Crime Prevention Strategy - Essay Example

? Crime Prevention Strategy Sean O’Grady Johnston CRJ201 November 30th, Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 II. Discussion 4 A. The Crime Problem, Qualitative and Quantitative Measures 4 B. Analyzing the Criminogenic Conditions with the Use of Environmental Theories 6 C. Strategies from the Literature 7 D. Strategies Development 7 III. Recommending a Strategy for Intervention for the Tucson City Police 8 References 9 I. Introduction This paper is a discussion detailing the development of a comprehensive strategy for preventing crime in Tucson, Arizona, for use by the local police department in that city, and focusing on a specific crime problem- discussing it in its qualitative and quantitative or statistical aspects, examining the literature to cull insights into successful strategies and interventions to deal with the crime problem, analyzing the conditions that breed the crime problem with the use of theories that are environmental in their derivation, and finally coming up with actionable strategies for dealing with the crime problem, to be recommended to the Tucson Police Department and all leveraging the SARA model as the overall framework for the exercise (Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, 2013; Hoffman, Legosz, and Budz, 2005; City of Tucson, 2013). The City of Tucson Police Department details incidences of major crimes in the city over a period from 1997 to 2001 and breaks down statistics for different crimes. The plots reveal a general downward trend in incidences of crimes from homicides to arson to and robberies, with some crimes peaking in some years and some in other years in the early part of the last decade, with the exception of drug-related crimes, or so-called “Narcotic Drug Law Cases”, which have been relatively sticky and persistent over the observation period, varying over a relatively narrow range and generally being intractable from 1997 all the way to 2011, with the rates actually peaking and then returning to 1997 levels in the intervening period of time. This is the chosen crime problem for the purposes of this discussion. It is worth noting that as of 2011, the incidence of such crimes is recorded at about 1,000 per 100,000 persons living in the city, an uptick from the 900 per 100,000 persons recorded in 1997 (City of Tucson, 2013b, p. 8). II. Discussion A. The Crime Problem, Qualitative and Quantitative Measures The plot below details the occurrence of the narcotic drug law crime problem in the city of Tucson from 1997 to 2011, as earlier mentioned, showing the relative stubbornness or persistence of this crime problem over time (City of Tucson, 2013b, p. 8): Graph Source: City of Tuczon, 2013b, p. 8 In the plot above, one can see that from 1997 to 2011, there was a considerable uptick in the drug crime problem in the city, with the last set of figures from 2003 to 2011 seeing the city facing a seesaw battle with the problem over time, and with the rates stubbornly higher compared to the rates that were recorded in the latter part of the last century (City of Tuczon, 2013b), In contrast to this crime problem, the city seems to have fared better battling other crimes, which as can be shown from corresponding plots have been on downward trends after peaking at various points in the intervening years from 1997 to 2011. From a strategic point of view, there is value in further examining this problem in hopes of helping the Tuczon Police Department deal with the stubborn drug problem and improve the statistics in line with the progress that has been made dealing and briging down the incidence of other major crimes (City of Tuczon, 2013). From the field, we are able to get qualitative counterparts to the drug statistics provided by the police department above. One can classify the drug problem in Tucson as consisting of two main parts, one having to do with prescription drug abuse, which has the aid of health care workers in some cases, and one having to do with the trade in illegal substances such as crystal meth, which likewise has a rich history in the city as can be gleaned from the nature of the cases that have been filed against networks of drug pushers who source their meth from drug laboratories in Mexico. In the case of prescription medication, the drug problem has been described as reaching epidemic proportions, with prescription drugs being abused even by non-traditional drug dependents who are otherwise normal people and do not fit the mold of drug addicts inhabiting the world of the meth dealers and users. Convictions that can be construed as representative of the two dimensions of the drug problem in Tucson, one consisting of prescription medications and the other consisting of illegal substances such as meth, are revealing and give weight and face to the dry statistics on the drug menace in the city. Moreover, it can be seen that the widespread nature of the problem in their twin aspects, the pervasiveness of the criminal networks that deal in banned substances, and the creative ways in which the networks insinuate themselves into the fabric of the social lives of the people of Tucson all contribute to the stubbornly persistent nature of the drug crime problem in the city and hints at why the prevalence rates have remained sticky and high over the past decade and a half that the police department had been keeping track of the numbers (ADI News Services, 2013; Hansen, 2013; Norman, 2011; SAMHSA, 2008). B. Analyzing the Criminogenic Conditions with the Use of Environmental Theories Environmental theories of criminology leverage place-based narratives, models, and investigative and analytical models to understand the nature of a particular crime problem (School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, 2006; Clarke, n.d.). From the previous discussion we see that the easy access of the drug networks to illegal substances manufactured from Mexico and disseminated to different places in Arizona, including Tucson, is part of the environmental factors that contribute to the greater likelihood of a drug menace blooming in this part of the state (Norman, 2011). On the other hand, there are other environmental factors that contribute to the rise of a confluence of criminogenic factors for the this particular crime problem including that the city itself is in close proximity to the Mexican border, and that geographic proximity enhances the ease with which drugs manufactured in Mexico can be smuggled into Tucson and to other parts of the state and of the country. The large and powerful financial and related resources of the drug cartels in Mexico as well as the large financial incentives