Hunter Gibson

Mr. Douglas

UWRT 1102-017

February 5, 2017

Violence in The United States

Dating back to the establishing of this country, violence has been an integral part of our society.

We were founded thanks to the Revolutionary War, fought amongst our own brethren in the Civil

War, and many more wars were fought on our behalf. With that being said, many other countries

have had a plentitude of wars, yet they all seem to be tamer than the United States. We are one of

the most violent countries out of all of the developed nations. We are a country that is ridden

with crimes and violent tendencies. The real question to be asked is, Why is the United States so

violent?.

According to various statistics about crime indexes for every country, The US is ranked

53 out of 125. While this may not seem so bad, this is one of the first spots where an actual

developed nation is placed. Most of the countries lower than that are poorer nations in places

such as Africa and South America. Many people today often wonder why we have higher crime

rates and are more prone to violent tendencies. Some people attribute it to gangs, video games,

TV shows, and many more reasons.

My first few inquiry questions that I plant to start off researching are: Why is the United

States a more violent nation than others?, Is the emphasis of violence in our modern media

encouraging and promoting this violence?, Can the prevalence of firearms in our society
contribute to this?, and are we simply embedding this sense of violence into our moral system

that we teach to our youth? With these few questions as the groundwork, I believe that I can find

just a few of the causes of our violent nature. The reason why I am choosing this topic is that I

have noticed that many people from other countries view Americans as these violent and boorish

people. I also chose it because I have grown up playing video games and watching violent TV

shows that many people have come to blame for corrupting the youth. I want to see if these

accusations are truly accurate or if they are just false accusations.

To answer my initial inquiry questions, I plan on analyzing different forms of media

within the United States and comparing them to media o other countries. This includes things

such as video games, TV shows, advertisements, and even social media. I also plan on

researching the crime rates of different countries in the past and analyzing particular crimes that

happen within the US. Other ideas include researching the history and current laws for firearms

in other nations and the United States.