Crime Prevention: Approaches, Practices and Evaluations - Case Study Example

Persuasive Paper Part 2: Solution and Advantages Kenyanna L. Stanford Erica Ellsworth ENG 215- English Composition 5/26 Introduction Crime rates have been rising for some time now. Criminal activities have been named as one of the major problems facing society in the modern world. The government has been resolute in fighting the various forms of crimes. Although there have been some notable achievements in this campaign, it is clear that much still needs to be achieved to reduce crime to the lowest possible levels. A number of issues are associated with the rising crime rates, including increased public burden, increased expenses and cost to the society, the need to involve so many parties to resolve the crime, and the need to enact and modify existing laws to accommodate new form of crimes. Crime History and Status Crime is not only a problem in the modern world; it has been in existence since time began. It is also evident that criminal activities have caused lot of pain and problems to society. A lot of resources are used every year to fight this battle, but many suggest that more needs to be done to tackle the huge number of crimes that are still being committed. This has caused concern to many people since such levels of violence being experienced are a threat to the stability of the society. The major crimes that are causing chaos include terrorism, theft, violence, rape, fraud, trading illegal drugs among many others (Osofsky, 2005). These criminal activities have left tremendous suffering to the community. Many people end up in jail when they are caught committing felony, while others have been killed in these unfortunate circumstances (Osofsky, 2005). The major concern is that the victims are mostly the innocent people in the community. Lots of money has been lost, stolen or destroyed when these criminal activities take place. This lead to negative effect to the economy of the country while at the same time destroying peoples’ financial status and their source of income. The Government spends quite an amount on both human and material recourses in fighting crime, which could otherwise be channeled into other productive areas such as improving infrastructure, education, and healthcare. Effects of increased crime activities in the society a. Requires Involvement of Numerous Parties to Tackle the Problem Inadequate measures by the responsible parties have perpetrated the criminal activities in the society. Police officers, lawyers, and human rights organizations all have a key role in ensuring that there is an acceptable level of peace in the community. They have a responsibility to ensure that every individual in the community is safe. In many cases, they have failed this responsibility because crime is still occurring, and this is perhaps in part due to a failure on the part of these parties. In some instances, there have been claims where police officers have failed to respond on time to a distress call from crime victims only to appear when the damage is already done. Some criminal investigations have been unsatisfactorily been carried out while others remain pending and closed cases (Allen, 2000). Human rights organizations have also been found insufficient in carrying out their duties. They are allegedly biased in offering their services to the victims. The poor people in the community are not fully represented in the organizations. The judicial system on the other hand has been accused of being corrupt. These individuals are “bought” to rule cases in favor of the guilty parties (Regoli, 2009). b. Requires Continuous Enacting of New Laws The policies and legislations that are meant to regulate crime rates have been found to be highly ineffective. More often than not, criminals manage to evade justice by taking advantage of loopholes in the judicial system that is brought about by the existence of ineffective legislations. Much of current legislation was brought about many years ago, and today’s crimes have changed, becoming more sophisticated in the process (Allen, 2000). This renders the policies ineffective in dealing with many more modern crimes. There is a failure of enacting new laws at the rate at which crime is changing. This is caused by the failure of the government and the legislature in ensuring that there are adequate laws to regulate every activity in the society. c. Increases Public Burden The public has played a big role in the increased crimes being experienced in the country. Most of the lawbreakers come from the same community complaining of the rising insecurity. This shows the failure of the people in general to play their role in fighting the evil being witnessed in every sector of the society. The public has failed to play the role of ensuring every individual being brought up acquire the ideal values, morals and code of behavior. The family is the basic learning unit. Many parents have the major responsibility for bringing up morally upright children. They are responsible for educating their children of doing what is right and educating them of benefits of being lawful in everything done. This has not been the case in many homes (Allen, 2000). Parents are busy making money and never find time to talk to their children. Most of these children resort to learning from their friends in streets and within no time develop the criminal traits and behavior. Community parenting has no place in the society in today’s world. Churches, schools, and other institutions supposed to be molding children and teenagers to becoming law-abiding citizens are not doing enough to ensure this goal is achieved. d. Increases Cost/ Expenses Incurred by the Government Fighting crime is an expensive affair. For it to be successful there must be a well-defined financial plan and an outlay that will boost the success of efforts made. There is a growing need for more financial resources that will go towards the buying, production and installation of security systems, as well as the remuneration of personnel who are involved in fighting crime. The government also needs to fund all other activities that arise due to crimes. Prosecuting lawbreakers and the running and managing of prisons all require financial commitment. This commitment, however, has not been made - sometimes the funds allocated to these institutions and similar activities are barely enough to meet all their needs (Allen, 2000). Even though it is evident that crime is a huge thorn in the flesh of today’s society, it is also worth noting that it can be controlled. Eradicating it is impossible, but regulating (for the better of the society) is extremely possible, as evidenced by the crime rates in countries such as Denmark and Sweden. Despite this, there is a greater urgency for solutions to be found to fight the menace presented by any criminal activities. Times are changing, and so is the nature, sophistication, and complexity of crime. Solution to Problem and Advantages It is well-known that crime is increasing in recent years, to a level which increases danger and risk for everyone in the community. Laws could be changed, as well as hiring adequate numbers of lawyers, judges and police, but if the legal system remains strained, little progress will be made to fight crime. Despite the escalating crime rates within the country, there are possible measures that can be adopted to reduce the number of the thousands of crimes happening each year. It might be impossible to stop criminal behaviors completely but it is possible to reduce the problems to manageable levels. Adopting such a solution could lead to a huge improvement in a number of areas. The real solution to the problems presented by crime is to deal with the root causes for criminal activities. Reducing the issues that lead to criminal behavior would work best for the community by lowering the crimes being witnessed in the society today; targeting the problem before it begins. Firstly, people need honest employment to avoid the need to turn to crime. Laws could be created to hire people into the manufacturing corporations (John, 2001). There should also be a thorough protection against immigrants into the country through the borders. Enacting new or modifying existing laws to combat the changing nature of crimes in the society should be made a reality. Increasing public campaigns against crime activities would also be a big step towards achieving a stable society with reduced crime. Firstly, the solution to crime would come from stronger social values. Dealing with crime would require enacting new laws into practice to target new forms of crime, including cyber-crime. This would lead to a stronger and more capable judicial system that has the capacity to deal with any kind of crime. Such a system would give the much-needed justice to the victims of the criminal activities. The people would also have more trust and faith in the judicial system to handle any sort of problem they encounter relating to crime. They would be more willing to report crimes since they are assured of law taking its course. When trials follow the appropriate course, victims are satisfied with the judgments made in the courts. The culprits are also discouraged into committing criminal activities since they know they would not escape prosecution (John, 2001). The second part of the solution would be to improve economic status of the people in society and the country as a whole. Reduced crime rates may motivate people to get involved in economic activities, which in turn will improve their standards of living. When people become more productive, the country’s economic condition increases substantially. This means the government would have increased capacity to provide all the amenities that the public requires. These include health and security, which are essential to the people. Improved economic conditions also attract foreign investments into the country, which in turn create improved employment opportunities (Roberts, 2003). To fully eradicate the problem, the employment rate needs to be high enough to prevent people turning to crime to solve financial problems. Reduced crime rates among the people would lead to improved political stability of the country; a government with increased control over the improvement of citizen’s lives. Low crime rates lead to a more peaceful country. Peace is a key issue in determining the success of a country. People have an increased sense of security and this improves their patriotism towards the country when living somewhere more peaceful and safe (Lab & Steven 2010). Consequently, the people are willing to do everything in their power to develop their country to great heights in all the activities they engage in. The other advantage is that there is development of a society with strong ethical values. The fight of crime necessitates creating awareness amongst the community in the need to have reduced crime rates in the society. This campaign emphasize on the need of every person to play a role in becoming accountable for what happens in the society. A source of ethical behavior amongst the people is their parents, which means they have a responsibility to bring up children with strong morals and ethics. This would mean that a community develops with high moral standards and principles acceptable to everyone (Lab, 2010). The result would be a more stable society with well-established values and beliefs. Good morals are admirable to everyone since people are able to live in harmony with one another. To conclude, it is evident that fighting crime at the root cause would lead to a number of benefits to the community. This is essential in ensuring that every measure taken to curb the insecurity brings positive results to the community instead of causing more suffering to the same people it is supposed to be guarding against harm. The advantages range from social to economic issues all of which emanate from eliminating criminal activities. Handling crime effectively would lead to positive issues arising in the community. Thus, there is a need to eradicate criminal behavior from the society no matter what the price would be since the benefits would cover up all the cost spent in the fight against crime. Minors & The Law Crime rates in America are amongst the highest in the Western world. One of the most worrying parts of this fact is that even minors are committing crimes at a high rate. Communities within the U.S. are aware of this, and the government is trying to reduce the rates, which is not having much success in their mission. At the present time, minors are being tried and punished in a different way to adults. However, a number of minors are well aware of what they are doing and should be tried the same as their adult counterparts. The first main disadvantage to this solution is that minors would be considered to not be fully mentally developed and many of their problems could be attributed to their parents and their upbringing (Bardes et al, 2011). This means that a number of people would try to blame some other party for the actions of the minor. However, it is easily argued that those in their teenage years are often ready for independence in many other ways, such as driving their own car, and can be held accountable for their actions, particularly if their parents are not involved I the criminal activity. Another disadvantage to treating minors like their adult counterparts is that often prisons are not equipped to deal with minors and their needs. For example, it is the law to complete education and therefore adult prisons would need to provide education if minors were to be housed there (Bardes et al, 2011). Additionally, there are exercise and health needs for young people, which means that there may need to be changes made to prisons. This would cost money, but could be easily implemented. Finally, some may argue that it is dangerous to put young people in the same environment as adult criminals as they may learn some of the tricks of the trade (DeLisi & Conis, 2011) and become even worse. This is a valid argument, although there does not necessarily have to be communication between the younger criminals and the adults even if they are being punished in the same way. It is easy to give someone who is 16 a sentence for life in the case that they have become a murderer, but they do not necessarily have to be in the same prison or environment as murderers over the age of 18. In conclusion, there are some valid arguments against the thesis that young people should be punished as adults, and it is probably sensible that young people under the age of 14 (for example) are not punished as adults as they may not have the same mental capabilities as adults who commit the crime and may have been coerced into it. However, there is very little difference between someone who is 17 and 18 mentally and therefore the minors rule is a bit strange and outdated and there are ways to deal with the other problems. References Allen, R. (2000). Children and Crime: Taking Responsibility. Chicago: Institute for Public Policy Research. Bardes, B. A., II, M. C. S., & Schmidt, S. W. (2011). American Government and Politics Today: The Essentials. Cengage Learning. DeLisi, M., & Conis, P. (2011). Violent Offenders: Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Osofsky, J. D. (2005). Children in a Violent Society. New York: Guilford Press. Regoli, R. (2009). Exploring Criminal Justice. Chicago: Jones & Bartlett Learning. John Muncie, E. M. (2001). The Problem of Crime. Texas: SAGE. Lab, S. P. (2010). Crime Prevention: Approaches, Practices and Evaluations. Georgia: Elsevier. Roberts, A. R. (2003). Critical Issues In Crime and Justice. Texas: SAGE. Read More