Running Head: CHICAGO VIOLENCE 1

Chicago Violence and its Prevalence: A Review of the Literature

Paris Edwards Jr.

Hampton University

English 102-11
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Abstract

Chicago is a well-known city around the world. It houses millions of people in many different

communities around the city. The city thrives off its reputation and draws many movie shootings

and celebrities to visit. However, Chicago also boasts a large crime rate. This literature review

will inform the reader of what Chicago natives and people who reside in the city think of what

causes their city to have such a high murder rate. Statistical data and journal articles will

contribute to the further research of what makes Chicago such a high crime zone.
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Chicago Violence and its prevalence: A Review of the Literature

Chicago is a well-known city around the United States, The Windy City as some like to

call it. The food, opportunity, sports, breath taking skyline, and many other things are what has

contributed to the media presence that Chicago receives throughout the nation. However,

Chicago has been receiving plenty of air time on every major news channel, but not for any of

the reasons previously stated. Chicagos violence has been happening at an alarming rate

throughout the past decade. Just recently in 2016, the city had, 762 murders just in 12 months

(CNN, 2017)! To put that into perspective, that is on average 63.5 murders in one month and

roughly 2.11 people dying a day, every day that month. This alarming rate has caused the

nickname of the city to change from, The Windy City, to now Chiraq.

With the alarming rate that violence is happening in Chicago, one is only left to wonder,

What is the cause and why is it so common?. Many people have been unable to decipher this

question, and blame the cause on many different things. Based on responses through different

media outlets, many residents like to believe that the increase in violence is due to gang

affiliation, family complications, or just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, in

order to really get an understanding to form a conclusion on this matter, a couple of sub

questions have to be evaluated:

1. How does the prevalence of violence throughout the city affect the psyche of the

youth who are growing up within the neighborhood?

2. Who is affected the most by the up rise in crime around the city?

3. What ethnic/cultural/economic groups participate in the major crimes throughout the

city?
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The following literature review will: provide a backstory of living life in one of the most

violent cities in the country and also an analysis of what residents believe to be the cause in the

uproar of so much crime.

How does the prevalence of violence throughout the city affect the psyche of the youth who

are growing up within the neighborhood?

Violence in Chicago has shown no discrimination in regards to age or gender. As stated in

the article written by CNN, One child age 16 or younger is murdered in the city every week on

average (CNN, 2017). This stunning statistic is one of the many representations of what young

people have to face growing up in a city filled with crime. It has also led to younger children

being in possession of weapons as they feel that it will keep them safe. In the song, Murder to

Excellence by rappers Jay Z, a Brooklyn, NY native and Kanye West, a Chicago, Illinois native,

stunning lyrics concerning this matter are voiced. West goes on to say, No shop class but half

the school got a tool, And a "I could die any day"-type attitude (Watch the Throne, 2011). The

idea behind this lyric is that in school there was no type of shop class otherwise known as

woodshop which would require tools, but everybody has a tool. In Chicago, the slang word for a

gun is also recognized to be called a tool.

In the study done in 2011 by Dexter Voisin and his colleagues (2011), 32 young

adolescents who were faced with gun violence tragedies all were affected in different ways.

Through the interviews he discovered that no matter the gender, there were four more commonly

used coping mechanisms that the youth handled the events personally. The said copings were:

getting through (acceptance), Getting along (self-defense), Getting away (avoidance), and

Getting back (confrontation). The most common coping mechanism that females would use was

getting away or avoidance, where they just didnt want to talk or think about what had happened
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at all. Males however, were more so using the mechanism of getting along or self-defense. The

meaning behind this mechanism is that the youth would look out to surround themselves by

people who would help them in case a tragedy were to present itself to them. The people that

they often chose to surround themselves by often happened to be gang members, who did not

serve as positive role models to young men who were trying to avoid violence. (See Figure 1)

Figure 1. A graph with the results of a survey given to Chicago natives with the question: Do you
believe that the prevalence of violence in the city is affecting the psyche of youth throughout the
city?

