Have you ever wondered where the safest state to live in is? Situated in the New England area at the north tip of the United States, Vermont is a lovely, tiny, and wealthy state with the second smallest population in this nation and one of the lowest violent crime rates. Vermont has a violent crime rate of 1.2 per 1,000 people compared to the 4.02 of California.
Thousands of crimes are committed everyday but what causes these crimes to happen can not be explained by any single factor. There are many factors that can cause a crime to happen, one of these being poverty, which affects everyone in a society. In California there are more than 100,000 homeless people living in shelters or on the street. They have been known to commit crimes such as robbery, burglary, and murder. If it wasn’t for poverty, then why would a person need to steal? People who live in poverty do not have enough money to buy food, clothes, or provide necessities for their families which can lead them to steal from relatives, friends, local stores and in some cases from a strangers property. While in California we see such high amounts of people living in homelessness, Vermont had 1,291 homeless people in 2018 which is not only a huge difference but could be a reason California has many more crimes.
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Another reason there could be a difference in the amount of violent crimes between the states could be the general population, California has 39.56 million people living there, compared to Vermont who only has 626,299. Some believe that as a population grows so does the crime rate, but according to research that is not necessarily the case. Between 2011-2018 the population in Vermont went from 626,979 to 626,299 while in California it rose from 37.64 million to 39.56 million, meanwhile the violent crimes being committed between those years in Vermont went from 891 to 1,034 and in California from 160,944 to 177,627. Even though in California we see crimes increasing as the population rises, in Vermont the population decreases while the violent crimes happening increase, showing us the idea of population increase brining more crime is not the case in this situation.
Furthermore, as the years have gone by the amount affected by the usage of opioids and other illegal substances have also risen dramatically, and it is known that drug abuse and poverty go hand in hand. In Vermont the amount of people being treated for drug abuse between 2012-2018 went from 3,500 people to almost 7000, and that’s just the number of people being treated. Between those same years there was also a 35% increase in mental health distress, it is very likely the rising number of drug abuse played a role in the increase. No person who is experiencing mental distress and using illegal drugs is going to make smart decisions, and sometimes children are witnesses to the crimes their parents commit without even knowing it. In Vermont the number of children in foster care due to parents having a drug addiction between 2014-2017 went from 765 to 927, in those same years there was also a 42% increase in drug related deaths. Meanwhile in California 79% of the children that are in foster care due to maltreatment had a parent that suffered from substance abuse. The mental health of these children is bound to see negative effects, a child cannot comprehend the death of a parent due to an illegal substance or understand why their parents don’t take care of them or mistreat them and this is something that will affect a child forever, how can anyone expect children who have grown up in these situations to conform to society’s norms when they never had anyone to teach them even the most basic tasks.
One other factor that some believe takes part in the rising crime levels is guns, as time passes guns become a bigger problem in America. In Vermont there are almost no gun laws, even someone with a past of domestic abuse can get a gun, no application necessary. Meanwhile in California there is a ban on assault rifles and .50 caliber rifles, anyone who is interested must apply for a firearm safety certificate and pass a written test, and all gun sales require a background check. Even though Vermont has little laws to protect its people against gun violence it is one of the safest states to live in, this information shows that gun laws do not play a big part in stopping violent crimes from happening, the guns are just the weapon of choice.
In the end there is no single factor mentioned here that is for sure the cause of crime, from what the records show many of these things play a small role unless combined. In California there is a much larger population than Vermont which leads to higher amount of homeless people and a higher amount of drug abuse and mental distress, if you put all those things together it would explain why California has a higher crime rate than Vermont but that does not mean there are more criminals in California. Even though there is no single factor in the cause of crime the government could still find ways to regulate what users can see on social media and television, the school systems should introduce programs that teach children how to handle peer pressure starting at a young age, and maybe if our laws had harder consequences more people would think twice before committing a crime.
Citation Page
- “Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) - Race/Ethnicity.” Bjs.Gov, 2013, www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=922.
- “National Data.” FBI, 2015, ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/persons-arrested/national-data.
- “Section I: Gun Violence in the United States.” Ojjdp.Gov, 2019, www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/gun_violence/sect01.html.
- “SAMHDA.” Samhsa.Gov, 2019, pdas.samhsa.gov/#/.
- “State Statistics Information.” National Institute of Corrections, 17 July 2019, nicic.gov/state-statistics-information?location=Vermont.
- “Crime Statistics | Vermont Crime Information Center.” Vermont.Gov, 2019, vcic.vermont.gov/ch-information/statistics.
- “Crime Data.” State of California - Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General, 9 July 2018, oag.ca.gov/crime.
- “QuickFacts: California.” Census Bureau QuickFacts, United States Census Bureau, 2018, www.census.gov/quickfacts/ca.
- “Homeless in California Statistics 2018. Homeless Estimation by State | US Interagency Council on Homelessness.” Usich.Gov, 2018, www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/ca/.
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