On November 20th, 1976, my father was shot outside a bar on Broadway in Manhattan.
The man who shot him had a small handgun, one that could be purchased in any second-rate gun shop at the time. The provocation was a bar fight involving my uncle that my father stepped into to protect his best friend. Neither he nor my uncle were armed. He was twenty three years old at the time.
As a direct result of the shooting, my father became one 100% paralyzed from the waist down, and now can only walk with the use of crutches.
My own dad was a victim of violent crime.
It's jarring to think about this, especially in such a personalized matter. Statistically, though, violent crime is less of a scary thought and more of a terrifying reality. It runs rampant on our news circuits, is reported every single day, no matter where you live or who you are. There's hardly a single person in this world who hasn't been affected in some way by the spread of violent crime.
Why are we so fascinated by violent crime? Movies are made glorifying it, crime dramas continually scrape the top of the television charts, murder mystery novels were once the highest selling genre of books in the entire American market. Statistically, in one way or another, crime affects the whole world, both negatively and positively.
It's my goal to find out why, and to understand how, violent crime is persistently in the forefront of the American mind, and the Global mind. It means loads to me, coming from a place where my life has been personally affected by violent crime, and since criminology is something I plan to spend my whole life studying, this seems like a good place to start.
Question: Have you, your family, or friends ever been affected by violent crime of any sorts?
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