Police and Crime Script - Essay Example

Running Head: Police      Name                                                                     Institution                                                                              Date Crime script From our first assignment we know that Bob was a worker at a school where he worked ender the cleaning and maintenance. He had managed to win the confidence of his employer and he could play his card well that he was able to sneak out to the nearby neighbors when he was very sure that everybody had noticed his presence in work and could then sneak to the neighborhood when he was sure that no body was seeing him and steal whatever electronic he needed from them. He could also have some explanations if anyone happens to notice his absence in the school. By doing this he ensured that there is no evidence to implicate him incase of any report from the owners of the house. He was very smart in that he made sure that none of the properties bore his finger prints and he sold them to his brother-in-law and therefore to be able to prevent him from committing further crimes, it is important to do a thorough analysis so as to fully understand his stealing tactics and this calls for a thorough investigation if a similar crime is to be disrupted or prevented from continuing (Sherman 2002). To successfully prevent any associated criminal offences, I would involve actors or people like the police in the nearby police station or the local police (community policing), the villagers or the neighbors who will act as neighbor watch and also the owners of the stolen properties in the village as they would be of help in the crime analysis as noted by Brandon (2007). The neighborhood watch will monitor every activity in the neighborhoods and once they notice the robber they will inform the police. The following stages will be useful in the crime prevention: understanding of the problem, analyze the opportunities leading to the occurrence of the offence and the people involved and then take action (Sherman 2002).. In the process of designing a strategy to prevent this crime, it is important to make proper decisions regarding how to carry out the investigation and at the proper time to do it. The best time to investigate the occurrence of this crime is during day time as we are told that the crime took place during the day. In this case I will do a thorough investigation on the victims of the robbery to determine whwther there is any commonality between them. Through this I will be able to figure out therobbery pattern . How to develop the investigation strategy depends on the criminal investigator. The proper resources to use during this investigation will be the stolen properties (Skogan 1997). These resources will act as evidence that the crime actually took place. This process also involves the analysis of the opportunities which might have triggered the occurrence of this crime. These opportunities determine where and when the crime took place and also increase the chances of crimes (Brandon 2007). In our case, Bob knew very well that the owners of the houses neighboring the school had garage doors and were never in the house or in the near compound during the day. It is also opportunistic that Bob had keys for the doors and took advantage of the trust bestowed on him by his employer to commit the crime (Skogan 1997). Bob couldn’t have been identified earlier because even though I would conduct questioning, no one in the school or in the neighborhood could tell as Bob had played it very smsrt. Investigation to identify Bob would take some time. Introduction Crime is a breach of rules or laws of a governing authority. According to Skogan (1997), Crime prevention is the process of reducing crimes or the number of criminals and it is mostly enforced by the government to enforce law and ensure criminal justice. According to Clarke (1998) crime prevention mainly focuses on the reduction of the opportunities leading to the crime other than reduction on the criminal characteristics. As a crime investigator, I should focus on the reduction of the opportunistic activities which led to the robbery together with the identification of the issues surrounding the crime and the factors leading to the crime commission not forgetting to identify any useful resource or property stolen during the crime. There are three necessary elements for a crime to occur which include opportunity, skills and the required tools and a motivation of the criminal. Opportunity here is like in the case of Bob who used the opportunity of being a cleaner and the opportunity of having gained trust of his employer to sneak outside the school. He also used his locksmith skills and tools to break into the houses and was highly motivated to the crime since he lacked loyalty to his job and therefore he felt the need for much money. To reduce this crime the police should educate the school administration on the proper methods of monitoring their workers behaviours as in this case Bob lacked a close monitoring which in one way or the other made him to commit crime. Many crimes therefore are committed when the offender sees an opportunity and when he or she thinks that she or he will be able to commit the crime unnoticed. According to Clarke (1998) the offender’s greed, motive and rationalization to choose to break the law comes from a conceptual form of the criminal. How to prevent the crime To effectively prevent any further occurrence of such a crime, I as the criminal investigator will have to conduct a thorough investigation in which I will use the people, stages, decisions and resources to collect enough evidence (Brandon 2007). This prevention strategy involves the acquisition of evidence so as to determine the existence of the crime bearing in mind that we only prevent something from occurring or from a continued occurrence but only and only if we have enough evidence of its existence (Bonnie 2010). To obtain assessment strategy for crime prevention it will involve the use of various stages and especially the decision making process as this strategy is highly dependent on making decision. The following types of crime analysis can be used to help understand the crime fully:  Strategic analysis of crime This type of analysis is used to examine long-term or repeated and increasing crimes. In our case, from the information provided, the person reading the report understands that Bob could go to the neighborhood bungalow which had garages and backdoors in the day time to get expensive items (Brandon 2007). With this information the individual understands that the crime actually took place even though the owners took a long time to notice the disappearance of their items (Bonnie 2010). Understanding the re-occurrence of Bob’s theft gives the analyst a clear understanding of the crime commission and this can be noted by a constant