What is it that explains the level of violence in America?

Question

Michael Moore couldn't find the answer.

Answer 1

Your question not specific enough. The level of violence compared to what?

The problem with many statistics, particularly those regarding violence and crimes, is that they are culturally defined within a country. Comparing the United States to an area such as Finland, Germany (where assisted suicide is legal and unreported)1, or certain countries in the middle east (where many tribes within a country mete out justice and violence internally and is unreported)2 is like comparing apples and oranges.

Additionally, many find the perception of violence in our culture to be far greater than its actual application. While murder frequently finds itself as front page news, we become immersed in the idea that killings are occuring every day. This is exacerbated by repeat stories (where newspapers run new information on an old murder) because people still associate the idea in their head.

To properly analyze the concept of violence in America, we should take a step back and really look at the statistics first. Living in NY, I happen to know that the NYPD publishes their Report on Crime Statistics online, so lets use that 3. Looking at the year to date heading for 2007 (since 2008 isn't over yet) we see that 264 murders were reported (note: reported dosen't mean verified, tried and convicted... only that someone called the cops and said "murder"). Meanwhile, the total population of NYC is approx.  8 million. Some simple math with windows calculator, we discover that only .0033 percent of the population of NYC allegedly fell victim to a murder in '07.

Now all this means nothing without a point of comparison, so we'll turn to another site to find european crime statistics. Using England (as a country with a similar culture, but a key difference in that there is a ban on firearms in an effort to reduce crime), we can look at their murder rate as well 4. Fortunately, the website which I found already calculated the percentage of murders in which the number comes close to .014% of people in their entire country falling victim.

It would appear as though, through our analysis that England is, in fact, more violent than America. However, let us not forget the original point, that due to cultural and legal context, we cannot truly interpret the rates internationally.

As far as artistically, the fact of the matter is that certain emotions are more viscereal and easily understood in the human spectrum. While courage, despair, anxiety and other subtle emotions tend to be subjective, the basics such as lust, violence, disgust and humor are far more universal. With a post industrialized focus on mass appeal, it is only natural that our artistic side would tap into the emotions with the greatest range in order to draw the greatest audience. At least, that's my opinion

Answer 2

This has always been a country that is violent.  I don't know if it is the fact that we had to fight to get here, fight to stay here and then fight to expand our country but fighting seems to be bred into us.  We are, however, much less violent than we used to be.

Michael Moore couldn't find his @ss with both hands how would you ever expect him to find an answer to any question.

Answer 3

The people in America think that they are free.  If you tell them that they are not free, they will start maiming and killing people to prove that they are free.

Answer 4

America is a violent country.

- We love contact sports like football and put together highlight reels of the best hits.

- We have a volunteer military that is one of the most powerful in the world because we have men and women who want to be trained to kill (I'm all for our troops and have alot of friends in the military so I'm not saying anything bad about them).

- We put movies like SAW, Hostel, The Hills Have Eyes, etc. into our move theaters. And then we make sequels because they're such a blockbuster.

- We have hit shows like the Sopranos.

- We have people who think being violent and gangster is cool - gangs, Gs to Gents, rappers, etc.

We are just a violent cutlure. We even like watching people get hurt on America's Funniest Videos and shows of clips of stunts gone wrong. It's just who we are.

Michael Moore is a raging imbecile.