Decreasing the Amount of Crime in a High Crimed Area, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Crime is a significant problem in many communities due to a variety of conditions that have a substantial impact, such as juvenile delinquency, lack of support systems, limited security measures, social media, corrupt law enforcement, and other concerns. These factors require an analysis of existing failures within communities and to determine how to improve upon these conditions in order to accomplish the intended objectives. The reduction of crime requires a comprehensive approach in order to determine the best possible methods of achieving success through improvements at the community level. A combination of resources must be used to ensure that residents feel safer within their surroundings and that there is a sense of trust within communities where there are limitations that impact quality of life and fears regarding safety.

Body

Crime is not the direct result of one specific cause or condition; rather, it ensues from a combination of factors that have a significant impact on community-based outcomes and the ability to support safety and security within these surroundings. For example, the quality of schools within a given community may have an impact on whether or not adolescents are likely to commit crimes, and the impact is different across age groups (Deming, 2011). To be specific, students at middle school age are likely to be impacted by peer influences, while high school students are likely to be impacted by the quality of the school itself and the programs that are available (Deming, 2011). This practice supports the development of a new set of perspectives to address how school environments impact juvenile crime and whether or not youth may effectively respond to circumstances that are less likely to promote crime within the affected communities (Deming, 2011).

Similarly, education itself may have a substantial impact on how juveniles make decisions within their lives and the paths that they choose. Reducing crime, therefore, may begin at the school level and should be considered as part of a strategy to improve and enhance education for students in order to improve their circumstances and quality of life as best as possible (Machin, Marie, & Vujic, 2010). Education may not directly impact all crimes, but it may have an indirect influence on the level of control, maturity, knowledge, and other characteristics in the younger population and also across other age groups (Machin et.al, 2010). From this perspective, a higher level of education typically translates into increased knowledge and resources to improve productivity and reduces the risk of crime proportionately, but this is not a direct correlation and requires other considerations to determine its true impact on criminal behaviors, such as the time spent focusing on and in acquiring education in the classroom environment (Machin et.al, 2010).

In other areas that evaluate crime and its impact on communities, a micro-evaluation of crime across different neighborhoods is worthy of consideration, as it may represent patterns that are evident in areas where crime occurs frequently (Groff, Weisburd, & Yang, 2010). In this context, crime that occurs in specific geographic areas must be examined closely in order to determine how to best approach policing in these areas and the tools that are required to ensure that high-crime neighborhoods are properly policed to promote trust, safety, and greater security (Groff et.al, 2010). In addition, this process supports an evaluation of high-crime areas from a new perspective to ensure that how crime is addressed in these areas is supportive and recognizes the need for policing at an effective yet not controlling level (Groff et.al, 2010).

It is evident that in some situations involving crime, there is a relationship between different factors that influence health, wellbeing, and the surrounding environment, and this is accomplished through an understanding of different factors related to mental health in many cases (Lorenc et.al, 2012). In this capacity, mortality rates may increase for victims of crime, but also indirectly via high stress situations and worry regarding the potential risks associated with crime and a high exposure to violent conditions (Lorenc et.al, 2012). Therefore, it is likely that reducing crime will alleviate some of these conditions, but it may not serve as a motivating factor in this reduction in and of itself (Lorenc et.al, 2012). Furthermore, behaviors that contribute to crime may be a direct result of circumstances related to mental health; therefore, these issues must be directly evaluated in order to determine if they have any true and lasting impact on criminal behavior (Lorenc et.al, 2012).

A study by Farrell, Tilley, Tseloni, & Mailley (2008) considers the role of security in reducing or alleviating crime, given the challenges of this hypothesis and how it impacts criminal behavior, as it is believed that a “change in the level and quality of security has been a key driving force behind the crime drop” (Farrell et.al, 2008, p. 17). With this theory, it is possible that security measures have deterred crime in some areas, although these situations remain challenging to address and require further analysis (Farrell et.al, 2008). It is also believed that when security is enhanced and enforced at a higher level, there is a greater opportunity to examine the different needs that may impact individual decision-making regarding crimes and whether or not security has the desired level of influence at the community-based level (Farrell et.al, 2008). Most importantly, communities must examine their own levels of security and where there might be weaknesses in this area in order to improve conditions and to potentially reduce the risk of crime as a direct result of these decisions because they may have a lasting impact on increasing the level of safety that is observed within these communities and within specific neighborhoods (Farrell et.al, 2008).

Finally, policing within specific communities must be evaluated closely as a means of addressing criminal behavior, including the potential impact of foot patrols on neighborhood crime rates (Ratcliffe, Taniguchi, Groff, & Wood, 2011). In this context, it is observed that foot patrols may provide a false sense of security in some communities, while offering a key advantage in other communities; therefore, these considerations must be made as part of a larger framework to evaluate whether or not foot patrolling is a crime deterrent in some areas (Ratcliffe et.al, 2011). Although questions remain regarding this practice, they nonetheless represent an opportunity to examine how community-based policing may have a positive influence on reducing criminal behavior in these areas, while also improving trust and safety between residents and law enforcement (Ratcliffe et.al, 2011).

Conclusion

Crime remains a challenging situation throughout the world and requires an evaluation of the different conditions under which crime prevention efforts may have an impact on reducing criminal behaviors. This remains a difficult situation and must be explored from a variety of theoretical perspectives in order to ensure that criminal acts are minimized as best as possible. The reduction of crime is not achieved through a single activity or group; rather, it must be a collaborative effort between law enforcement, mental health professionals, educators, political leaders, organizational leaders, and community members in order to achieve the desired level of support and guidance to support a reduction in criminal activities throughout society. These combined efforts may make a valuable difference in reducing crime rates and in supporting an agenda that will improve community-based outcomes and relationships to improve trust, safety, and security within these areas, particularly where crime rates are very high and there is a perceived lack of control over these activities.

References

Deming, D. J. (2011). Better schools, less crime?. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, qjr036.

Farrell, G., Tilley, N., Tseloni, A., & Mailley, J. (2011). The crime drop and the security hypothesis. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 0022427810391539.

Groff, E. R., Weisburd, D., & Yang, S. M. (2010). Is it important to examine crime trends at a local “micro” level?: a longitudinal analysis of street to street variability in crime trajectories. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 26(1), 7-32.

Lorenc, T., Clayton, S., Neary, D., Whitehead, M., Petticrew, M., Thomson, H., … & Renton, A. (2012). Crime, fear of crime, environment, and mental health and wellbeing: Mapping review of theories and causal pathways. Health & place, 18(4), 757-765.

Machin, S., Marie, O., & Vuji?, S. (2011). The Crime Reducing Effect of Education*. The Economic Journal, 121(552), 463-484.

Ratcliffe, J. H., Taniguchi, T., Groff, E. R., & Wood, J. D. (2011). The Philadelphia foot patrol experiment: a randomized controlled trial of police patrol effectiveness in violent crime hotspots*. Criminology, 49(3), 795-831.