Part 1:

Video Discussion - Historical Violence

Record a short video of yourself describing a violent event from the past from the perspective of a reporter from the media. Be creative in your brief description, considering reports you may be familiar with from your daily exposure to media coverage.

Part 2:

Essay - High Rates of Homicide

Write an essay of about 500 words discussing your thoughts on the reasons for the high rates of homicide in the U.S. relative to other similar countries.

Why do you think different theories persist, even if they do not seem to provide a complete explanation for this phenomenon?

Reasons for High Homicide Rates Why are violence rates, especially homicide, so high for our country:? We tend to think of ourselves as an economic, political, and social leader in the world, yet we have very high homicide rates compared to countries similar to us.

Criminologists point to several different factors that may help to account for why the U.S. has such high homicide rates especially relative to similar countries. None of these by itself accounts for the high rates; several factors are likely at work.

Part 3:

Discussion - Identifying Violence

After conducting your search on the web for a news article reporting violence, post the link on the discussion board. Write a one-paragraph explanation of how the news report describes violence as defined by the course. Write a second paragraph discussing how reports like these affect your ideas about violence in the U.S. as you begin this course

Defining Violence

Violence is defined as behaviors that threaten, attempt, or inflict physical harm on other people.

This definition is very wide ranging and includes a host of different types of actions. 

For example, it includes those events that we tend to think of as involving "one-on-one" harms, such as a person (or two) holding another up at gunpoint. In addition, it can include those behaviors engaged in my companies and organizations that result in harm. For example, General Motors has recently engaged in numerous product recalls of vehicles because of a faulty ignition switch. Before the recall, numerous people were hurt, and others killed, because of the faulty product made by GM. Just like the one-on-one harms that we typically think of as "violence," corporate offenses are included in our definition as well.