Violence Against Each Other. Writer: gacchura10@gmail.com

1. Violence against other people happen in our societies in every day some
of it is lead to death other lead to just physical injuries (Cooper,
Alexia, and Erica, 1). The most extreme kind of violence is called
homicide and according to the US department of defence, they have defined
domestic violence as “a pattern of abusive behaviour in any
relationship that is used by one partner to maintain or gain control over
another intimate partner.― There are different kinds of homicides that
include domestic, gangs, and school shootings (Howell, 209). Suicide
terrorism can also be described as a homicide since the perpetrator
targets other people. All this kind of behaviour is perpetrated by
different people with different motive. That why we have to discuss the
racial and gender disparities in homicide and suicide terrorism. This
paper is also going to look at the effort put by authorities to deal with
suicide and homicides as well contemporary and social meaning of suicide.
Homicides rates in general
Homicides happen everywhere in the world, but some countries races
and even people of different genders experience homicides at different
rates. According to (Cooper, Alexia, and Erica, 2) homicides rate can be
understood by examining particular age, sex, and racial groups. Studies
have found out that there was a steady increase in homicides rates, and
it involved primarily black males living in the city. The main reason
for this high rate of homicides among these young black men was due to
the occurrence of crack cocaine in the streets in the year 1985.
According to statistics, the rates of homicides in the USA have been
fairly low at the rate of 4-11 of every 100,000 people between the years
1950-2010 (Cooper, Alexia, and Erica, 2). By the year 2010, the homicide
rates decline to below 4.8 homicides per 100,000.
Figure 1 Homicide victimization rate
According to race, Blacks were highly victimized for homicides at the
rate of 27.7 per 100,000, and this was six times higher than the rate for
whites that stood at over 4.4% per 100,000 (Cooper, Alexia, and Erica,
3). According to the statistics, the offending rates for blacks was over
34.3 per 100,000 that was considered to be seven times higher than the
whites who stood at over 4.4 per 100,000. According to gender male
represented over 76% of homicide victims and nearly over 89% of the
offenders. Males were victimized at the rate of 11.5 per 100,000 3 times
higher than females who were at the rate of 3.3 per 100,000. Worldwide by
the by the year 2011 the persons suspected and the individuals convicted
per 100 homicides were as follows. In Europe with 30 countries there
were 100 suspects, but only 80 were convicted (Cooper, Alexia, and Erica,
3) In Asia, 13 countries over 150 were suspected, but only 45 were
convicted. In the Americas 14 countries, there were over 50 suspects, but
only 25 were convicted. It showed the disparity between race and gender.
Figure 2 represents Victims and offenders by race and gender
Gang homicides
In the major cities in the USA, there are gangs either controlling
the streets, or they are in control of drug trafficking (Howell, 209). A
city may have two or more gangs operating in its vicinity. The battle for
this lucrative business areas and the control of drugs areas is always
violent with rival gang members killing each other to either eliminate
competition or to make a statement. Most of these violent gangs are
controlled by men little by women, and they are divided by race, for

2. example, the Hispanics create their gangs, and the blacks also create
their gangs. Like any other businesses these businesses this gangs are
always divided into branches where there are officers, treasurer, and
foot soldiers while the gang members are also paid money for protection
(Howell, 209). This drug gang gets their finances from drug sales,
extortion, and then later uses them for weapons, cost of drugs and so
forth.
Since homicide is the interaction between to people who know each
other or resemble each other socially or demographically, therefore, high
likely homicides occur between two rival gang members in the fight for
turf or street ‘cred.’ (Howell, 211). Homicides are also perpetrated
by fellow gang members to either punish a member for gross misconduct or
violent takeover. In the USA gang homicides have a rate of 35% for all
the homicides happening in the US. In the year 19994 alone there were
over 283 gang homicides with all 48 gangs in the US. Over 97% of this
was interracial, over 87% was inter-gang. There was a high rate of
homicide between the Black gangs and the Hispanic gangs (Howell, 211).
Another study carried out in the cities of Chicago, and Los Angeles in
1989 found out that in the youth gangs of those cities most of the
victims and suspects were all male. It was also found out that most of
this victims and suspect were Hispanic.
