Various Types of Crime Control Strategies Utilized Today by Law Enforcement - Essay Example

Topic: VARIOUS TYPES OF CRIME CONTROL STRATEGIES UTILIZED TODAY BY LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE UNITED S OF AMERICA. The international criminal activities have been reported to be escalating both in the severity and extent, especially with the increase in globalization. As a result, crime is increasingly becoming a more serious threat. The ranges of criminal activities that are engaged in by the international criminals today have increased both in numbers and the extent to which they are dangerous. The criminal activities witnessed in the United States of America include but not limited to; terrorism, drug trafficking, contraband and alien smuggling, money laundering, fraud, bribery, extortion, economic espionage, counterfeiting and theft of intellectual property. Extreme violence is also an emerging concern as crime advancement (Astorga, Luis and David, pp 56) The international crime has also been reported to be so prevalent. International criminals, borders are not this to be considered, until when it is time to seek a hide out from a criminal act. Substantial amounts of money tend to be passed through international financial systems. The amount of money transferred tends to be so substantial which further undermines the economy of the entire globe as it opens up channels for money laundering. The criminal gangs tend to be very organized in a series of crime businesses which they operate. In addition, they capitalize on the growth in the international communications and transportation, in order to advance their criminal operations, further forming potential alliances (Bush, p.11). On the international scene, international criminal’s corrosive activities of the post-Cold War era are now a threat to all countries and regions alike. In this case, the United States of America is not an exception. The international crime must now be looked at not only as a law enforcement problem or failure, but also as an increasingly formidable threat to both national and international security concern (Koops, Bert-Jaap, et al, 2009, pp.1-24). International crime is a threat to the United States and as a result, the interests that are posed by these international crimes have to be looked at in a three dimensional and interrelated categories. Those categories include threat to the American people and the communities in general, as a threat to the American financial institutions and businesses, finally threat to the international security and stability as a whole. With these three dimensions, the United States law enforcement agencies can then formulate the right strategies in place to make sure that crime is well taken care of in the form of mitigation, control as well as putting in place the possible remedies (Koops et al, 2009, pp.1-24). As a threat to American people and their communities continue to increase, the impact of international crime has been reported to have been felt directly by everyone in the United States and the entire American community. Drugs such as cocaine produced in South American hide outs, and heroin, from the golden triangle of Southeast Asia, are trafficked into neighborhoods, schools and communities. Social disruptions and violence alongside humongous cases of health related costs that are usually associated to the abuse of drugs have continued to pose a devastating effect on the country. Various crime control strategies have been utilized today by American law enforcement agencies. It is evident that for the past few years, there has been a robust expansion of the American businesses oversees, alongside financial institutions. International terrorism on its part is not one that we can debate about since it is largely and clearly evident that it has infiltrated the many countries’ borders, with the United States being highly vulnerable to the terrorist threats (Fellner and Jamie, p.257). In the United States, law enforcement is among the three major components of the criminal justice system, which serves along with the along with courts. Even though each of the enforcement components tends to operate in some king of partial independence, they all come together to form a kind of chain, which leads all the way from the investigation stages of a particular case’ suspected criminal activity, to the administration of the respective criminal punishment. The courts are again vested with powers of making legal make legal determinations, which regard to how the other two components are run (Koops, et al, pp.1-24). The United States law enforcement parameters operate mainly via the numerous governmental police agencies of the state. The main law enforcement objectives of these state agencies are investigation of the specific suspected criminal activities, the referral of the case results of the investigations courts and finally detentions of particular convicted suspects, pending the final judicial action (Bush, p.8). The United States law enforcement strategy to combating international organized crime, was later developed, after the International Organized Crime Threat Assessment (IOC Threat Assessment) of October 2007, and mainly addresses the strategic, concerted, and targeted United States’ response to the combustion of the specifically identified threats. This law enforcement strategy borrows largely from the broad foundation, which the states’ administration has established over a period of time (Kleemans, pp. 163-215). This strategy lays down a framework for the investigation and the corresponding prosecution, ensuring the commitment to dealing with the international organized crime structure that it has to. The United States’ federal law enforcement agency on its part has shown and is mandated with the unprecedented effort of cooperation regarding the international organized crime. With this regard, the federal law enforcement agency shares information on the international organized crime and the related intelligence, goes further to collectively identify and prioritize the threats that are most important and of urgency, and then finally puts the full force of United States’ law enforcement expertise and the appropriate resources toward the mitigation of the threats. To make it even better, the United States’ law enforcement has ensured the increased level of cooperation with its international partners in bringing the organized international criminals to the book of justice both in the United States and abroad (Kleemans, pp. 163-215). In the case of Lafler v. Cooper 2012, the defendant was convicted of an assault with intent to murder alongside three other offenses. The defendant then received a mandatory minimum of 185-to-360-months sentence, this is after receiving ineffective assistance of counsel in advice to reject a plea offer to dismiss two of the charges, and instead recommend 51-to-85-months sentence on the other two, the judgment of the Sixth Circuit on petition for habeas corpus is vacated and the case remanded, in the case where; the defendant did show prejudice for purposes of an ineffective assistance of counsel, simply by showing the claim, but for his attorneys deficient performance. As a result, there was reasonable likelihood that the trial court would have accepted the guilty plea. However, the district court ought not to have ordered the specific performance of the plea agreement, an instead ordered the state to reoffer the plea. The case of Burrage v. US, 2014 involved conviction of defendant for unlawfully distributing drugs such as heroin which led to deaths. The defendant was convicted to a mandatory minimum 20-years sentence, all this under the penalty enhancement provision of the controlled substances Act (Rangarajan, Sunil, Rangarajan and Hinton, pp.567-570). In the case of Hinton v. Alabama, the Alabama appellate courts ruling denied the petition for habeas relief, in which case the petitioner was challenged, was vacated and remanded, in which case it was ruled that the Alabama courts had incorrectly applied the Strickland v. Washington to the petitioners case, and that the petitioners trial attorney rendered constitutionally deficient performance because due to the unreason ability of the petitioners lawyer to fail to seek additional funds, to assist in the hiring of an expert, where the failure was based not on any strategic choice but a mistaken belief that available funding was capped at $1,000 (Rangarajan, Sunil, Sunad Rangarajan and Hinton, pp.567-570). Works cited Astorga, Luis, and David A. Shirk. "Drug trafficking organizations and counter-drug strategies in the US-Mexican context." 2010. Print. Bush, George W. The national security strategy of the United States of America. Wordclay, 2009.Print. Fellner, Jamie. "Race, drugs, and law enforcement in the United States." Stan. L. & Poly Rev. 20 2009: 257.Print. Rangarajan, Sunil, Sunad Rangarajan, and Lindsey Smith Hinton. "An unusual case of a misplaced left internal jugular vein catheter." International Journal of Case Reports and Images (IJCRI) 4.10 (2014): 567-570. Koops, Bert-Jaap, et al. "A typology of identity-related crime: conceptual, technical, and legal issues." Information, Communication & Society 12.1 (2009): 1-24. Kleemans, Edward R. "Organized crime, transit crime, and racketeering." Crime and Justice 35.1 (2007): 163-215. . Read More