Ryan Batista
Casey Lukenbill
SOCIOLOGY 1
TWTH 4:10-6:50 P.M.
2/3/2011
Violent Crimes in Society Deviance is the contravention of what society sees as normal. Crime is one of the main problems within deviance that society faces on a daily basis. One specific type of crime that many are affected by is violent crime. This type of crime ranges from minor traffic violations to murder. Violent crimes in the United States affect society domestically, personally, and sexually. One type of violent crime that affects men and woman is domestic violence. According to Professor Lukenbill’s lecture, domestic violence used to be a major dilemma that many would be scared to express freely, but because of how strict society has become on the issue, it is slowly declining. For example, stricter laws have taken a threshold on cutting down unnecessary abuse. The authorities did not take this issue as seriously as they did then as they do now. The police would merely show up, ask what was wrong, and leave the premises. Presently, the police now have to arrest the suspect of the abuse without further notification. The arresting takes place in order to ensure the safety of the victimized spouse. Also, this is an example of how the law is stricter than ten years ago. Another reason for the decline of domestic abuse is the wider variety of job opportunities that women have today. In fact, since women now have more employment opportunities, they can fend for themselves and not feel the insecurity of leaving their spouse. Although there are still some instances where the wife has the fear of leaving their significant other due to financial causes and insecurities, it is not as common as it used to be when domestic violence rates were higher. “Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women—more than care accidents, muggings, and rapes combined (www.domesticviolencestatistics.org).” Therefore, men and woman are still affected by domestic violence even though it has made a significant decline. Another example of violent crime is hate crimes or “a personal offense against a person or property (Casey Lukenbill).” Hate crimes are motivated because the offender has a bias due to race, religion, ethnicity, culture, and for sexual orientation. For instance, nineteen year old, Todd Mitchell, an African American, was standing with some friends in front of his apartment complex in Kenosha, Wisconsin. They had just seen the film Mississippi Burning and were discussing a scene that showed a white man beating an African American boy while he was knelt in prayer. Filled with rage from the scene, they saw a young white boy walking down the street and decided to attack him and take his shoes (Sociology p. 229). Although the white boy did absolutely nothing wrong towards the African Americans, he was beaten because of his race. This type of hate crime has to do with a bias towards race and ethnicity. “Forty-five states and the federal government had enacted legislation that increased penalties for crimes motivated by hatred (Anti-Defamation Bureau in 2008).” On the contrary, some hate crimes are not always recognized. For example, hate crimes against homosexual men and woman are on the rise. A reason for this instance may have to do with the fear of being laughed at, not being taken seriously, or discriminated. Therefore, hate crimes are an illustration of bias towards those who live outside of society’s cultural norm.
Lastly, a third type of violent crime is sexual assault which is an act of ravishment or forcible intercourse. Sexual assault is a crime that is more than likely planned out in advanced. For example, according to the class lecture normally the victim and the perpetrator know each other before the sexual assault occurs. “Between 62% and 84% of survivors knew their attacker (www.oneinfourusa.org).” In addition to this, what happens is the perpetrator gains the trust of the victim in order to take advantage of them later on. The perpetrator poses to appear as the victims “friend” so that the victim can let their guard down and become vulnerable in which the perpetrator attempts to commit the assault. It is possible that the perpetrator may even be a family member of the victim. Also, the reason for sexual assault is for the satisfaction of feeling in control or empowered. The author of the text views sexual assault as “forcible rape” or “the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will (Sociology p. 230).” Nevertheless, this deviant act happens every day in the U.S. Therefore, sexual assault has been linked towards those who know the perpetrator. I can relate towards this social problem personally because my uncle was a victim of a hate crime. My uncle is a homosexual male and one day he was walking with his significant other when suddenly he was wrongfully accused of drawing a gun at a pedestrian. Because of this accusation, my uncle experienced police brutality. No gun was found on my uncle but the police continued to physically assault my uncle as they insulted him with discriminating vernacular. In conclusion, these violent crimes have become a part of society’s norm but action is taking place to try and decrease these areas of unlawful offenses.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sociology (13th ed.).(2010) Upper Saddle River, NJ; Kenyon College.
Lecture Notes by Casey Lukenbil. http://domesticviolencestatistics.org/domestic-violence-statistics/ Domestic violence [electronic resource] : intervention, prevention, policies, and solutions. Davis, Richard L., 1941. CRC Press, c2008. xxiii, 293 p.;

Reporting sexual assault [electronic resource] : a social ecology perspective. Ménard, Kim S., 1965. LFB Scholarly Pub. 2005. xiv, 210 p. ;

http://www.oneinfourusa.org/statistics.php