are made available in some places there. Although there might be illegal restrictions on certain age groups that wants to purchase the guns, this still did not halt them from getting hold of it. Evidence of such claim would be mass shootings that is commonly reported in US schools. Thus, I feel that more attention and defence should be concentrated onto this area. In addition, I agree with the article that more needs to be done by the government in stepping up security to prevent the burgeoning petty crimes and ensuring the safety of the people. Even though USA is such a big country and its not possible to eliminate all crime-offencers act, but reducing it can be achieved and I think they are capable and have the ability of countering crimes. The government could perhaps increase security measures in places that are targeted by crime-offencers or imposed stricter laws to deter and galvanise them.
Overall, I feel that a stronger security is needed quickly to prevent the uprising number of crims and at the same time to reduce the people's fear of being aimed as the next victim of these dangerous people.

Yik Zhen 10A07

K Loh said...

The rising crime rate, especially involving petty crimes, perplexed and interested me as United State of America (USA) is considered to be a developed country but such statistics on crimes reflect negatively about security in USA. Although USA has high level of growth and development, less serious crime known as misdemeanor or petty crime is still ironically rising.
I agree that such high rate of crime will certainly affect the lives of people living there, and it is common for people to fear and feel insecure in a dangerous environment. Therefore, the government should deal with this rising problems, or else it will cause other implications such as unhappiness and fear among people and loss of faith in government.
Unlike Singapore, she has low crime rate due to severe punishment imposed upon criminal offenses so as to deter such acts. With restriction to Singaporeans to own guns, there is low gun violence as compared to other countries that allow usage of guns. Different countries have their own law enforcements, which produce different consequences and situations in a particular country. With more severe penalties posed on criminal act, this will heighten security level which will lower crime rate.
I suggest that the USA government should take action against illegal gun trades by searching and clearing illegal guns with aid from police so as to put a stop to such trade. They also should reinforce the overall security by increasing the number of police patrols, and pose harsher laws to curb the number of people from buying guns for their own “protection”.

Lee Tuck Chong (10S25)