Effect (s) on Crime Rates during the 1990s Compared to the Period of Research Paper

Effect (s) on Crime Rates during the 1990s Compared to the Period of 2000 to 2010 - Research Paper Example Some other attributed it to economic crisis and poverty, the influence of abuse in alcoholic drinks. the influence of excessive violence in films and videos, and the lack of respect for authority and the law. Yet, Douglas McDonald and Peter Finn (2000) noted that â€Å"use of illegal drugs began to be more widespread in the late 1960s, and that the increasing integration of the world’s economies has also expanded opportunities for organized criminal enterprises to traffic in drugs more efficiently and with less risk, to support terrorism, and to commit theft, often in a massive scale.†(p. 1) The effect of the drugs may lead to horrendous criminal activities. Aside from this, since drugs are very expensive, addicts frequently resort to crime such as burglaries, assaults and ambushes, to pay for their habit. However, McDonald and Finn also noted in their review article that in the period of 1960s, â€Å"the Federal Government had emerged to be more active in crime contro l†. ... Based from the records compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, wherein levels of crime are measured by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, the national overall crime rate has been decreasing since 1991. Their listed categorized reasons for the decreasing rates are: effective strength of law enforcement agencies; administrative and investigative emphases of law enforcement; policies of other components of the criminal justice system; citizen’s attitudes towards crime; population density and degree of urbanization; variations in composition of the population, particularly youth concentration; economic conditions, including median income, poverty level, and job availability; cultural factors and educational, recreational, and religious characteristics; family conditions with respect to divorce and family cohesiveness; stability of population with respect to residents’ mobility, commuting patterns, and transient factors; modes of transportation and highway syste m; climate; and crime reporting practices of the citizenry. (Marowitz, 2000, p. 1) For easier analysis of the factors that affect the decreased in crime rate, FBI’s crime data, the United States Crime Index Rate, classified crime rates into two major components, which are property and violent crime rates. Violent crimes categories, crimes committed against people, are murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault, while property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. (Marowitz, 2000, p. 3) Marowitz (2000) analysis on the statistics record of United States Crime Index, by the year 1960-1998, burglary rate’s decrease was seen from 1986 to 1991