announcement via the TV or newspapers. Tactical analysis of crime The investigator thoroughly analyzes the information given to him by identifying when, where and what Bob did to break into the houses of the neighborhood. In this analysis type a crime is said to exist in a given pattern if some variables are repeating themselves like time and location (Bonnie 2010). In our case, the individual will understand that Bob’s action was really a crime since the robbery took place at same time which is during the day and in the same locality which is the neighborhood of the school (Sherman 2002). This method is mostly used by investigators and it is aimed at identifying the offender together with their counterparts in the crime. Intelligence analysis I as the investigator should also use this test to understand Bob’s crime commission which is done after collection of evidence. This requires the questioning of the culprit to obtain evidence from him (Skogan 1997). In this case, Bob should be questioned in line with his deeds together with the evidence which should include the confiscated goods from his brother. The interrogation by police could tell of the guiltiness of Bob even though he will lie and therefore the questioning should be subjective in that any inconsistency in his words will be noted and this will lead to understanding of the crime (Bonnie 2010). Inconsistency of words means that one is either lying or is not sure of what he is saying. With the above information, the investigator should then question Bob’s brother since from the test he is known to be in possession of the stolen goods and this will enable the person to understand the validity of the crime committed by Bob as argued by Brandon (2007). Investigative crime analysis According to the assessment test, I as the investigator had investigated this crime and known that it was a case of burglary and even knew the person doing it as argued by Hreha (2003). Based on this analysis therefore it will be easy for me to determine the best method of approach to the crime problem. Administrative analysis According to Hreha (2003), this type of crime analysis involves statistics, reports and data collection. As the investigator therefore I should be in a position to collect data and the statistics as per the crime and later write a report to give the findings and the recommendations. In this case data about Bob’s theft was collected and every details of his robbery were given.the statistics collected will be used for report writing to act as evidence. For example reports done by owners of the stolen goods to the police and the report from the community polcing is an example of data to be used for report writing. Strategic analysis This type of crime analysis involves the identification of the trends of the crime, factors leading to the crime and the problem the crime poses to the society at large (David 2001). In this case, the theft by Bob was identified to be a continuous one and had a negative effect to others in the society as it led to their fear of being robbed. To disrupt, intervene and prevent such a crime, I will perform the following stages of crime analysis: Understanding the crime will be first stage which will involve me as the crime investigator to fully understand fully how, when and where the crime took place as noted by Hreha (2003). In this case I therefore understand that the crime took place in the school neighborhood and in the day time and that it was a burglary case. After this I will analyze any opportunities which might have led to the crime occurrence (David 2001). In this case therefore after the analysis I understand that opportunities like absence of people in the neighborhood, the locksmithing skills of Bob and the trust bestowed by him by his employer are some of the opportunities that the offender took advantage of to commit the crime. The third step of this analysis is to obtain any information of all the associates of the crime. By associates I mean anybody who willingly or unwillingly is found in the custody of the stolen properties as argued by Hreha (2003). As a crime investigator, I should be having the list of the stolen goods and so anybody found in custody of them is real evidence that the crime took place. It is at this stage that I should involve the people and the resources to ensure that the information obtained is valid. The brother-in-law to Bob who was found in custody of the stolen goods should be able to give the true information about the acquisition of the property. In this case I will start by involving a neighbor watch. Neighbors will always be ready to work to ensure that their neighborhood is safe and secure which is consistent with David (2001). Neighborhood watch involves the use of neighbors to watch out for other neighbours and through this the neighbors can know which neighbor has been away for a long time and can also notice any unusual happening in the neighbors homestead and report it to the police. The fact that this crime was done when there were no people or neighbors in the vicinity means that the involvement of the neighbors watch will disrupt this activity as once the offenders notice the presence of anybody or when they feel that they are being watched then they will be unable to go on with the crime exercise (Bonnie 2010). Therefore the use of neighbors will help me to determine the exact time when the crime took place. Community policing can also be used to monitor any occurrence of the crime in the area as noted by Hreha (2003). By use of the community policing, I will ensure that the police I send to the locality are not in their police so as to avoid raising suspicion among the residents. The police will be instructed to patrol the crime location (Skogan 1997). Community policing is an interventionary measure towards crime as the offenders will be caught and implicated and hence acting as disruptive method of crime occurrence. To prevent the continued theft by Bob, then I will also involve the school staff in which he worked. The school will be supposed to monitor his movements from the time he gets to job till he leaves and this should be done with caution to ensure that he does not notice that he is being traced as noted by Sherman (2002). Monitoring by the staff will also give me the exact time of the crime occurrence. Involving the owners of the stolen goods can also help me to fully analyze the crime. The owners will be able to give full details of how the robbery took place that is if they found any broken door or window. With these details I will be able to determine and analyze the kind of robbery. Also they will give the serial numbers of each of their stolen property and this will enable the investigator to be able to get the stolen goods from the person whom Bob sold to. Resources will also be helpful in the understanding and analysis of the crime. This crime involved the loss of