Free Custom «Researching Crime Trends» Essay Paper

According to the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics crime index for the years 2001-2004, the rate of crimes varies in different cities. Some of the five cities with comparable population had almost similar rates of violent and property crime. The first city is New York which has the largest population of about 8, 220,196. It had a property crime of approximately 1, 819, while the violent crime was 614.The second city is Los Angeles in California. Its population is approximately 3,870, 487. Its rate of violent crime was about 718, while its property crime was 2,621.The third city is Houston in Texas. The city has a population approximately 2, 169,544 with a violent crime of about 1,132 and property crime of 5,684.The fourth city is Chicago in Illinois with a population of 2,824,434. Its property crime was about 4,472 and violent crime of 1,069. The fifth city is Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania. Its population is 1,635,533 with a violent crime of approximately 1,475 and property crime of 4,305.

 

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The statistics shows that Dallas in Texas had the highest aggregate of both violent and property crimes of about 7,845. It was closely followed by Philadelphia and Michigan. From the analysis of the examined cities, the rate of crime is going down. The trends in the rate of crimes are reducing yearly (Michael, 2003). Several factors have accounted for the changes in crime rate. Some of these factors include improved police work, changing trends in demographics of the aging population, initiatives to hire more cops to deal with various crimes, and the rise in the number of American prisoners.

The fact that crime rate is reducing gradually is supported by various reasons. Firstly, America has been placing the fight against crime on the top of the agenda for long. Every president was required to come up with different agendas to fight the crime (Michael, 2003). However, this situation has slowed down as mechanisms to fight crime have been effective. Although the fight against the crime is still high, positive outcomes are evident. For instance, murder rate has reduced from the previous rate of about 9.8 per 100,000 people to a lower level.