2. In Chapter 7, Karmen relates that about 43,000 persons died of AIDS or AIDS – related illnesses in the 1990’s.
A. Explain why this matters, does it correctly statistically with lower crime rates?
Yes, the statistic’s of AIDS correlates with crime rates. The first thing mentioned in this section is that the AIDS related death rate of intravenous drug users has substantially thinned the ranks of highly active criminals before, and during the crash, far more than expected. (Musto, 1995;pg239) Epidemiologist have conducted studies that show “3/5ths of heroin addicts in the city are responsible for the spread of AIDS.” This virus was spread through the use of IDU’s, sharing the same dirty needles, and contaminated water. When more people contract AIDS and become sick, they can not follow through with committing a crime because they are too sick to do so. Intravenous Drug User’s have very expensive habits, and this is why they turn to street crime to get money. The majority of addicts that pass on from AIDS were usually involved in theft, robbery, and or other violent acts of crime, until they were too sick. Statistics also show that “35,800 men in NYC contracted full blown AIDS from injecting drugs from the 1980’s to 1995” (Karmen,2000:p239(5) This was a good thing for crime but bad for the men because it lowered the rate of crime, but increased unnecessary death rates. If these men where dying then it took them off the street for good, so no more crime could be committed by them, but they did not learn any positive lessons, instead they learned life and death. Many of the IDU’S were brought into NYC prison system. The Department of Corrections for New York held the largest population of HIV positive inmates, country wide. (Karmen,2000:p240) In 1995 the New York prison system had 9,500 HIV positive felons. (Karmen,2000:p240) AIDS ended up ruining intravenous drug users on the street and behind bars from 1980 to the 1990’s. (Karmen,2000:p240) AIDS depopulated...