Violence seems to have two sides, the first being it is okay when being used to accomplish a greater goal that is socially acceptable, for example the violence taking place to overthrow Moammar Kadafi. Then there is the violence that comes with rape and child abuse and other crimes like the shooting committed by Jared Lee Loughner. Violence can affect anyone in this world. Not only does the pain last while the actual violent act is being committed, but it can leave a wound on a persons demeanor for the rest of their life. It is important to understand why violent acts take place whether it is just or unjust. Because the more we understand violence the better we can help to further prevent it in situation where it is not necessary.
Violence is affects everyone in the 21st century from when a child picks up a video game to play for recreational use, to the violence that terrorist are committing throughout the world. According to the Universal Crime Report there were 1,318,398 violent crimes committed in United States in 2009. That number is only the violent crimes that were committed and reported. This number is surely much higher since we know that all crimes are not reported. Sometimes the victims of violent crimes are scared to report the crime due to the retaliation, or the victim might be unaware that the violence being committed towards them is unjust.
Since violence comes in such abundance it is only accurate that it cost society a bundle of money. Phaedra Corso a lead author in a study which mapped out how much violence costs the United States estimates a figure of $70 billion. “The researchers found that most of the costs of violence stem from males and young adults. Sixty-eight percent of the costs from assaults and 63 percent of the costs from self-inflicted injuries were in males aged 15 to 44”. Corso also states that we can save much more money if we invest a portion of that $70 billion dollars in prevention of violence. Often times the price is even higher when having to paying the price for violence, many have paid the ultimate price by giving up their lives. In the future we need to use other tools like technology and education in order to stop the violence in the world. Police officer’s now use taser’s to subdue a criminal instead of having to use violent tactics in order to get the criminal in custody. Society should continue to use their creativity in order to help prevent violence.
I really like how you tied in violence to new advances in the 21st century such as video games. With new technology comes different ways that violent crimes arise. Computer crimes have led to an increase in minors being sexually taken advantage of on the streets. Video games have given children the notion that violence is okay so then they commit violent acts. With new technology needs to come practices to monitor the technology so that it can lead to the prevention of violent crimes.
ReplyDelete