The one mechanism that was common between both genders was getting through or

acceptance. Gun violence happens so much throughout the city that to many it seems to be a

normality. Most adolescents who were interviewed did not feel any new pain in hearing of new

gun violence, because many have taken on the attitude that Chicago native rapper Herbert Wright

(Lil Herb) presents in one of his songs, I got so many fallen loved ones, n**** out here

painless.

Who is affected the most by the up rise in crime around the city?

The violence in Chicago has always been bad, but record numbers have recently been hit

(see Figure 2):

Figure 2. A graph that gives the yearly crime rates of Chicago from 2001-2016.
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Based on the graph pictured above, the number of murders in the given years have always

hovered around the 400-600 toll. This can be viewed as being rather high for a city, however,

based on the trend presented, it is considered normal for Chicago. This past year, 2016, Chicago

saw a record breaking and very violent year with a death toll of 762 people due to murder.

People of younger ages have been the forerunners in contributing to this statistic (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. A graph representing the murder percentages by age every 5 years from 2010.

As represented by the graph, ages 15-24 are the age groups that are affected most by gun

violence in Chicago regardless of race. The youth are said to be the future of tomorrow, but how
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can they be the future if they are unable to see it. In seeking to analyze a probable way to

dwindle down the violence in Chicago, a survey was conducted (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Results from a survey asking the question: What do you think can be done to in an
effort to minimize the crime in the city?

The results of the survey show that many residents of the city do not believe that the

violence can be changed. The youth of the city will continue to have a target on their backs and

living their life with their heads on the swivel, until a change in the positive direction takes place.

What ethnic/cultural/economic groups participate in the major crimes

throughout the city?

Unfortunately, the sad truth of who commits the most crimes in the city are African-

American or black people (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. Results from a survey with the question: What ethnic group do you believe is
responsible for violence in Chicago the most?
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Chicago natives are witnessing every day their brothers and sisters maliciously killing

each other with little remorse. With the bulk of the crime being on the south side of Chicago,

which houses African-American people and Hispanics as the majority, it is sad to say that there

are many instances that minorities are killing their own. If there is no way that people of the

same race can get along with each other, how do they expect the races that they are oppressed by

to give them the respect that they deserve? It is evident that to change the demographic of crime

in the city, the same race crime has to take a major downfall.

Conclusion

Chicago will always be a major city in the United States. It will continue to attract thousands of

tourists from all around the world to experience all of the sight-seeing and wonderful food.

However, when tourists begin to hear of the war like murder numbers from different media

outlets, it begins to give the city a negative reputation. A reputation that can be very difficult to

turn around. Unless the murder rates in the city make a huge change in a positive way in the

coming years, the reputation will continue to be soiled.

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References

Carter, S., & West, K. (2011). Murder to Excellence [MP3]. Roc-A-Fella Records.

Edwards, P. (2017). What ethnic group do you believe is responsible for violence in Chicago the
most?, What do you think can be done to in an effort to minimize the crime in the city?,
Do you believe that the prevalence of violence in the city is affecting the psyche of youth
throughout the city? [Chart]. In Survey. Survey Monkey.

Hughes, L., & Short, J. (2014). Partying, Cruising, and Hanging in the Streets: Gangs, Routine
Activities, and Delinquency and Violence in Chicago, 1959-1962. Journal Of
Quantitative Criminology, 30(3), 415-451. doi:10.1007/s10940-013-9209-y

Patton, D., Sodhi, A., Affinati, S., Lee, J., & Crandall, M. (2016). Post-Discharge Needs of
Victims of Gun Violence in Chicago. Journal of Interpersonal Violence,
088626051666954. doi:10.1177/0886260516669545

Voisin, D. R., Bird, J. D., & Hardestry, M. (2011). African American Adolescents Living and
Coping With Community Violence on Chicagos Southside . Journal of Interpersonal
Violence, 26(12), 2483-2498. Retrieved March 19, 2017, from
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260510383029

Wills, A., Hernandez, S., & Baldacci, M. (2017, January 2). 762 murders. 12 months. 1
American city. Retrieved March 20, 2017, from
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/02/us/chicago-murder-rate-2016-visual-guide/
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