Aggravated Assault

A detailed Summary of Aggravated Assault

Aggravated assault is the unlawful threat of bodily violence or harm to somebody else, or an attempt to do such harm. The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader about all aspects of the personal crime of aggravated assault. It will illustrate the typical victim and offender and the situations that surround this crime from a citizen and criminologist perspective.

Aggravated assault is more serious than assault because the offender inflicts an unlawful attack upon the victim for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault is usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. In 1998, there were a total of 1,673,640 aggravated assault victimizations and 1,457,800 incidences. Victimizations indicate the number of people that were received the criminal offense. Incidences mean the scene and time of the assault. For instance, two people are robbed at gunpoint. It is counted as two robbery victimizations and one robbery incidence. Of all the criminal offenses measured by the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 5.3 percent of them were aggravated assaults. On average, about eight people in every one thousand people were the

Thirty-three percent of the victims had an income less than $7,500 annually. Such a low income is probably due to the young age of the victim. Most likely, at sixteen to nineteen years of age, the victim does not have a job making any more money than $7,500 annually.

Most victims were involved in leisure activity away from home at the time of the incident. Victims that were at home during the incident were usually doing other activities besides sleeping. A smaller group of victims were at work or on duty during the assault.

There are many theories that can be associated with the victim's and the offender's behavior. First, the motivations of the offender can be linked to lower class life. Many of the persons involved in this crime are of the lower class of people that don't make that much money. Lower class life is based on six concerns, trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, fate, and autonomy. In this study, the offenders have been primarily male, young and in the lower class. These males are unsettled, demonstrating their need for excitement. They also have a tendency to show their toughness, which could result in the charge of aggravated assault.

About 10.7 percent of assaults resulted in an economic loss. Twenty two percent of that amount resulted in a loss of fifty dollars or less. Loss of time from work was the case in 11.3 percent of the assault cases. Most of the victims (52.7 percent) lost one to five days of work. After an aggravated assault, about ninety-one percent of victims do not receive any assistance in coping with the trauma.

In conclusion, aggravated assault crime affects many people, both victims and offenders. The information derived from the National Crime Victimization Survey helps distinguish patterns in certain crimes so that it may be used to prevent them. Many theories can be derived from the victims and the offenders. Also, many prevention methods could be employed to reduce the number of aggravated assaults. The most important and most likely to be effective is an active and healthy parenting role.

About one quarter of the victimizations between non-strangers were well-known acquaintances. This could include a friend, or a partner. About fifteen percent of the victimizations were by people that the victim knew casually. Of all non-stranger assaults, about eighty-seven percent had only one offender. Concluding the victim/offender relationship, the target relationship is between two white male strangers who are married.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Behavioral Interaction, Survey NCVS, Victim-Offender Relationship, South Northeast, , Victimization Survey, aggravated assault, percent victims, percent offenders, percent incidences, thousand people, lower class, people victims, white male, forty percent, black males, victims aggravated assault, Crime Victimization, National Crime, thousand people victims, national crime victimization, incidences aggravated assault, males victim ages,

Approximate Word count = 2051
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics