Criminal Justice: Effectiveness of multiagency partnerships in crime reduction - Essay Example

? Criminal Justice: Effectiveness of multiagency partnerships in crime reduction Introduction “In the endless search for more efficient and effectivemethods of crime prevention, criminal justice scholars in Western Europe, North America, and Australia have noted the tendency for greater government investment in "partnerships" and "coalitions"” (Rosenbaum, n.d., p.171). Prevention and control of crime is no more the sole responsibility of the police. Public, private, social, governmental, religious and cultural agency involvement is necessary for the crime prevention as per the findings of modern researches. The changes in the concept of crime prevention are taking place because of the ever increasing crime rates across the world. Since the reasons of occurrence of crime are multifaceted, it is difficult for a single agency to implement effective strategies to control all types of criminal activities. For example, economic problems, social problems, structural or caste related problems, cultural problems can and international terrorism can cause different types of crimes in a society. Multilevel interventions are necessary to prevent such diverse criminal activities. For example, it is difficult for a domestic agency to implement effective strategies to prevent international terrorism. The cooperation from different crime intervention agencies from different countries is necessary to prevent international terrorism. Rosenbaum has pointed that “the criminal justice system cannot, by itself, solve the complex problems of crime, drugs, and disorder in our society. Resources from outside the system are desperately needed, as well as new ways of thinking about these problems from the inside” (Rosenbaum, n.d, p.174). In short, multiagency partnerships are necessary to for the effectiveness of crime reduction strategies. It is difficult to define multiagency partnerships in few words. Generally speaking, the alliances formed between two or more crime prevention organizations to reduce crimes of a particular nature can be referred as multiagency partnerships in crime reduction. It is not necessary that multiagency partnerships are always formed domestically. In some cases, multiagency partnerships are formed between international agencies for crime prevention. For example, many of the American crime prevention agencies have multiagency partnerships with similar agencies in overseas countries to fight against terrorism. This paper analyses the effectiveness of multiagency partnerships in crime prevention and reduction. Advantages of using multiagency partnerships in crime reduction The Midwest Prevention Project in Kansas and Missouri has been a big success story utilizing mass media education, school-based education, parent education and organizing, community organizing, and changes in health policy to produce desired reductions in adolescent use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. The Minnesota Heart and Health Program (MHHP) is another comprehensive initiative that has achieved substantial reductions in cigarette smoking in three communities through school-based education, cardiovascular risk factor screening, health education, community mobilization, continuing education of health professionals, mass media education campaigns, and both adult and youth education (Rosenbaum, n.d, p.175). Alcoholism and drug addiction are some of the major problems among American school children at present. Majority of the school violence cases in America are related to Alcoholism and drug addiction. Children during their developmental stages do not have enough maturity to segregate between good and evil. Moreover, the development of various types of hormones during adolescence may force teenagers to demonstrate aggressive behaviors. Majority of the sex related crimes among teenagers are occurring because of the development of sex hormones during puberty. Teenagers may not have the awareness about the bodily changes they are undergoing. All these factors contribute heavily to the increasing crime rates among teenagers. Criminal justice system has lot of limitations in limiting juvenile crimes. It should be noted that criminal justice system gives more importance to correction rather than punishment while dealing with juvenile crimes. In other words, juvenile offenders are normally sent to correction facilities instead of jails to change their behavior. This is because of the awareness that teenagers do not have proper knowledge about the consequences of their actions and therefore they need better education for changing their behavior. In the surroundings of three primary schools, located in a neighbourhood, there have been problems like vandalism, nuisance, and disorder, probably caused by groups of youngsters. At a certain moment, after a new incident, some citizens living near the schools decided to do something about the problems and to start a citizen group. Soon the schools, police, and the neighbourhood official of the local administration also joined the network. In the years to follow many activities were conducted, among them situational prevention, informal social control by citizens, active patrol by the police, and youth work activities for adolescents living in the neighbourhood (Terspa, 2008, p.215) The above example describes how community organizations or social organizations can participate effectively in crime prevention efforts of the police and other agencies of criminal justice system. Social organizations can play an important role in crime prevention activities. For example, health organizations can co-operate with school authorities to conduct health awareness classes to teenagers. Many of the teenagers succumb to alcoholism and drug addiction because of their unawareness about the physical and psychological damages these behaviors can cause to them. Creating awareness among teenagers about the consequences of antisocial behaviors may yield better results in crime reduction. For that purpose, multiagency partnerships between crime reduction agencies and community organizations can play an important role. We are living in a digital world in which cybercrimes are increasing day by day. Even advanced crime investigating methods quite often fail to bring the cyber criminals in front of justice because of the limitations in investigating such crimes. For example, many teenagers have the habit of using internet cafes to spread morphed naked images of their enemies. It is difficult for the police to catch the culprits without getting proper cooperation from the cafe owners. Internet cafe oriented crimes can be prevented only with the help of partnerships between cafe management and police forces. Crime is caused by economic, social, political and cultural factors. So, the cooperation from economic, social, political and cultural systems is necessary to the criminal justice system for the prevention and reduction of crime. For example, in many countries ruling political party members often attack opposition party members. Moreover, in many countries, cabinet ministers often accused for corruption cases. In all these circumstances, the investigation from criminal justice system may not be effective if the ruling political party fails to extend its support to the investigation formalities. In a so called “2G spectrum corruption scandal”, three of the Indian cabinet ministers were recently punished by the Indian criminal justice system. India's telecommunications ministry caused nearly US$40 billion in losses to the exchequer by selling the licenses at 2001 prices and by conducting the sale on a so-called first-come, first-served basis (as opposed to auctions) to benefit a few select bidders, according to an audit by India's Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) (India's 2G Telecom Scandal Spans the Spectrum of Abuse, 2010) It should be noted that crime investigating agencies in India got assistance from Indian government for conducting an independent investigation regarding this corruption scandal. Otherwise, this corruption scandal investigation would have been ended in failure. The cooperation between political systems in India and central bureau of investigation (CBI) helped Indian criminal justice system to prove corruption charges against some of the ruling ministers and sending them for jail terms. “Partnerships are better suited to developing creative targeted interventions because they include a diverse group of individuals representing a diverse group of organizations with different philosophies of intervention” (Rosenbaum, n. d, p.177). Sex abuse cases are growing day by day all over the world because of the rapid changes happening in life philosophies, styles and attitudes. Morality and ethics are rapidly diminishing subjects from this world. Some of the recent sex abuse reports have showed that there are many children in this world who are constantly molested or sexually abused by their parents. Criminal justice agencies have so many limitations in preventing such crimes. Social agencies and religious groups can play an important role in preventing such crimes. For example, religious leaders can ask their communities to stay away from evil acts such as sexual abuse of children. They should educate their communities that such behaviors are cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. There are many cases in which even priests engaged in sex related crimes. If religious leaders try to protect them, crime prevention and reduction efforts of criminal justice system may not be successful. On the other hand, if religious leaders take initiatives in bringing offenders from their community in front of law, the crime habits in their community can be reduced considerably. In short, crime investigating agencies and social or religious groups can establish meaningful partnerships for crime reduction. “Certainly public consultation can generate data to fill gaps in information concerning local crime problems, for example by providing data on victimisation to supplement recorded crime figures and on perceptions of crime” (Adamson, n. d., p.2). Many of the crime investigations are failing because of the reluctance of the communities in cooperating with crime investigating agencies. People have a preconceived perception that any support extended to crime investigating agencies may bring more harm to them than good. For example, there are many cases in which innocent witnesses of crimes forced to spend substantial periods of time in courts and police stations in order to face trial and questioning from criminal justice system. Under such circumstances, people usually avoid reporting crimes to police officers in order to avoid future inconveniences. Community policing is a concept evolved to reduce the gap between police and communities and to ensure proper cooperation from communities for crime prevention. In community policing, police officers work closely with communities in a friendly manner so that people may show more readiness in reporting crimes and assisting investigating officers. “The Weed and Seed Program is a community-based, multiagency program that seeks to "weed out" crime from targeted neighborhoods, then "seed" the area with various programs and resources to stop crime from recurring” (Federal Grants: More Can Be Done to Improve Weed and Seed Program Management: GGD-99-110, 1999, p.1). The weed and Seed program was the brain child of Clinton administration. The major objective of this program is to eliminate crime tendencies as early as possible and cultivate good behaviours as early as possible in the minds of children. This program was implemented successfully by Clinton administration with the help of several federal, state, and local governments and private sector groups. Statistical studies on large samples of young offenders in the USA, England and many other countries have evaluated whether a sentence of prison, service in the community or probation stops the juvenile from re-offending. In sum, they do not. However, the studies do show that fifty per cent or more of the typical young offenders are reconvicted within three years of their original conviction. Those that are reconvicted tend to come from worse family situations and have done less well in school. They also show that