Xiaorui (Miranda) Tong
10/15/10
GWRT 103
Dr. Jones.
Nature Vs. Environment:
Analysis of U.S. Crime Pattern
Compared to the society which existed hundreds of years ago, today's society has improved substantially both in physical and psychological perspectives. Wars have diminished, imperial monarchies have become a history, and new forms of economic systems have brought nations prosperity; in today's society, peace has helped nations restore stability, individual rights have been emphasized, and living standards have been enhanced. However, not surprisingly, crimes still exist. While society continues to improve its living standards, the people who are parts of the community are unable to follow the society's footsteps in evolving. The people, ultimately, have not changed. Crimes, while shifted in geography, still have not been eliminated. And the new crime pattern again has become an American mystery. A news reporter, Hanna Rosin, devoted her time and energy to undercover the myth of the new U.S. crime patterns. In her published article "American Murder Mystery" in The Atlantic magazine, Rosin presents the deeper and darker aspects of human nature, which is not influenced by living environment, by relating the new crime patterns to moving to better environment.
In “American Murder Mystery”, Rosin attributed the shifting of crimes from big cities to mid-sized suburbs to government-sponsored anti-poverty program. While African-American have been removed from urban housing projects to middle class residential housing in suburbs, crimes pattern shifted along from urban to suburbs. Rosin solved the myth of changing crime pattern in a step by step process by first addressing the problem, then uncovering the facts with supporting evidence.
In the beginning of her article, Rosin attracted her audience' attention by using the mid-sized town of Memphis as an example to imply to her audience about the importance of this issue. By using the example of Memphis, an originally quiet and peaceful residential town which later became the center of crimes, Rosin is warning her audience that their private living spaces may also be invaded by the crime explosion, thus winning her audiences' concern and support for the points she later makes. Rosin also implied the importance of this issue by connecting her audience's lives with the lives in Memphis with a message that hints "this could happen in your hometown too".
By pointing out the situation in which crime rates in large cities stayed flat while homicide rates in many midsized cities such as Memphis began increasing, Rosin is using a claim of fact to attract readers' attention. It is also easy to infer from the text that the raising crime rate in middle income suburb and declining crime rate in big cities is the situation, or the motivation for Rosin to publish this article. But what exactly is the cause behind this new crime pattern? Rosin is asking herself and at the same time arousing her audience's interest and curiosity.
Rosin identified the reason behind new crime patterns in mid-sized suburb as America's most celebrated antipoverty programs: the demolition of the city's public-housing projects and encouragement of moving to better neighborhood, as a nationwide experiment to free the poor from the destructive effects of concentrated poverty. But a single claim does not support itself.
A claim of fact without supporting materials is just a claim of the author's personal opinion. By inserting evidence provided by experts such as Richard Janikowski and Phyllis Betts, a criminologist in University of Memphis and a housing expert at the University of Memphis, Rosin is adding credibility to her evidence. The use of authoritative sources, or the confirmation of experts who report on, study, and evaluate helps Rosin establish reliability of her evidence, thus engaging her audience further to an extent in which they do not suspect the credibility of the evidence.
However, only addressing expert testimonies may sound dull, unrealistic, and too distance from the audience's lives. So, Rosin added testimony of Leslie Shaw, an African-American woman who is part of the antipoverty experiment. Shaw is a formal public-housing resident who later moved to a better neighborhood in North Memphis after the demolition of the public-housing project. Although Shaw had great expectation and an urge to start over at her new Springdale Creek apartment, her new life was a disappointment because "you move from one place to another and you bring the element with you"(Rosin). It didn't take long for Shaw to realize that "slowly, Springdale Creek has started to feel less like a suburban paradise and more like the project" (Rosin). Car thefts, violence, and shooting again become a common phenomenon. Despite the change in environment, the people stay the same. By adding Leslie Shaw’s testimony, Rosin is informing her audience the consequence of government’s decision in demolishing housing projects. Shaw’s testimony further added credibility to Rosin’s main point, and the detailed description of people’s behavior in Springdale Creek neighborhood helps audience imaging the situation better, thus achieving Rosin’s goal of obtaining audience empathy. Once the audience understand the situation better, it is always easier to attain higher audience support for the points Rosin makes later.
