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Time - Man of the Year
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1992-08-28
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NATION, Page 18CRIMEThe Deadliest Year Yet
Here's a category in which the U.S. still leads the world:
homicides, with roughly 25,000 in 1991
By DAVID ELLIS -- Reported by Elaine Shannon/Washington and
Richard Woodbury/Houston
Why do Americans kill one another in such appalling
numbers? By the time police add up the final tally, 1991 will
be the bloodiest year in U.S. history: as many as 25,000
murders, compared with last year's record of 23,440. The U.S.
homicide rate -- by far the highest in the Western world -- may
average about 10 killings for every 100,000 citizens, vs. 1.3
in Japan and 5.5 in Britain. Every 22 minutes, another American
is shot, stabbed, beaten or strangled to death.
No place seems exempt from the slaughter. New homicide
records have been set in cities as large as Dallas (501) and
Washington (489) and as small as Anchorage (26) and San Antonio
(211). More people are being killed by strangers. Murder is the
leading cause of death for women in the workplace. The easy
availability of firearms means that a single flash of anger can
lead to another grim statistic, and sociologists fear that
people thrown out of work in the recession will take their anger
out on their former bosses and co-workers or families. The
Federal Centers for Disease Control, whose job is to investigate
outbreaks of disease, now considers murder an epidemic.
Worst of all, an increasing number of murders are going
unsolved. Twenty-five years ago, 9 out of 10 murderers were
tracked down and brought to justice. Now the rate is less than
7 out of 10. Police complain that they have so many killings to
investigate that they must concentrate on the simplest cases and
put more complex slayings on the back burner. The consequences
can be grievous. FBI behavioral-science experts suspect that at
least one serial killer contributed repeatedly to New York
City's 1991 death toll of more than 2,200. But the suspect --
or suspects -- remains at large because detectives have little
time to compare notes.
One alarming factor is the emergence of a new breed of
teenage killers who seem to have lost all respect for human
life. The idea of having a knife or a gun has moved beyond the
drug subculture to infect a large segment of all young people.
A CDC study found that 1 out of 5 high school students enters
the classroom carrying a gun, knife or club.
Many of the rash killings are truly senseless. Last week
a 14-year-old Brooklyn girl was charged with stabbing her
13-year-old boyfriend to death simply behe wanted to break up
with her. In September a 23-year-old Chicago woman was convicted
of the drive-by shooting of a teenage boy at a fast-food
restaurant. Reason: he was wearing the colors of a rival gang.
Her two-month-old twin daughters were sitting in the backseat
of her car when she pulled the trigger.
That case has crystallized the fears of law-enforcement
officials that one generation, already hopelessly inured to
violence, may be handing down its bloodthirsty values to the
young. The lock-'em-up approach to law enforcement exemplified
by tough mandatory-sentencing laws adopted by the federal and
most state governments over the past decade has not slowed the
mayhem. In fact, some experts believe it may actually strengthen
the violent code of behavior that prevails among many urban
teenage males. "It is now a rite of passage that you must go to
prison on at least a misdemeanor," says Jerome Miller of the
National Center on Institutions and Alternatives in the
Washington area. "What you see on the street is the ethics of
a maximum-security prison."
Faced with the failure of strict enforcement alone to curb
the slaughter, many experts have concluded that new, long-term
prevention efforts are needed as early as the fourth grade to
sensitize children to the effects of violence. In recent years,
several cities have created programs to reach such troubled
children. For example, under the Children First program
inaugurated by Washington Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly last
November, needy children will receive intensive monitoring and
health care from birth through age 15. Junior high school
students will be targeted by teachers who will try to arm the
children with positive values, lead parental support groups and
set up school recreational programs. A separate initiative would
remove antisocial students from regular classrooms and provide
psychological counseling to prevent them from turning violent.
In Texas a novel program of group therapy at the Giddings State
Home and School is aimed at instilling the concept of remorse
in teen criminals. Only two of the 85 serious offenders who
completed the sessions have got into trouble again.
Such ambitious efforts might eventually slow the killings,
assuming they are adequately funded and vigorously implemented.
The benefits cannot come too soon.As 1991 faded into history,
gunfire rang through the streets of Washington as residents
discharged their guns into the sky to hail the new year. Some
turned their guns on neighbors, and three people were killed
when their vehicles were sprayed by bullets.