School shootings
The case of the school shootings has been happening a lot of late,
and it is tied to the US laws of firearm possession (Hemenway, 182). Most
of the perpetrators in this kind of homicides are disturbed young
children who take their parents guns and decide to shoot at fellow
students in school. At other times, this shooting occurs, but no one gets
injured the perpetrators usually ended up committing suicide by using the
firearm. In the year 2015 alone in the USA, there were 372 mass shootings
and over 475 people were killed while 1870 were wounded (Hemenway, 182).
According to the department of justice, a mass shooting is defined as a
single shooting incident that kills or injures four or more people,
including the assailant. In all these shootings 64 were schools
shootings.
According to statistics between 1982 and 2015 by shooters, race is
that 44 out of 72 mass shootings were initiated by white shooters, 11 by
blacks, six by Asians, four by Latino, three by Native American, and
others (Neiman, Samantha, and Monica, 12). In all the 142 mass school
shootings that happened between 2013 and 2014. In fact over the last
three decades, 90% of high school or elementary schools shooting were by
white upper-middle-class perpetrators. The main reasons for this were as
a result of white male privilege. It has also been explained that this
incident is done exclusively by a white male and they always attack young
men of colour believing they are the one who have wronged him (Neiman,
Samantha, and Monica, 12). Most of the times it is known that these white
males feel like they are the alphas in the society and that everything
must be given to them. So in the face of any rejection from a woman or
the society they retaliate by shooting their fellow students.
Domestic homicide
In day to day life people that are close to each other do have their
differences, and sometimes this leads to violence (Hanlon, Robert, s163).
Sometimes this violence lead to the extreme one that is murder. People
who involve themselves in this kind of extreme violence are always close
or were once close to each other. It may be spouses, siblings, relatives,

3. ex-lovers, ex-spouses, and even neighbours. According to the US
department of defence, they have defined domestic violence as “a
pattern of abusive behaviour in any relationship that is used by one
partner to maintain or gain control over another intimate partner.―
(Hanlon, Robert, s163). Domestic homicides happen to people of different
genders at different rates, and there are also different rates in which
domestic homicides occur to various races.
According to the FBI uniform crime report by the year 2012
approximately 14,830 people got murdered in the US at the rate of 4.8
murders per 100,000 people (Hanlon, Robert, s164) According to this
report, nearly 90% of the homicide offenders were male. 30.3% were
murdered by someone they knew, and family members murdered 12%. Another
Global research carried out by the United Nations found out that family
members killed half of all female victims. Their husbands or boyfriends
killed 36% of women murder victims. In a statistic carried by the
national domestic violence fatality review, it found out that while the
perpetrators of domestic violence are 80% men over 37% of the victims
were men. In the USA, the most violent form of domestic violence known as
familicide was perpetrated by men under anger, resentment, and revenge
(Hanlon, Robert, s164). About race although domestic violence happens in
almost every race experts in the field of crime state that black women
are at a far greater risk to experience domestic homicide that ranges
from the age of 15-35.
Figure 3 Domestic homicide by race and Gender s165
Suicide terrorism
It is a very extreme use of violence to force governments to
negotiate something or a pass certain information to the victims attacked
(Horowitz, 71). It is defined as an attack where the death of the bomber
is the means by which the attack gets accomplished. For it to be
classified as suicide terrorism, the perpetrator has to die. The first
suicide terrorism happened in 1980 in Lebanon while the first modern
attack took place in 1981 where US Marine Corps were attacked by
Hezbollah suicide bombers. The other Suicide terrorism was carried out by
the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, and it always targeted the civilians.
The Tamil Tigers of Sri-Lanka also perfected this suicide terrorism where
they carried out over 69 attacks in the struggle for their independence
(Horowitz, 72). Studies have also found out that different groups carry
out their suicide terrorism differently like while other target civilians
like the Hamas the Tamil tiger attacked military personnel.
