... lower than the 1994 total and 7 percent lower than the 1991 total, represented the fourth consecutive annual decline. A comparison with 1986 figures, however, showed a 5- percent increase over the last 10-year period. By region, the Southern States recorded 38 percent of all Crime Index offenses reported to law enforcement. The lowest volume was reported in the Northeastern States, accounting for 16 percent of the total. All regions except the West showed Crime Index decreases compared to 1994 figures. Property valued at $15.6 billion was stolen in connection with all Crime Index offenses. Crime Rate: The 1995 Crime Index rate, 5,278 per 100,000 populatio ...
Words: 845 - Pages: 4
... that marihuana use spread explosively. The chronicle of its 3,000 year history, however, shows that this "explosion" has been characteristic only of the contemporary scene. The plant has been grown for fiber and as a source of medicine for several thousand years, but until 500~ AD its use as a mind-altering drug was almost solely confined in India. The drug and its uses reached the Middle and Near East during the next several centuries, and then moved across North Africa, appeared in Latin America and the Caribbean, and finally entered the United States in the early decades of this century. Marijuana can even be used as "Biomass" fuel, where the pulp (hurd) of th ...
Words: 819 - Pages: 3
... committing violent acts. Numerous studies have been created attempting to prove this belief; however, “[a]ll the evidence taken together makes it hard to be confident that capital punishment deters more than long prison terms do.”(Cavanagh 4) Going ever farther, Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Montgomery based Equal Justice Initiative, has stated that “…people are increasingly realizing that the more we resort to killing as a legitimate response to our frustration and anger with violence, the more violent our society becomes…We could execute all three thousand people on death row, and most people would not feel any safer tomorrow.”(Frame 51) In addit ...
Words: 1401 - Pages: 6
... the freeing of convicted criminals could be prevented (Rodriguez). Capital punishment is also cheaper than life imprisonment because it is less expensive to execute a prisoner than to keep him in an institution. Every year, valuable tax dollars go towards keeping prisoners in jail however, if the death penalty was used more often, some of this money could go towards other important causes such as gun control and education (Caldwell 598). Moreover, it is important to keep in mind that laws do change as do parole boards and people eventually forget the past. Life imprisonment lets the murderer live and as long as the person is alive, there is always a chance, n ...
Words: 457 - Pages: 2
... or violent acts involving fire arms to occur. It is a proven fact that handguns have been the murder weapon of choice. Guns are involved in half of all homicide cases. People believe that society has relied on weapons that create harm and criminals. Therefore, these weapons should be outlawed. However, law abiding citizens have the right to protect themselves against danger. Due to the ownership of guns, burglaries have reduced considerably. A gun is a tool, guns don't kill people. People kill people. The matter depends on who is using the gun, and what situation it is involved in. Purchasing a handgun legally is a complex procedure. The consumer m ...
Words: 447 - Pages: 2
... United States makes firearm ownership legal in this country. There were good reasons for this freedom, reasons which persist today. Firearms in the new world were used initially for hunting, and occasionally for self-defense. However, when the colonists felt that the burden of British oppression was too much for them to bear, they picked up their personal firearms and went to war. Standing against the British armies, these rebels found themselves opposed by the greatest military force in the world at that time. The 18th century witnessed the height of the British Empire, but the rough band of colonial freedom fighters discovered the power of the Minuteman, the ave ...
Words: 1567 - Pages: 6
... is an immoral system that is unacceptable. The most widely used argument in support of is that the consequence of execution influences criminal behavior more effectively than imprisonment does (Amnesty International). Although the argument may sound reasonable, in reality the death penalty fails as a deterrent. First, punishment can only be a useful deterrent if it is rational and immediately used. cannot meet those conditions. The number of first degree murderers who are sentenced to death is small, and of this group an even smaller number of people are eventually executed. Moreover, the possibility of increasing the number of convicted murderers sentenc ...
Words: 3289 - Pages: 12
... excitement. The Romans put slaves and prisoners in the Coliseum as lion food while spectators enjoyed the sight (Horwitz 13). In the early colonial states, the death penalty was applied for a vast number of crimes, just like in England, the ruler of the states in this era (II 536). In England, in the 18th century, there were approximately 220 offenses punishable by death. Some of them would today be considered as misdemeanors and petty crimes (i. e. shooting of a rabbit, the theft of a pocket handkerchief, and to cut down a cherry tree) (Horwitz 13). The majority of these were crimes dealing with property. However, transportation became an alternative to exe ...
Words: 1660 - Pages: 7
... the National Rifle Association, better known as the NRA, argue that the "right To bear arms" is guaranteed in the second amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America and licensing restrictions penalize law-abiding citizens while in no way preventing criminal use of handguns. It is also argued that by making it difficult for guns to be bought and registered for the American public there is a threat to the personal safety of American families everywhere. However controlling the sale and distribution of firearms is necessary because of the homicide rate involving guns. In 1988 there were 9000 handgun related murders in America. Me ...
Words: 542 - Pages: 2
... Some people in prison even have television, others treat it like a hotel. This disgusts me! This doesn't sound at all like a prison. A prison is a place where people are supposed to be punished. Not treated like guests. There is a fin line between being punished and being over punished however. I'm not saying that each person should be beaten daily, or made to stay in a cell by themselves with no one to talk to for an eternity. The person should be punished according to the crime. "An eye for an eye." This brings me to the subject of capital punishment. I'm sure some of you are disgusted by the word, but I am not. I am disgusted with the fact that it i ...
Words: 501 - Pages: 2
