Issues on Government Crime Strategy - Essay Example

Governments Crime Strategy The crime rate in the world has increased considerably over the years at a remarkable rate. To overcome this matter and to cope up with this increasing crime rate and to ensure a better standard and quality of life many crime prevention strategies have been initiated. These crime prevention programs have been formulated so as to finish all sorts of crime from grass root level whatever they may be. The need for such crime prevention programs has been since long but work on these programs just began about two decades ago. These programs only started when people started to realize that arrest and punishment was not the only way out of crimes because punishment can only be awarded when a person has already committed a crime. To cut off the roots of crime it is essential to stop the crime from being committed and this is what exactly the motive of these programs is. One such program launched by the government on 29th November 1999 is set to tackle all the problems suffered by the general public. The new Crime Reduction Strategy set out by the government is set to remove all the problems of crime happening in the UK. Different approaches of handling crime are given out by this strategy which is aimed at lowering the crime rates in accordance to their level. Furthermore this strategy is bound to apply to all the major departments in which the crime rate is high. The major point of this strategy is that the government is also urging the local authorities to help them in curbing the crime. This strategy has been well thought and researched, however on the contrary loopholes can still be viewed in the government's policy. This essay would further describe the short comings of the strategy with accordance to its implementations and approaches. The Governments Crime Reduction Strategy aims to reduce all the crime happenings in the UK. To do this firstly they aim to raise the performance of the police and Crime & Disorder reduction partnership. The policy has set out particular points and invested a hefty amount of budget to bring up the forces together. However in my view the problem with raising the performance is that proper research has not be done in regard to both these units. The research which should have been done would show as to in which areas are these forces lacking and as to how these areas should be met according to the requirements of the forces. Similarly the policy tends to provide both these units with an adequate number of officers but do not lay down a plan to collaborate with the local authorities. To curb out crime it is necessary that the authorities have a strong hold over the local authorities who can inform the forces about the wrongs of the area. Similarly the corruption inside the forces itself is not laid down by the policy and the corruption (if there is any) might prevail even after the proposed initiatives of the plan. The force should not only be trained properly but should be given experience by keeping the trainees at different levels. They should be given expertise by the senior executives who have already gone through the situations of crime. A DNA database would not resolve all the issues of vehicle tracking and burglary, innovative measures such as closed circuit television systems should be installed to avoid burglaries to happen. The main aim of the strategy is to reduce burglary and property crime, however other crimes such as killing and knife crime is also common in the areas. The strategy should not be oriented towards certain crimes but it should target all the crimes which are happening in the areas. Similarly the assumption that if the manufacturers produce good quality products for housing purposes then the burglaries would lower down is wrong. As the burglars usually tend to track down the housing make and then commit the act. Similarly increasing the punishments for committing a crime is not a necessary step which would greatly lower the crime rates, but at times it can even provoke the punished one to commit even serious crimes. Thus the punishments should be made in such a way that the crime rates decrease. One should be given a different type of punishment so as to he avoids committing the crime again. Furthermore the assumption that drugs is the major cause of committing property crimes can also be said to be weak as drugs do not provoke an individual from committing an act which is not in his mind. In my view these acts are committed due to personal enmity or poverty. Poverty can be cited as the major criteria of committing burglaries. One major loophole of this strategy is that it does not encourage surveillance setups for the forces. This surveillance set up can help them to track down the burglaries happening all over the state. Closed circuit television cameras are one way of surveillance which can be adopted by the forces. To curb out the vehicle crime the approaches laid down by the strategy are good enough if implemented. But the security should be more emphasized when implementing the strategy. Enhancing security in the park is not the only solution to this crime, rather the overall security position should be analyzed and the security should be posted at high possibility targets. The security should be tightened outside the residential and commercial places so as to the possible perpetrator is discouraged from committing the act. The strategy has a well laid plan for disorder and anti social behavior but it does not include all the points which it should have to properly curb out the disorders in social behaviors. The environment given to pupils in schools is of a major influence to the children, thus the initiatives should take schools into confidence when being implemented. The policy turns a little weak in here when it does not address all the issues to curb anti social behavior in this society. Different NGOs are not taken into confidence by the plan so as to make the people avoid getting into these behaviors. Furthermore a faction of force is also not designated particularly for the people who indulge in these activities. In my view legal penalties should also be enforced on those who indulge in these activities so as to discourage them to get involved in them in the future. The strategy on the other hand has emphasized on young offenders and has laid down a plan to punish these young offenders before hand. These young offenders if not stopped beforehand would possibly commit more crimes in the future thus affecting the whole system. The approaches implemented by this strategy are perfect to curb out the crimes committed by youth. Similarly the approach to curb out the offenses committed by the adults is also an effective one. But it can be further improved by stopping these adults from committing a crime on the first instance. The sentences given to the adults should be of a different nature as emphasized early, the punishments should not be only so called punishments but they should be inflicted. Proper jailing plans should be organized in which the prisoners should be analyzed for their behavior accordingly and any change which they show. The punishments do not necessarily stop an individual from committing the crime again thus such punishments should be inflicted which help the individual from avoiding to commit the crime again. The help provided by the strategy to victims and witnesses is adequate enough but the protection to these victims and witnesses is not emphasized on by the strategy. Protection is a necessary factor which should be taken in consideration by the authorities as the fear factor plays a major role in discouraging the witnesses from justifying their plea. If the strategy is viewed closely then all the factors taken into consideration are of immense importance however the approaches to tackle these factors are not as effective as they should be. The policy should be refurbished considering the same factors including more precise approaches so as to the crime rate is definitely decreased. Read More