Suicide terrorism has always been associated with Islam in that it is
not a race it is just a religion so we cannot place it into a race
because many people carry it out (Horowitz, 73). An example of groups or
races that carry them out includes the Somali Al-Shabaab that has mostly
been targeting their government leaders. The 9/11 suicide terrorist
attack on the world trade centre carried out by Arabs from the Al Qaeda
terror group. Pakistan also experiences a lot of suicide terrorist attack
with over 87% of all suicide cases happening in the countries of Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Pakistan (Horowitz, 72). Suicide terrorist perpetrators

4. are mostly men while other few terror groups also use children and women
to make them less conspicuous.
Part two
A homicide occurs when one human being takes the life of another
human being. There are many types of homicides including euthanasia,
execution, murder, justifiable homicide, and manslaughter all depending
on the circumstances of death (Cooper, Alexia, and Erica, 2). These
different types of deaths are viewed very differently in different
societies some are permitted or even ordered by the legal system while
some are considered crimes. As we have seen criminal homicides takes many
forms including purposeful and accidental murder. After one commits this
crime, its weight is usually determined by their mental state. Murder is
a very intentional crime and most of the time the perpetrators are
usually slapped with life incarceration or capital punishment. In some
cases if the defendant in the capital case successfully proves they were
insane the state cannot prosecute them. In other states in the US, there
are other rules that have been created to cover a person murdered during
a crime, and the perpetrator is charged under the felony murder rule.
This rule states that one committing o crime may be guilty of murder if
someone dies as a result of his acts (Cooper, Alexia, and Erica, 2). Even
though most of the homicides committed by civilians are prosecutable,
their right of self-defence is also recognized. Suicide and homicide
authorities have put the said laws to deter this violent acts, but they
have also created loopholes for state sanctioned suicide and homicides.
The other in which the authorities have tried to reduce and deal with
violent death is mass incarceration (Roeder, 3). The USA is the world
leading country in the mass incarceration of its population. In all the
prisons in the prison population in the world Americas, prison population
represents 25% of that population. The reason for this mass incarceration
is to put violent criminals behind bars and also try to deter other from
committing crimes in the society (Roeder, 3). The authorities also
created loopholes in the justice system to create state-sanctioned
suicide and homicides. A capital sentence or the death penalty is one of
the best examples. It is usually offered to a criminal who was
responsible for homicides. Examples of capital punishments include death
by lethal injection, hanging by the neck till death, electrocution, gas
chamber and facing a firing squad. In the US, the death penalty was
highly used during slavery times when slaves could be killed for even
minor offenses in the south (Roeder, 3). The main rationale for the death
sentence in 1970 was that it would serve as a deterrence factor and were
usually done in public for everyone to see and meditate.
In the modern world, the death penalty has been outlawed in most
countries, and this is because of new development where people now know
that one does not voluntarily become a criminal. Aside from that the
surrounding environment also plays a huge role in making of a criminal
(Blumstein, Alfred, Frederick, and Richard, 505). The death penalty was
always perfectly logical in those days when no one doubted the
criminality was voluntary. Euthanasia and assisted suicide is also
another state sanctioned loophole. It is legal in several European
countries and also in some states in the USA. The countries where this is
legal include Luxemburg, Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands, and States of
USA (Oregon, Montana, and Washington) (Blumstein, Alfred, Frederick, and
Richard, 505). People in the western world are known to have long life

5. expectancies but unlike their counterparts who die due to communicable
diseases like malaria, their leading cause of death is non-communicable
diseases like cancer and cardiovascular diseases. It always led to slow
and painful death the result is the patient wish for a quick death. Thus,
asking for the doctor to prescribe drugs to end their life is referred to
assisted suicides (Blumstein, Alfred, Frederick, and Richard, 504). On
the other hand in active voluntary euthanasia, a physician usually
administers life-ending drugs at the patient’s explicit request.
Usually, a physician will not be liable of any homicide if he meets
all requirements required by law to facilitate assisted suicide. In the
US Euthanasia is not permitted only assisted suicide. In Oregon under the
Dignity Act enacted in October 1997 legalizes physician-assisted suicide.
