Murder & Other Crimes

Crime in America

The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) issues an annual Uniform Crime Report, which consists of all crimes reported to the FBI by contributing police departments. Not all police departments report to the FB I because some politicians hide the number of crimes committed in their jurisdictions, fearing that their re-election is jeopardized if the size of crimes under their watch are too high. Nevertheless it is well known that there are about 20,000 murders and 20,000 suicides in this country each year. 

The FBI divides crimes into two categories. These are felonies, defined as crimes carrying a penalty of more than one year in a federal or state prison, and misdemeanors, which are penalized with one year or less in a county jail. There are seven felonies recorded by Uniform Crime Reports. These are Murder or Homicide, Assault, Robbery, Burglary, Larceny, Auto Theft, and Arson. 

Some time ago I published a book entitled Murder. This book is based on a large number of annual police reports which were sent to me by numerous police departments around the country at my request. Suicide, or self-murder, was also included. 

The outcome of my study reveals these results. 1. A majority of murders in this country are committed by men. Women are a good deal less murderous than men. 2. The age of murderers is to be found mostly among males age seventeen to 37. 3. The circumstances leading to murder are a. sudden violent anger, b. Premeditated killing by organized criminals. 4. Suicides preceded by murder of others viewed as responsible for the suicides the killers seek. These may be called "suicide by cop" in that the killers shoot or stab innocent bystanders in the expectation of being killed themselves. 5. For example, recently a seventeen year old high school student suddenly entered a high school with a high powered rifle. He shot six individuals. One student died, and four were wounded, as was the principal. That achieved, the killer killed himself. 6. Homicide is far more likely among poor and minority groups than among middle class or upper class Americans. Suicide is far more common among upper and middleclass Americans. 7. The homicide rate among Americans of European descent is 3 per 100,000. The homicide rate for Americans of African descent is 18 per 100,000. The reason for the high homicide rate among Afro-Americans is related to poverty. Euro-Americans among the poor also exhibit a higher homicide rate than is true of middle class or upper class people. The suicide rate among Euro-Americans is much higher than the suicide rate among Afro-Americans. Poor people with jobs paying low incomes blame others for their problems and therefore are more willing to kill those who they believe are responsible for their misery. Well paid, high income people blame themselves for failures of all kinds and therefore are more likely to kill themselves. 8. Women have a much lower rate of homicide and suicide than is true of men. Women are taught to be less aggressive than men, not only because they do not have the muscles of men, but also because they are not as likely to possess a gun or have the agility to kill with a knife. Women ae much more likely to attempt suicide shortly before they are discovered and rescued from running a car engine in a closed garage at the very time when their man comes home. 9. Both homicide victims and killers are mostly between the ages of seventeen ad thirty five. 10. There are more killings on Saturday nights than any other part of the week. This phenomenon is related to the excess of alcohol consumed on Saturday nights. There are more murders om Christmas day than any other day of the year. This is related to the presence of family members who get violently angry with respect to family issues in the presence of alcohol. 11. Murder occurs more often in warm or hot weather than in winter conditions. This comes about because there are more potential victims available in the outdoors than inside homes. 12. Some murders are the result of psychiatric deviance. Some seriously crazy people will kill others and themselves. 13. Failue to prosecute dangerous individuals promotes murder. Numerous case histories concerning killers exhibit that people with uncontrolled violent characteristics are more likely to kill in an outburst of anger than is true of normal people. 14. The so called death penalty is also a form of murder and must be eliminated from American society. Prison guards and wardens have no right to murder fellow citizens even if their victims are guilty of murder. Moreover, numerous innocent citizens are killed by the "death penalty" every day. As it has been said, "Better that innumerable guilty citizens be allowed freedom than that one innocent person be penalized."

Post Script: My book Murder includes many case histories.

Shalom u'vracha.

[ Home ] [ Up ]