Violence in America

The figures roughly parallel those for the increases in property crimes (1726 per 100,000 in 1960 to 4903 per 100,000 in 1992), the gun supply (54,000,000 in 1950 to over 200,000,000 in 1990), and the number of out-of-wedlock births (approximately 11 percent of all births in 1970, and nearly 30 percent in 1992), to which the escalating level of violence has been closely linked (U.S. News, 1994, p. 24). Over the course of the past generation, the nation has seen the development of several anti-crime "seasons" during which "the public's preoccupation with crime rose as citizens' concerns about the economy subsided--and then waned as economic issues regained center stage" (Gest, 1994, p. 24). The current interest level in dealing with crime, especially violent crime and offenders, spurred in part by "periodic

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alth officials list homicide as one of the top five causes of death among children in the United States, the data is largely based upon inadequate studies involving fatal child abuse of infants and preschoolers--where perpetrators are usually parents or other custodians--but rarely includes crimes involving strangers (Hotaling & Finkelhor, 1990, p. 386). In a year-by-year comparison (1976 to 1984) of stranger-abduction homicides to all child homicides, Hotaling and Finkelhor (1990) show that the number of stranger-abduction homicides is equivalent to roughly 10 percent of all child homicides, based upon the estimates available (Table 3, p. 393). In their analysis, it was determined that the youngest children are at the lowest risk for stranger-abduction homicide. Youngsters ages 10-17 constituted the bulk of victims, and if the findings were limited to adolescents aged 14-17, the results would show that "they alone account for 69 percent of all homicides in this category" (p. 393). The researchers also compared rates of victimization based upon gender and race. According to FBI statistics for homicide in general, male children are twice as likely as females to be murdered (Finkelhor & Hotaling, 1990, pp. 394-395). A 19
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