The best example of a person who wanted to be assisted to die was
Elizabeth Bouvia, who was born with cerebral palsy and later arthritis.
She was a California resident she was not terminally ill but requested to
die because she could not move. But the courts and the doctors refused to
give her what she wanted but later she decided to live.
People always cited different reasons to justify the death penalty in
the early 20th century the USA. Some quoted the bible for the laws it had
on capital punishment other cited eugenics and the need to eliminate bad
genes of criminals from spreading (Banner and Stuart, 208). The
opposition of this capital punishment started in the 1780s to 1790s when
juries refused to convict criminal into the gallows. There was also a
massive change in the morality of retribution, and there was also the
issues of states had no right to take the life of a person. Some juries
also cited that people do change when they are imprisoned thus they must
be given a chance (Banner and Stuart, 211). There was also the option of
life incarceration in fact 1820-1850 some states in the north abolished
the death penalty. As the American society continued to change and
religion was no longer the basis of everything public executions were
taken to jail yards. M the trials were also seen as a way for retribution
where the public can also be involved (Banner and Stuart, 214). The death
sentence was always seen as a tool to bring people together but in the
south, it was mostly blacks who were being sentenced it started to divide
the community. This n was also another opposition for the death penalty.
Due to all these issues 15 states dropped the death penalty but out of
this 8 brought it back.
According to recent statistics, the US states says that there has
been a lot of reduced rates of crime in the population (Roeder, 3). But
crime does not fall just like that there have to be policies that had to
be put in place to tackle this matter. The most to effective criminal
justice policies that have worked to this advantage is the incarceration
and the policing approach. The stakeholders for these policies are the
department of justice and the police department. Increased incarceration
did not prove to deter crime, but it effectively reduced the rate of
crime in the streets (Roeder, 4). The policy for the police to gather
data that will be used to identify crime pattern also played a huge role
in bringing down the rate of crime in the cities. Other factors also
played a significant role in violent crime reduction like social,
economic factors. These factors included a change in income, decreased
alcohol consumption (Roeder, 5). Violent crime lead to homicides and the
perpetrators are always given a death sentence so if the authorities
reduce violent crime they manage to reduce the numbers of people given

6. the capital offense thus making sure sanctioned violent deaths do not
spread.
Emile Durkheim is best known for his study and meanings of suicide
and homicide he suggested that there are always other causes that he
named priori. The two factors were the individual psychological
constitution in different countries. , the second was the nature of the
external environment. He further divided suicide into categories that are
Egoistical, altruistic, and anomic. In Durkheim meaning of homicide, he
based his theory primarily on that account of the change in the content
of the ‘common consciousness’ that accompanies social development. On
the other hand in modern days, the sociological meaning of suicide and
homicides has not changed much, but the reason has. For example in
suicide terrorism was not covered by contemporary sociologist but can be
referred to altruistic but modern day people will say it’s selfish and
evil (Horowitz, 70). In the school shootings where the perpetrators end
up shooting themselves has been related to mental incapacity of the white
perpetrators and their supposed position in the society. Homicides also
have their meanings today, most of them happen between spouses, and
people who are close or share the same economic factors like business
turf (Banner and Stuart, 211). Other examples like divorce, middle life
crisis, and the right to die movement give it an entirely different
meaning. That sometimes it is not due to alienation or social factors but
medical and economic factors too.
Conclusion
According to this paper, it has been discovered that homicides and
suicides have racial and gender disparities. In the general homicides
rates, black seems to be the most perpetrators, followed by whites and
Hispanics in that order. Males also seem to be the highest perpetrators
of homicides compared to females. Since gangs are mostly a male thing
perpetrators are predominantly male, but the highest rate seems to be
between Hispanics. White males are the main perpetrators of school
shootings while Muslims of Arab origin seem to be the most perpetrators
of suicide terrorism. The use of mass incarceration and increased
policing policies has reduced crimes that in turn have reduced the spread
of state-sanctioned suicide and homicide. Finally, according to
sociologists, the main factors that always lead to homicides and suicides
is the social environment and the economy, and if the government manages
to reduce the inequality levels in the country the crime rates will also
be reduced.