the nature of the sanction does not make any difference, unless it includes one of those few programmes “carefully designed to target the specific characteristics and problems of offenders that can be changed” (Prof. Waller, n. d., p. 89). The above findings clearly suggest that the multiagency partnership is necessary to prevent crime tendencies among teenagers. Those who have experienced jail terms once may develop a tendency to repeat crimes unless proper interventions were made to prevent from doing so. Police forces have limitations in monitoring the activities of a criminal released from jail for longer periods. Community organizations can help police forces in such matters so that the criminal may not go back to his old behaviors. Disadvantages of using multiagency partnerships in crime reduction Coalition members were not only presenting their given philosophy of crime and its prevention, but were clearly attempting to use the forum for the personal advantage of their given agency or organization. In other words, the Coalition Against Crime simply became another opportunity to gain access to funding—an attitude that would promote tension and competition and pronounce the death of any workable and focused activity (Walters, n.d., p.82). One of the major disadvantages of multiagency crime prevention strategies is the possibility of one agency tries to take undue advantage over other. The punishment of ministers who were responsible for the corruption cases in 2G spectrum scandal has raised many controversies in India. The ruling political party in India is currently trying to boost their image by proclaiming that they are sincere in their fight against corruption and that is why they had no hesitation in sending some of the corrupted ministers to jail. On the other hand, opposition parties say that the intervention of Supreme Court of India helped CBI to conduct an independent investigation and to bring the culprits in front of law. In short, ruling parties, opposition parties, and criminal justice system in India are trying to boost their images by claiming responsibility for the success of investigation of 2G spectrum scandal. It should be noted that the combined effort of all these agencies helped the investigation immensely and there is no point in claiming victory by individual groups or parties. Crime reduction with the help of multiagency partnerships is more expensive than other crime reduction activities. The functioning of each agency in the coalition needs separate funding which will increase the expenditure for crime reduction efforts. For example, drug related crimes among teenagers can be effectively tackled with the help of social organizations, health organizations and crime investigating agencies. All these agencies may have their own programs for countering drug related crimes among teenagers. All these programs need proper funding for successful implementation. In short, multiagency crime intervention programs are more effective; at the same time it is more expensive also. McLaughlin & Muncie (2001) have pointed out that the appeal of multiagency crime prevention partnerships may destroy the image of traditional crime control agencies (McLaughlin & Muncie, 2001, p.178). If community organizations and health organizations expand their activities to areas such as crime prevention, people may respect these organizations more at the expense of traditional crime prevention agencies. People may perceive that traditional crime prevention agencies are incapable of preventing crimes and other organizations are more efficient in tackling crimes. Conclusions Crime rates are growing day by day everywhere in the world which made the tasks of police forces extremely complicated. Crime occurs in a society because of various reasons and elimination of such reasons is more effective in crime prevention rather than trying to change the criminal behaviour of a person with the help of punishment or correction methods. Social organizations, health organizations and governmental organizations can establish meaningful partnerships with criminal justice system to prevent crimes. Crime prevention with the help of multiagency partnerships is more expensive than other crime prevention strategies. At the same time, multiagency partnerships are more effective than other crime prevention activities. In some cases, individual groups in a multiagency partnership may try to take undue advantages. Such groups will try to credit all the success of the multiagency partnerships in their individual account and credit all the failures in other’s account. The individual groups multiagency partnerships should realise that the success and failures are accountable to all the groups in the partnership. References Adamson S. (n.d.). Community driven youth crime prevention – Lessons from new deal for communities. British Society of Criminology. [Online] Available at: http://www.britsoccrim.org/volume7/009.pdf Federal Grants: More Can Be Done to Improve Weed and Seed Program Management: GGD-99-110 (1999). GAO Reports 7/16/1999. India's 2G Telecom Scandal Spans the Spectrum of Abuse, (2010). [Online] Available at: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4549 [Accessed on 11 January 2012] McLaughlin E & Muncie J (2001). The Sage dictionary of criminology. Sage publications Limited. California. Prof. Waller I. (n.d.). Effective multi-agency systems for effective Urban crime prevention [Online] available at: http://www.unafei.or.jp/english/pdf/RS_No68/No68_10VE_Waller2.pdf [Accessed on 11 January 2012] Rosenbaum D.P. (n. d.). Evaluating Multi-Agency Crime Partnerships. Crime Prevention Studies, volume 14, pp.171-225. [Online] available at: http://www.popcenter.org/library/crimeprevention/volume_14/06-Rosenbaum.pdf Terspa J (2008). Police, local government, and citizens as participants in local security Networks. Police Practice and Research An International Journal Vol. 9, No. 3, July 2008, 213–225. Walters F.(n.d.). The "dream" of multi-agency Crime prevention: pitfalls in Policy and practice. [Online] Available at: hhttp://www.popcenter.org/library/crimeprevention/volume_05/04_Walters.pdf [Accessed on 11 January 2012] Read More