1

Student’s Name

Professor’s Name

Course

Date

Perception vs Reality: Violent Crimes

Crime is monitored across the entire United States and recorded to analyze how effective

the measures taken by law enforcement are and also to monitor the increase or decrease of crime

rates over the years. This essay will focus on violent crimes, specifically aggravated assault, in

the United States nationally, analyzing how far the crime rate has decreased or increased

throughout several years. The essay will highlight different sources including a news report, and

research done by schools and law enforcement.

Sources

Source 1: News Report- “Many midterm races focus on rising crime. Here's what the data

does and doesn't show”. A news report by Rachel Treisman, updated on 28th October 2022. The

report is a 7-minute listen on how most data shows the rise in crime (Treisman). The radio

station, National Public Radio, has an audience of about 26.1 million listeners and targets the

whole nation.

Source 2: An article by Pew Research Center, “Violent crime is a key midterm voting

issue, but what does the data say?” written by John Gramlich on October 31st, 2022. The

unbiased organization Pew Research Center educates the public about international issues,

viewpoints, and trends (Gramlich). It conducts public surveys, demographic research, media

content analysis, and other empirical social science research projects. No political position is

taken by the Pew Research Center. The article highlights different crimes that happen in the
 2

United States and how the public perceives crime, and how aggravated assault has decreased in

the last two decades.

Source 3: An article from the Brennan Center for Justice, “Myths and Realities:

Understanding Recent Trends in Violent Crime” written by Ames Grawert and Noah Kim. The

article was published on July 12th, 2022, and has a small audience consisting mainly of people

who are interested in law and criminology and anyone who may be interested in criminal cases.

The article highlights how violent crimes increased during the pandemic, from 2020 to 2021

(Grawert and Kim). The article also shows a decrease in aggravated assaults between the years

1990 to 2020.

Source 4.” What the data says (and doesn’t say) about crime in the United States” is

another article from the Pew Research Center written by John Gramlich on November 20th, 2020.

The article highlights the perception of crime by Americans and how crime has changed over

time. It also highlights different crimes that differ in different states by conducting surveys in

more than 40 states (Gramlich).

Source 5: An article written by Richard Berk from the Department of Criminology at the

University of Pennsylvania coined, “Is Violent Crime Increasing?” in 2022. The article addresses

the students in the school and highlights an increase in violent crimes over 2 years, 2021 and

2022 (Berk). The study, however, notes that the rates of violent crimes are lower than in the years

before 2020.

Aggravated Assault

A felony known as aggravated assault results in significant physical harm carried out

using a weapon or has the intent to conduct a serious crime, like rape. The aggravating factor in

various assault laws is "assault with a deadly weapon." If an assault takes place within a
 3

relationship that the legal system views as deserving of special protection, it may be called

aggravated (Berk). Without these elements, the offense is typically categorized as simple assault.

A person who knowingly causes harm to another person commits an assault, assault,

battery, or aggravated assault. A bodily attack (or even the threat of one) is a crime that is often

classified as an assault, a battery, or both (Grawert and Kim). Depending on the severity of the

assault (or the threat posed by the weapon used), these activities may qualify as aggravated

assault. Furthermore, an assault may comprise more than one-sided attacks. Even if two people

have willingly agreed to fight, they might still be prosecuted with assault afterward.

Males make up 77.8% of those arrested for assault, even though this type of crime affects

both sexes equally. Young women are particularly at risk. 82% of all casualties who were

adolescents were female (Gramlich). 90% of adult rape victims are female. Four times as many

females between the ages of 16 and 19 experience attempted or actual rape, as well as sexual

assault.

The majority of violent crimes are perpetrated by people in the same age group, except

for adolescents under the age of 18. Juveniles were just as likely to attack an elderly person as

other juveniles. Adults between the ages of 18 and 24 were more likely to assault young victims

(Gramlich). The state of California has the most recorded cases of aggravated assault followed

by Colorado while Maine has had the lowest number of cases as of 2020. Violent crime and

aggravated assault were recorded more frequently against blacks (58% and 61%) and Native

Americans (55% and 59%), compared to whites (51% and 54%) and Asians (50% and 51%).

Native Americans were significantly less likely (45%) than Asians (31%), who were less likely

to report a minor assault.

 4

The perception caused by the media highlights more cases of violent crimes daily, and

politicians who talk about how crimes have not decreased causes fear and panic. Crime shows

and podcasts also continue to discuss the crime cases without highlighting how much the rates of

these crimes have decreased in the past two decades and have only seen a small rise post-

pandemic. The media can create a false perception on the matter and cause fear to the citizens of

the country making them feel unsafe at all times.

 5

Works Cited

Berk, Richard. “Is Violent Crime Increasing?” Is Violent Crime Increasing? | Department of

Criminology, 2022, https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/fact-check/violent-crime-increasing.

Gramlich, John. “Violent Crime Is a Key Midterm Voting Issue, but What Does the Data Say?”

Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 31 Oct. 2022,

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/10/31/violent-crime.

Gramlich, John. “What the Data Says (and Doesn't Say) about Crime in the United States.” Pew

Research Center, Pew Research Center, 23 Nov. 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-

reads/2020/11/20/facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/.

Grawert, Ames Grawert, and Noah Kim. “Myths and Realities: Understanding Recent Trends in

Violent Crime.” Brennan Center for Justice, 4 Oct. 2022,

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/myths-and-realities-

understanding-recent-trends-violent-crime.

Treisman, Rachel. “Many Midterm Races Focus on Rising Crime. Here's What the Data Does

and Doesn't Show.” NPR, NPR, 28 Oct. 2022,

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/27/1131825858/us-crime-data-midterm-elections.