Crime in the United Sates is most often broken down into two major categories, violent crimes and property crimes. Violent Crimes include murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. All of these involve force or the threat of force. Burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson are examples of Property Crime. The object of these crimes is the taking of money or property but do not usually subject the victim to force, with the possible exception of arson. In the violent crime category there were an estimated 1,390,695 offenses in 2005. That is approximately 470 violent crimes per 100,000 people in the US. This represents an estimated 2.3 percent increase over the prior year. Aggravated assault, an attack by one person on another with the purpose of causing severe injury, accounted for 62% of the 2005 number. Another 30% was robbery, the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the control, care or custody of a person by force or threat of force. The remaining percentage was due to murder (1.2 percent) and forcible rape (6.8 percent). Murder is the willful killing of a human being and forcible rape is defined as “The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will”. Many could have been prevented had the victims been prepared. In the case of Property Crimes the victims are not usually present at the time the crime is committed. In 2005 there were an astounding 10,166,159 (estimated) property crimes reported nationwide. Although this number represents a 1.5 percent decrease from 2004 it still means there were an estimated 3,430 property crimes per 100,00 inhabitants. Two thirds of all property crimes in 2005 were larceny thefts, which include bicycles, automobile accessories, shoplifting, pocket-picking, or stealing of any property not taken by force. The total amount of property taken in 2005 was valued at an estimated $16.5 BILLION. Again, with the proper precautions many of these crimes could have been prevented. In other cases the perpetrators may have been caught if there had been alarms or recording devices installed at the time the crime was committed. Everyone tends to believe that “it will never happen to me”. Yet, when we pick up the morning paper it is happening everywhere. Not a day goes by that we do not see a report where the neighbors say something like “I never would have believed that something like that could happen here”. Well believe it and take action to protect your family, friends, loved ones, neighbors and yourself. After all, where would your family be without you?
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Tom Stabler
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