valuables like electrons which in most cases each has its production serial number and its acquisition is always accompanied by a receipt bearing its full description (Sherman 2002). The fact that the stolen properties were found in the custody of Bob’s brother-in-law gives me as the investigator to ask the brother to produce the receipts failure to which it tells that there is a possibility that the property was not legally his. After the collection of all this information, I as the investigator then should make a decision on the way forward towards the crime prevention (Skogan 1997). This involves the use of decision making process which includes the following: Understanding the problem- in this case the problem which is the crime has been understood from the information collected from the above sources After understanding the problem at hand so many alternative solutions will be crossing my mind the best approach towards the prevention of this crime as noted by Hreha (2003). The solutions at the investigators disposal depend on the information from the analysis. According to Waller (2006), at this stage the investigator will have to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of each solution and its impacts upon implementation and then choose the best one depending on the information he has at hand. When I as the investigator decide on the best alternative, then I should implement it in the crime prevention. In this case the best method to prevent this crime for example will be to implicate the offender and also to ensure that the location is fully covered by police patrol to prevent others from getting into the crime. This solution to the crime prevention should therefore be implemented into the place of the crime. Report writing After I have all the required information about the crime, then I should write a report to my Boss which in it will have the findings, methods of preventing the crime and even the recommendations (Sherman 2002). The following is a sample of report which I will hand over to my boss so as the crime prevention action may take place. Objectives of the report To determine the best methods to be put in action to be able to prevent the crime occurrence. Depending on the problem at hand which is the issue of crime prevention, then the main objective will be on how and the best methods to prevent it. According to Waller (2006). the other objective of this report will be to determine how to reduce the opportunities which led to the commission of the crime. In this case the report should be able to show how opportunities which activated the crime are prevented or eliminated as this will see that the crime is well reduced (Skogan 1997). In the report the findings which I got from my research together with the causes of the crimes will be found. The report should also be in the form of a database which indicates all the criminal strategies and hoew to prevent them. For example in my investigation, I realized that the crime was caused by opportunities available to the offender which included his skills and the structure of the houses in the neighborhood as noted by Hreha (2003). Other factors which led to the commission of the crime included the greedy for more money. Other findings which I obtained from the investigation were that the robbery took place in a broad day light and that the stolen properties were sold to business men as noted by Hreha (2003). I also found out that the offenders in this type of crime were very smart and that it needed a critical and a thorough investigation to obtain the truth of the matter (Skogan 1997). All this findings were evidenced by the people who I involved while trying to understand much about the crime. Then I will give the conclusion together with the recommendations. In this section the methods of crime prevention will be stated. For example, I have concluded that the crime in the school neighborhood was opportunistically motivated and this therefore calls for the elimination or the reduction of these opportunities to enhance the reduction in crime (Sherman 2002). According to me therefore, the following strategies should be implemented in the action towards the prevention of crime in the area: According to Hreha (2003), all offenders should be implicated and charged with theft and given a severe punishment. Doing this will therefore frighten any other person intending to commit the same crime and as a result crime in the area will be prevented. A police patrol should also be put in place and not in their uniform so as to monitor and counteract any crime report by implicating the offender .(Waller 2006). The opportunities leading to the crime commission should be done away with. For example, in the case of Bob, the owners of the houses near the school should be encouraged to install security in their houses. By the fact that they are dual families it means that they have a handsome of properties and should then ensure that they leave their houses at a check or observation. Conclusion Crime commission is an offence which one can do under pressure or willingly. For a criminal investigator to understand the crime, he or she needs to involve people who can help to collect relevant information which will act as a supportive material and especially during the charging of the offender as argued by Waller (2006). To fully prevent any occurrence from occurring or to prevent further continuation of a crime in the society, the investigator should first understand the circumstances around the crime like the factors leading to the crime, the time and the reasons for the offenders to commit the offence. By doing so the investigator will be at a better position to be able to devise a strategy for the crime prevention which is consistent to Sherman (2002). It is also very important to report any crime to the relevant authority for actions. According to Skogan (1997) findings, if the people in the surrounding area or the people near the place of crime and who happen to witness the act or the people whose properties are stolen should report to the police so that an act to prevent further robbery should be taken. References Bonnie S. Fisher, (2010) Encyclopedia of Victomology and crime prevention, SAGE Brandon C.Welsh, (2007) Preventing crime: What works for children, offenders, victim’s and places. Springer David P. &, Brandon W. (2001) what works in preventing crime: systematic reviews of experimental and quasi-experimental research, Sage Publications. Friedrichs, David O. (2002). "Occupational crime, occupational deviance, and workplace crime: Sorting out the difference". Criminal Justice. Garland, David (1996), "The Limits of the Sovereign State: Strategies of Crime Control in Contemporary Society", British Journal of Criminology Gobert, J & Punch, M. (2003). Rethinking Corporate Crime, London: Butterworths. 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