An American Response to an Era of Violence
By ROGER L. DEPUE, Ph.D.
Special Agent/Unit Chief
Behavioral Science Instruction and Research Unit and Administrator
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime
FBI Academy Quantico, VA
The year 1980 marked the beginning of a new decade. It was a time for looking back at the record and evaluating America's progress toward the good life on the one hand and for looking ahead toward the best possible future on the other. Despite many significant accomplishments made during the previous decade, one glaring societal failure stood out. Violent crime had steadily increased in American society and it was continuing to increase at an alarming rate. 1 In fact, the violent crime wave which had begun in 1963 was showing no signs of abatement well into 1980.2 One of the more reliable indexes, the homicide rate had more than doubled since 1962. More than 20,000 people were being murdered per year as we entered the new decade. The year 1980 itself became a record year with more than 23,000 people becoming victims of homicide. 3 It was unprecedented mayhem. The rates for other serious violent crimes, such as aggravated assault, forcible rape, and robbery, were equally disturbing. Predatory stranger-to-stranger violent crime was increasing steadily, while the number of cases cleared by arrest were decreasing.4 Lois Haight Herrington, Chairperson of the President's Task Force on Victims of Crime, summarized the national situation like this:
{{quote|"Something insidious has happened in America: crime has made victims of us all. Awareness of its danger affects the way we think, where we live, where we go, what we buy, how we raise our children, and the quality of our lives as we age. The specter of violent crime and the knowledge that, without warning, any person can be attacked or crippled, robbed, or killed, lurks at the fringes of consciousness. Every citizen of this country is more impoverished, less free, more fearful, and less safe, because of the ever present threat of the criminal. Rather than alter a system that has proven itself in capable of dealing with crime, society has altered itself."5
It was a downward spiral. Something had to be done.
In 1981, the Attorney General of the United States, William French Smith, established the Attorney General's Task Force on Violent Crime. It was his intention to assemble a group of knowledgeable individuals who were highly recognized for their expertise in a variety of pertinent professions and academic disciplines to study the problem of violent crime in America. The task force was to make recommendations regarding what might be done to curb the rapid growth of violent crime and to reduce its adverse impact on the quality of American life.6
