Crime In Memphis Essay

Crime rate in Memphis has been on a steady incline throughout the past few years, recently, its reached an all-time high. In Memphis alone, there were a reported 11, 964 violent crimes and 37, 407 property crimes bringing the amount of total crimes in Memphis alone to a whopping 49, 371. Now, the population of Memphis is 652, 717 people, which means that you have a one in fifty-five chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime and a one in seventeen chance of becoming a victim of a property crime such as burglary or theft. These numbers may not seem like much, but in comparison to the rest of the United States and even just the state of Tennessee, this is a very large amount of crimes. The amount of crimes in Memphis is more than double the

Most of crimes happen in the poorer neighborhoods of the city, the urban areas. Memphis has a lot of residents one welfare and social security, and these citizens make up the worse parts of the cities. Neighborhoods with higher crime rates such as Orange Mound, are stricken with poverty, and have a lack of education. These are the same neighborhoods where young boys and girls are trained from childhood to be cold, and to do whatever they can to provide for themselves. These children do not have adequate educations, nor the appropriate people pushing them to strive for greatness. The children born into these poverty-stricken areas, are the same ones who grow up to be in gangs and incarcerated. In Memphis, the amount of youth committing violent crimes has increased fifty percent in the past ten years alone. In an interview with an incarcerated gang member, the boy explains that it is a way of life and that people want to be grouped together with people they have stuff in common with, and for most gang members—it is their lack of money and education. The fact that they basically had to raise themselves and fight dirty for everything they ever owned had a large impact in it, he stated in the interview. Another reason youth tend to gravitate towards gangs is peer pressure. Especially in inner city schools, it seems every student is in a gang. Others seek it out as a form of protection, and