Chapter 4 – Physical Violence

Assault and Aggravated Assault

• Assault involves the unlawful use of physical force against another person.
• Assault is less serious than homicides but a lot more frequent. It is legally divided into two types: simple and aggravated.
• Aggravated assault is a brutal attack with an intent to cause serious harm with or without the use of a deadly weapon.
• Considered a felony that carries a severe penalty.
• Aggravated assault is basically similar to homicide, only differs in consequence
• All other forms of assault are considered misdemeanors with a less severe punishment.
• Research has proven two ways in which assault differs from homicide:
• Assaulters are less likely than murderers to use firearms when committing a crime.
• And in the summer, the number of homicides increase slightly, but assault increases significantly.
• When it’s hot people tend to go out more; the poor that have air-conditioned homes tend to go out more increasing social interaction.
• Heat stress and an increase in alcohol consumption heighten aggression.

Who is more likely to kill?

• Killers are most likely poor, blacks which are generally poorer than whites and are more likely than whites to commit homicides.
• Poor countries have higher rates of homicide than rich nations.
• The South has more homicides than any other region in the U.S.
• Individuals with violent pasts have higher rates of homicides.
• Large cities have more killings than smaller cities.
• Men are more likely than women to kill.
• Young men between the ages of (18-24) are more likely than other age groups to kill.

Class and Race

• 90 percent of the murders in the US are done by semi-skilled workers, unskilled laborers, and welfare recipients.
• Poor whites have higher murder rates than upper class whites and poor blacks have higher rates than richer blacks.
• Most killings are intra racial: whites do away with whites more than blacks and vice versa.
• And interracial murders: blacks kill whites and vice versa—are rare because racial discrimination discourages interaction between races.
• Several reasons for the link between murders and poverty:
• People in the lower class most likely suffer from financial, marital, and other stressful problems causing interpersonal conflict.
• The poor generally consider violence as a symbol of toughness and masculinity.
• African Americans’ higher rate of homicide has nothing to do with violence but a reflection of their higher poverty rate and racial discrimination which generates frustration and alienation.

Regions, Large Cities, and Rural Areas

• The Southern Region has the highest murder rates followed by the western region.

The northeastern and Midwestern regions have the lowest rates.

• Some sociologists blame it on the “culture of violence” in the South.
• Violent behavior seems more acceptable than other regions.
• For example, gun ownership and execution of murders or lynching.
• Higher rurality areas in the South.
• Usual social interactions among primary relationships enhances the opportunity for violent disruption.
• Primary relationships are the ones where most homicides take place.
• Rural areas have a higher homicide rate than bigger cities only because of the population difference, however, larger cities, with populations larger than 100,000 have higher murder rates than small cities and rural areas.

Gender and Age

• Men are known to kill more than women because they are far more concerned about defending their manhood.
• Most killings involve a man killing another man
• Men who kill their partner do so because they try to keep them as their victims in an abusive relationship.
• Men tend to kill in response to their partner’s infidelity.
• Men would also kill their partner as part of a murder-suicide or a family massacre.
• Women that kill differ from men in their choice of victims.
• women are more likely to kill members of the opposite sex.
• Women don’t kill because of their husband’s infidelity
• Women kill for self-preservation or in self-defense.
• The kills serve as “self-help social control” and often takes place in states where there are no laws requiring mandatory arrests for domestic violence.
• Men kill at a younger age than women.
• They target members of the same age group
• Younger killers are more likely than older killers to target strangers and commit murder and robbery together.
• Gang violence caused teenagers to carry guns for protection in their high crime neighborhoods which lead more crimes and murders.