Crime in the United States
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This paper is a study of crime in the United States through the examination of a quiet bedroom community in New York state called Maspeth. Crime, drugs, and the fear of becoming a victim are very much on the minds of Americans, even those who do not live in urban centers where violent criminal activity is an everyday occurrence. This paper interviews three residents of Maspeth, a police officer who grew up in the neighborhood and followed the family tradition by entering law enforcement, a recent immigrant who owns a small neighborhood store, and a former drug dealer who lives outside the neighborhood and works with a drug prevention program at the local high school as part of the conditions of his last sentence. The three represent the spectrum of attitudes about crime in America as a condition of day-to-day living in the late 20th century. Despite the prevailing fear of crime, Americans tend to see the country as an essentially orderly society. Donald MacGillis records the prevailing view that Americans hold about themselves: Of all the myths and illusions that distort Americans' view of criminal violence, the most deep-seated is certainly the notion that the country is by nature a peaceful land inhabited by a law-abiding Chosen People . . . [but] nothing could be further from the truth. The United States has an unacknowledged tradition of collective and individual law-breaking that stands out among the industrial countries (11).
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r is to some extent a healthy response to crime; however, "the fear of crime can be damaging . . . if it drives so many law-abiding city residents off the streets that unwary pedestrians lack the safety in numbers that a bustling neighborhood provides" (MacGillis 24). Koizumi also is somewhat afraid of being discriminated against because of his race: "We look different from most people here. We kept to ourselves for a long time."
Joining the watch allowed Koizumi to meet some of his neighbors; although many of them had shopped in his store, Maspeth is like many other similar communities in America, where residents keep to themselves and often do not develop personal relationships with their neighbors. DeLillo says, a little wistfully, "My parents told me stories about block parties and having people in the stores downtown wish you a happy birthday because they remembered, but those kinds of things don't happen around here these days. People lock their doors. My parents didn't start doing that until I was in elementary school. Now, just going to school can be dangerous."
Koizumi, the father of two grade-school children, agrees: "I worry that my children will be safe. We came here, not to a big city, because it would b
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Some common words found in the essay are:
York City, Fumio Koizumi, Maspeth Crime, NYPD Blue, Crime America, Benjamin White, Lynn DeLillo, Chosen People, Donald MacGillis, , crime america, crime left, criminal activity, neighborhood watches, fear crime, police officer, neighborhood watch, white agrees, maspeth police, watch program,
Approximate Word count = 1669
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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