and lures that keep attracting new members to man the crime rings and drug networks, and the use of methods that have grown in complexity and sophistication with regard to distribution, have all contributed to keeping the levels of the drug crime problem at chronically high levels through time. From Arizona too, it is easy to see that being close to the Mexican border from a geographic point of view it is natural point of entry for drugs from Mexico to other parts of the United States, further reinforcing the vulnerability of the city to the ever-steady influx of illegal substances from outside of the country and posing problems for law enforcers (Archibold, 2009). C. Strategies from the Literature Apprehension and the careful monitoring of the activities of the crime and drug rings has been proven to be a potent set of activities and strategies that have led to successes in dealing with the drug crime problem in the past, with an emphasis on going after the drug pusher at the head of the rings, to negate their influence and the machinery of distribution (Norman, 2011; Archibold, 2009). There are also strategies that revolve around cooperating with the state authorities to go after the funds of the drug rings, also with the intent of neutralizing their financial capabilities and to cripple the drug ring operations (Carpenter, 2011). Cooperation with the Mexican authorities and coordination of efforts to thwart cartel operations also have worked in terms of slowing down and negating the power of the cartels to perpetuate the practices that contribute to the crime problem seeping into Arizona and to Tucson in particular (Ainslie, 2013). On the user side, programs designed to rehabilitate drug addicts and dependents and to educate the people relating to the use of prescription medications also play a role in the overall management of the drug problem and to the minimization of drug crimes (State of California, 2012; Hansen, 2013). D. Strategies Development As can be gleaned from the experience of states such as California, which has the same set of environmental factors that contribute to the persistence of the drug crime problem as Arizona and as Tucson, an effective set of strategies deal with the crime problem in several dimensions or aspects. Those are the aspects related to the source, which are the drug cartels in Mexico; the aspects relating to dealing with the crime rings and drug networks in the locale, in this case the City of Tucson, where the police have had some success busting major drug rings in the past; and those aspects that deal with managing drug abuse from the source, or from the user end, which in itself entails making use of some proven strategies to get ordinary users off the drugs. The recommendation is to make use of these in their totality, and as part of a holistic program to deal with the drug menace for the long term (Norman, 2011; Archibold, 2009; Ainslie, 2013; State of California, 2012; Hansen, 2013; Carpenter, 2011). III. Recommending a Strategy for Intervention for the Tucson City Police The intervention strategy prescribed for the local police department at Tucson involves cooperating with the agencies in charge of rehabilitating drug dependents and keeping ordinary citizens off drugs, while at the same time fully enforcing the law and going after the drug distribution networks in order to slow the progress of the drug cartels. At the same time, a third prong of this intervention strategy involves cooperating in intelligence and police work relating to the drug cartels themselves, and contributing to efforts to thwart the drug cartels altogether (Norman, 2011; Archibold, 2009; Ainslie, 2013; State of California, 2012; Hansen, 2013; Carpenter, 2011). References ADI News Services (2013). Tucson nurse practitioners indicted for drug dealing. Arizona Daily Independent. Retrieved from http://www.arizonadailyindependent.com/2013/10/01/tucson-nurse-practitioners-indicted-for-drug-dealing/ Ainslie, R. (2013). Mexico’s ‘new’ drug war. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jul/26/opinion/la-oe-ainslie-trevino-mexico-pena-nieto-20130726 Archibold, R. (2009). Mexican Drug Cartel Violence Spills Over, Alarming US. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/us/23border.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Carpenter, G. (2011). Undermining Mexico’s Dangerous Drug Cartels. Cato Institute. Retrieved from http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/undermining-mexicos-dangerous-drug-cartels Center for Problem-Oriented Policing (2013). The SARA Model Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. Retrieved from http://www.popcenter.org/about/?p=sara City of Tucson (2013). Tucson Crime Mapping. TuczonAz.gov. Retrieved from http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/police/stats City of Tucson (2013b). Crime Trend Graphs All the Above in One File. TuczonAz.gov. Retrieved from http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/sites/default/files/police/allgraphs_11rate.pdf Clarke, R. (n,d,). The Theory of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. University of South Florida Center for Urban Transportation Research. Retrieved from http://www3.cutr.usf.edu/security/documents%5CCPTED%5CTheory%20of%20CPTED.pdf Hansen, P. (2013). Local efforts to stop prescription drug abuse epidemic. Tucson News. Retrieved from http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/23922093/local-efforts-to-stop-prescription-drug-abuse-epidemic Hoffman, G., Legosz, M. and Budz, D. (2005). Problem-oriented policing in a detective environment. Crime and Misconduct Commission. Retrieved from http://www.cmc.qld.gov.au/research-and-publications/publications/police/problem-oriented-policing-in-a-detective-environment-a-queensland-case-study.pdf/download Norman, C. (2011). Tucson meth ring: the rise and fall of one of the city’s largest. Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved from http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crime/tucson-meth-ring-the-rise-and-fall-of-one-of/article_a296788c-9094-5ee0-bfd4-d3e22cbd361a.html SAMHSA (2008). Prevalence of Illicit Substance and Alcohol Use. Arizona States in Brief. Retrieved from http://www.samhsa.gov/data/StatesInBrief/2k9/ARIZONA_508.pdf State of California (2012). Key Strategic Areas. CA.gov Alcohol and Drug Programs. ADP.CA.gov. Retrieved from http://www.adp.ca.gov/About/Plan/areas.shtml School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University (2006). Underlying Theories: Environmental Criminology. Situational Crime Prevention Theory. Retrieved from http://crimeprevention.rutgers.edu/topics/SCP%20theory/theory2.htm Read More