Shaw's example further revealed the fact that human nature is more important than environment. The government's effort to help people climb out of poverty was actually ineffective and unnecessary to most victims of deprivation and poverty. According to Rosin, "most people were reluctant to move and were forced to move". She used the testimony of La Sasha Rodgers, a formal resident of the project, to support this claim, "it felt like home. If I could move back now, the way it was, I would" (Rosin). Rosin added this powerful testimony to satire the efficiency of this government program as well as to back up her main point.
Rosin also offered the concession that the national effort to diffuse poverty has succeeded, at least for some individuals, such as Sheniqua Woodard who escaped poverty and entered the middle class. Audience maybe amazed to notice that Woodard, an original "nobody", is now working at a city mental-health clinic and is about to start studying toward a master’s degree. She now lives in a house with a big backyard and a brighter future. However, environment might have contributed to Woodard's success, but it was not the dominant factor. Woodard might be an originally studious and persistent individual; the antipoverty experiment just offered her an opportunity to strive for her chances. An article without concession, or others’ viewpoints, is egocentric and more subjected to audience opposition and resentment. A writer who composes essays without considering objections or concession may appears opinionated and prejudiced, and audience may quickly lose interest if they feel the writer is not interested in his or her viewpoint. Perhaps the best way of writing is by first admitting that opposing audience have a valid concern and then overcoming that concern by logic or solution.
The audiences of Rosin's article are the concerned individuals as well as government officials or politicians who possess the power to change the situation. According to an annual report on American journalism, The Atlantic’s audience are "old(median age 50.9), affluent ($85,182) and with more female readers than male"("Audience"). These targeted audience population is generally more empathetic (women), wealthy, and more concerned about issues (since older people vote more than younger ones). These are the people who anticipate changes and ready to enforce changes. Individuals such as Janikowski and Betts are hoping that "somebody" will do something about it because "it's difficult to contemplate solutions to this problem when so few politicians, civil servants, and academics seem willing to talk about it---or even to admit that it exists"(Rosin). By targeting these audience, Rosin is hoping to change the situation by winning audience approval. Rosin's discovery and conclusion about U.S. Crime pattern are so shacking and so revolutionary that it is obvious from the text that the government is reluctant to even admit it, much less change it. Only the power of audience that could enforce changes from the government, so Rosin wrote this article to inform her audience of this particular issue, hoping to gain approve and support in revolutionary the U.S. government sponsored program.
In her article "American Murder Mystery", Hanna Rosin exposed the importance of human nature over environmental factors in a step by step process. Rosin first identified the new crime pattern to attract audience's attention; then she related the new crime pattern to how the demolishing of projects disperses crimes into wider communities to get audience's concern; then she used accurate and reliable sources to support her claims of fact and claims of values to add reliability to her evidences; later, she addressed concessions to better reflect some audience' perspectives; finally, she mentioned the government's lack to concern to gasp audience's attention and inform government officials this issue. Despite the advancement of modern society, the people have not changed since hundreds of years ago. Behind the disguise of modern technologies and social advancement, people were still divided into hierarchy of classes due to their deeper nature. A better environment may provide more opportunities and higher starting points, but what an individual possesses "inside" is what really determines his or her destiny. Perhaps the roles of human nature were underestimated while the roles of environments were overestimated. By writing this article, Rosin is revealing the shocking truth about human nature and exposing an government failure.
Work Cited:
Rosin, Hanna. "American Murder Mystery", The Atlantic,
July/August 2008 Issues, The Atlantic Monthly Group, Sept 29,
2010.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/american-murder-mystery/6872/
"Audience", Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of
The News Media--an Annual Report on American Journalism,
Oct 19, 2010.
http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2009/narrative_magazines_audience.php?cat=2&media=9
Help from JMU Writing Center.
This work, for which I received, no unauthorized assistance, complies with the JMU Honor Code. Miranda Tong
