No single society is without crimes and criminals. America is not an exemption to this global rule despite her enormous wealth and vast opportunities for career advancement and money making. Crimes occur every moment in one part of America or another. Our courts are full of cases of various types of crimes. The branch of law that specializes in crimes is growing daily in leaps and bounds. Criminal attorneys are popular, famous and have made a lot of fortunes practicing criminal law.
According to the yearly publication from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), over 3.8 million arrests were made for violent crimes (murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and assault), property crimes (burglary, theft and arson) and non-violent crimes alone in 2009. The already overburdened American taxpayers are still shadowed with the huge responsibilities carrying these hefty financial costs of keeping convicted criminals behind bars.
As of today in America, data that are available showed that the crime rate is increasing from coast to coast, teenagers are now the major players in most crimes committed around this nation, the median age of criminals is dropping and majority of crimes are committed by habitual criminals. The goodnews is that most of the criminals are caught and convicted for their crimes by our effective and already overloaded criminal justice system.
Kerby Anderson the president of the Probe Ministries International on his website has this to say about crime
in America: "the crime clock continues to click: one murder every 22 minutes, one rape every 5 minutes, one robbery every 49 seconds, and one burglary every 10 seconds. And the cost of crime continues to mount: $78 billion for the criminal justice system, $64 billion for private protection, $202 billion in loss of life and work, $120 billion in crimes against business, $60 billion in stolen goods and fraud, $40 billion from drug abuse, and $110 billion from drunk driving. When you add up all the costs, crime costs Americans a stunning $675 billion each year".
WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD IN SOLVING THIS ENORMOUS NATIONAL PROBLEM
(i) The most effective antidote to crimes is by putting more police officers on our streets.
(ii) Keep dangerous, habitual and violent criminals behind the bars perpetually or for a long period of time.
(iii) Put an effective gun control bill in place that will prevent guns from getting into the hands of these criminals.
(iv) Building strong community and police relationship that will allow members of the various communities to work hand-in-hand with their police departments in curbing this high crime rate.
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