Nature of crime in Chicago

Nature of crime in Chicago
Name
Course
Instructor
Date
Violent crime in Chicago, Illinois
Violence in Chicago is mostly concentrated in poor neighborhoods that are predominantly African American and with many uneducated people. In particular, the homicide rates are high in certain areas of Chicago which have struggled to contain violence for decades (Christensen, 2014). Even though, urban areas in America have pockets of impoverished communities, violent crime rates are high in Chicago. The reported homicide statistics were 448 in 2007, 531 in 2008, 459 in 2009, 436 in 2010, 435 in 2011, 506 in 2012 and 435 in 2013 (CPD Homicide Report, n.d.). Despite Chicago being associated with violent crime in the U.S. there has been a drastic fall in homicide rates from the early to mid 1990’s when rates were close to 1000 annually.
YearHomicides20064712007448200853120094592010436201143520125062013435
Types of violent crimes and rates for Chicago in recent
Even though, violent crimes and homicides have fallen in recent years, some neighborhoods have not seen changes especially in the South and West side (CPD Homicide Report, n.d). In the 90’s violent crime was mostly associated with high-rise densely populated buildings, drug activities and gang culture. At the same time, the fall in the rates of violent crime have mostly been because of low crime communities have even had further fall in the low crime areas, where crime rates have remained almost unchanged in some of the crime prone areas.
There are various types of violent crime besides homicide including assault, arson, burglaries, rape, robberies, and auto theft. The data statistics related to violent crime reported similar results for murder which were slightly lower tan homicide, given that homicide includes murder with and without motive. Thefts were by far the most violent of crimes, while arson recorded the lowest figures over time. In the most violent of crimes including rape, robberies and auto theft have reduced over time.
Type20052006200720082009201020112012Murders446467443510459432431500(per 100,000)-15.6-16.4-15.6-18-16.1-15.2-15.9-18.5Rapes1,6181,5241,5931,5691,4391,3721,459N/A(per 100,000)-56.5-53.6-56.2-55.3-50.4-48.4-53.9Robberies15,96115,86015,41216,64915,88413,75712,40813,476(per 100,000)-557.6-558-544-587-556.7-485.5-458.8-497.6Assaults17,93417,44117,41417,02915,74314,21313,97512,272(per 100,000)-626.6-613.6-614.6-600.4-551.8-501.6-516.8-453.1Burglaries25,29824,12524,71926,03126,52026,20326,42022,748(per 100,000)-883.9-848.7-872.4-917.9-929.5-924.7-976.9-839.9Thefts83,23583,51882,41885,99978,67974,76472,37372,717(per 100,000)-2,908.00-2,938.20-2,908.90-3,032.30-2,757.70-2,638.50-2,676.10-2,684.90Auto thefts22,49121,82318,56718,96915,47619,44619,07817,001(per 100,000)-785.8-767.7-655.3-668.8-542.4-686.3-705.4-627.7Arson683716705637609519503N/A(per 100,000)-23.9-25.2-24.9-22.5-21.3-18.3-18.6
 HYPERLINK "-data.com/crime/crime-Chicago-Illinois.html" -data.com/crime/crime-Chicago-Illinois.html
Comparison with Houston
The city of Houston, Texas is comparable to Chicago population wise, and although it has a smaller population the area is larger. Another major difference is that it is an emerging city, which is growing rapidly unlike Chicago is not growing rapidly. In comparison to Chicago, Houston reported lower levels of violent crime, showing that there are high crime hotspots in Chicago than in Houston. Overall, Chicago has high murder rates than even New York, which has a bigger population. There is a need to focus on classification of violent crimes, to determine whether the numbers in Chicago and Houston have either been inflated or deflated. At the same time, identifying the areas that have high crime rates in both cities would help policy makers to understand the impact of violent crime on communities.
Type2006200720082009201020112012Murders377351294287269198217(per 100,000)-18.2-16.2-13.1-12.6-11.8-9.2-10Rapes854694750823712771665(per 100,000)-41.2-32-33.5-36.2-31.2-36-30.5Robberies11,37111,47910,60311,3679,4498,0549,385(per 100,000)-548.3-529.1-473.6-499.9-414.3-375.7-431Assaults11,64812,04013,13213,11612,06111,86911,343(per 100,000)-561.7-555-586.5-576...