One morning last week, at 3:45 a.m., a Washington, D.C. patrol officer returned to his car after stopping for coffee at a convenience store. A gunman aproached him and opened fire. In Hartford, a pizza delivery man was shot after he approached a man looking into his delivery car. In Detroit, a woman jumped off a bridge and drowned after breaking free from an attacker who remained in pursuit.

These incidents reflect a disturbing trend in our society: random, impulsive violence. Determining who will become the next victim is as easy as determining who will be the next person to win the lottery. No one can deny that violence has become a pervasive element in American society. With the explosion of media coverage, we are bombarded every day with stories of murder and assault that leave us wondering what has happened to this country and how did things become so bad. Not only has the explosion of violence left residents of poor neighborhoods angry and frightened over the perpetual murder of family, friends, and acquaintances, but those in peaceful suburbs and towns are learning that living in nice homes and having friendly neighbors no longer protects one from becoming a victim. As these random acts of violence leave us asking "why?" over and over again, we are consistently left without answers as we try to interpret these acts of violence.

Local news coverage tends to portray violence as a product of the inner city environment. Few employment opportunities, poor public education, and run-down housing all combine to create an environment where many residents become violent out of anger and despair. Drugs are often an important factor. An addict will do anything to obtain the money to get their fix. Dealers will murder anyone who steps on their turf and threatens their profit, intentionally or by accident. Recently, a baby was shot to death in Los Angeles as their family car strayed into a gang infested neighborhood and reached a dead end. For those who feel completely controlled by their environment, and act of violence gives them a moment of power and control they feel they don't otherwise have. As the problems in inner-city neighborhoods worsen, the propensity toward violence increases.

The problem of violence, however, extends beyond the problems of the inner city to suburbs, towns, and middle-class homes. Violence can be a means of survival: several months ago a man committed armed robbery in a convenience store in Northeastern Connecticut and was arrested when he tried to rob the store again. He claimed he needed the money to feed his children. Rather than be defeated by his poverty, the man decided to take control over his situation through an act of violence. However, violence is not only a product of poverty and despair. It occurs when people lose control of their anger and can no longer think clearly about the consequences of their actions. All one has to do is pull out a gun and a minor altercation can turn deadly, whether they had a difficult childhood or not.

Some claim that entertainment and the media are largely responsible for the increase in violence in our society. They argue that movies, television, popular music, and video games glamorize violence and influence people to behave violently. This argument is supported by incidents like one that took place recently in the Washington, D.C. area, where three teens were arrested in an attack on two youths, one of whom suffered a fractured skull and permanent eye damage. Police believed the attack was motivated by the Bruce Lee film The Chinese Connection, which the teens had just seen. Whether the three boys would have committed the attack even if they had not seen the film is uncertain. Studies have shown that repetitive exposure to violent entertainment does play a role in desensitizing people to the human cost of violence in reality. How blame the entertainment industry for the explosion of violent crime is to deny the existence of a myriad of other social problems. The issue of whether violent entertainment reflects or defines society is open for debate.

Politicians hope that harsher penalties for violent crimes will decrease violence in this country by acting as a deterrent. Families of victims praise initiatives to strengthen punishment for violent crime as a move toward justice. They claim that victim's rights have been subverted for too long in the interest of protecting the rights of criminals. While harsher sentences provide victims' families with a stronger sense of justice, statistics have shown that sending more people to prison does not necessarily lower the crime rate. More people are in prison than ever before, but violent crime continues to ravage our society.

While we need to understand the various elements that can lead a person to commit an act of violence, we also need to understand that for many random, impulsive acts of violence there simply is no explanation. Individuals are ultimately responsible for their own actions, despite victim defenses for criminals which often trivialize an individual's responsibility for committing an act of violence. In a society engulfed in fear and paranoia, with a diminished sense of community and lack of respect for others, violence will remain an enormous social problem.

© Trincoll Journal, 1995.