Cities have been rocked with increased crime rates, social problems, and violence which include youth violence, collective violence, shootings, and child abuse and neglect. Violence in the cities exposes everybody including the innocent and the children. The idea of the American cities turning to be jungles was observed by James Burnham in 1964. It is observed that in these jungles, the “beasts” are armed.
Violence in cities has claimed lives through death, caused permanent mental and physical injuries among other causes. Violence has also been reported in schools where the young carry with their weapons, making such a public place appear ‘wild’. In 1994, Chicago alone could realize shooting in every 34 minutes and a murder every 8 hours. In the same year, seventeen children who were under fourteen years were claimed by the more than 13,000 shootings in Chicago (“Notes from the jungle”).
Reasons contributing to general violence includes implementation of harsh discipline in a society leading to defiance of masses, inadequate and poor monitoring and supervision for example at school as prevention means of avoiding crime, drug smuggling, access to firearms, inequalities in terms of economy and gender, forms or views supporting violence as a way to solving political or other forms of conflict. The difference between the levels of crime in urban centers and rural areas is the easier access to firearms in urban areas than the rural, more drug dealing in towns, and a kind of enlightenment to social and other issues that can be associated with people living around cities that may make them become more reactive in terms of mass defiance to resist political or other forms of structures like the economic and social structures. In the cities, therefore, people are more likely to react to oppose governmental obligations, rules, economic policies which they view as a burden, and other forms of ‘mistreatment’ (“Preventing violence in cities”). The presence of more people who are coming to seek employment in towns from the rural areas has led to slums and encouraged the formation of social classes of the low economy which may be seen as viewing the higher economy class as enemies. The same people may end up becoming drug dealers and violent robbers and acquire of firearms is a way to help them carry out the crimes.
Cultural diversity found around the cities which harbors people of different cultural backgrounds, races, tribes, and traditions may also result in increased violence in cities when these diverse people cannot live together as one people. Sometimes racism and tribalism may be set up between the diverse city-dwellers, and discrimination-genuine or just claim of it becomes a reason to disobey massively against the established order. Besides, achieving a system that balances diversity may be hectic. For example, the introduction of systems that ensures proper representation of all races in the armed forces in the United States has led to the prevalence of African-Americans in the name of affirmative action which led to the realization of some opposing views about the action. Compensatory justice though may be viewed as a way of repaying people for past discrimination and other negative treatments like slavery (Schulman), which may result in unfair competition which may lead to mass resistance. For example, according to a 1995 Newsweek poll (cited in Schulman), 46% thought whites were losing because of affirmative action while 23% thought blacks were losing from racial discrimination. Thus differences among citizens may be brought forward by policies, and the problem is heightened in cities where these differences are real, leading to physically-real violence in resistance and defiance.
References
- Preventing Violence in cities. (html).
- “Notes from the jungle”. National Review. FindArticles.com.
- Notes from the jungle. National Review. 1992.
- Schulman Miriam. Affirmative action or negative action. Is there a different way to frame the debate over race-based preference? Web.