Weather-Related Events and Crimes - Essay Example

Weather Related Events and Crimes This paper seeks to examine how risks management relates to crime. People hardly relate crimes to severe weather conditions. Therefore emergency management officials and risk managers may be asked to account for all types of risks, including crime. Weather related events that are unique to Chicago are hurricanes and floods. This weather hard is mostly to destroy farm products, carry vehicles and building and makes roads impassable. Floods prevent a fast rescue by police officers and firefighters. Early philosophers believed that weather have an effect on both the physiological and biological makeup of individuals. Additionally, these scholars argued that hot and cold seasons affect individuals directly making them unable to control their inhibitions and are subjects of aggressive behaviors. According to research conducted a few decades ago, crime property is more likely to happen during the cold season. Keywords: crime, floods, risk management, weather. Discussion Recently, there are questions about crime and weather, climate and crime and crime and season and how they influence criminal behaviors. There are some traditional beliefs that associate weather and human behavior based on wraithlike causes; this ranges from the weather gods to the location of the heavenly bodies. Other people assume that climatic conditions of a particular area influence the population of those living in that area. For instance, the southern climates of United States are hot are therefore produced hot-blooded people while the northern part is cold and, therefore, produces people who are cold-blooded. Early 1800s, criminologists argued that climate influence the biology of a person, which could result in a population of a particular climate to have higher rates of crimes. Many scientists have criticized most of the assumptions that relate crimes and weather. However, some current theories of crime provide some reasonable arguments why climate is said to influence criminal behaviors (Siegel, 2008). This paper discusses the levels of crime during the normal weather conditions and extreme weather conditions. Also, the paper seeks to describe the hazards in relation what it might do to the community and the severity of the effect. Further, the paper will outline some actions that could be taken to mitigate or prevent impacts of crimes in a community that is dealing weather related events. Studies show that in Chicago higher temperatures and extreme rainfall results increased cases of conflict. Some documentaries indicate that hurricanes and floods in Chicago have increased violent crimes in the city. Also, the studies show that weather conditions play a role in the disintegration of human history’s iconic civilization. It is said that one feature of the physical environment which has a big impact on human character is the weather. The impacts that changing climate conditions have on aggressive behavior and criminal activities has been a subject of concern to both the lay public and the scientists. Hurricanes and floods that are experienced in Chicago are believed to cause negative emotional responses. During this extreme weather conditions, there are increased rates of suicides (Siegel, 2008). The relationship between weather and crime was not adequately studied until 1960s when there were demonstrations in US regarding many deaths that were caused by the summer heat. Since the riots, researchers have focused on studying the relationship between weather and crime. Floods in Chicago and its effect on the community The worst flood that has ever happened in Chicago was in April 1992 when it destroyed the wall of a utility tunnel of the Chicago River. The Chicago area is dominated by the hostile Lake Chicago plain. The Plains comprise of Chicago River, Calumet River, and Des Plains River. The Chicago area has been experiencing many drainage challenges during the rainy seasons. The natural situation of Chicago is swamps, where the streets are poorly drained and are full of mud. Flooding in Chicago has been described as a natural phenomenon for some years. Agricultural areas are the most affected by the floods making farming difficult. Floods in Chicago are triggered by extensive regional rainfall with varying duration and intensity. The rain takes about two weeks of continuously across the northern parts of North Branch Chicago, Des Plains and Fox River divisions. By the NWS (National Weather Service), the storm might have caused some tornadoes in southern regions of Chicago which results in winds as high as eighty-six miles per hour and downed trees. The trees blocked the roads and made roads impassable for police officers on patrol. Floods in Chicago brought massive and devastation impacts that have effects on the environment, people and economy. During floods, in particular, flash floods, bridges, roads, farms, automobiles, and houses are destroyed. People become homeless, although the United States government deployed people to help the affected people. The floods came at a heavy cost to both government and the people. It has taken time for businesses and communities to get back to normal. The environment also suffers the consequences of the floods as chemicals, and other dangerous substances are drained in rivers contaminating water bodies. There are many people and animals that die during the floods that have occurred in Chicago city. Floods are likely to traumatize victims and their families for a long time. The loss of friends and families members has broad impacts, especially children who lose their parents (Brown, 2012). Floods that have recently occurred in Chicago disrupted many industries that were a loss of livelihood. The damaged infrastructure has caused long-term effects, such as disruption of water supplies, electricity, communication, transport, health care and education. Loss of source of revenue, loss of land value and reduction of purchasing power in Chicago has left many communities helpless. Flooding in key agricultural regions has led to widespread damage of crops and livestock. Crops are lost through rain damage, saturated soils, and there are delays in harvesting. The situation of harvesting is intensified by transportation issues due to damaged infrastructure and flooded roads. Floods have caused increased food prices in Chicago due to food shortages. In Chicago, floods are one of the most expensive natural disasters with estimated direct costs of 300 million dollars per year. Besides the social, economic and environment impacts, waves in Chicago have brought more serious effects that related to crime. As a result of hurricanes and floods in Chicago, the city is faced with some criminal activities as criminals always take any single opportunity to carry out their missions. Criminals may at times pretend to be among the rescue teams or even victims of the floods. One of the significant impacts of flooding on the community is that it causes delay traveling in the Chicago areas. The streets turn out to be slick, cars breakdown, and there are blackouts in many regions of Chicago. On the hand, most criminals become opportunist and as flooding persists people stay aside. People are forced to close their business for their safety. Criminals find it a better opportunity to break into people companies. Floods destroy agricultural products that are the primary source of food for people in Chicago. The destruction causes food shortages and therefore people looks for means to get their daily bread that may involve criminal activities such as theft. Crime rates, and in particular property crime tend to increase in times of natural calamities such as floods (Churchman & Bechtel, 2003). Heavy rainfalls cause power blackout and approximately 200,000 people in Chicago area are left without electricity. Most crimes are likely to happen in dark places, and the interruption offers the criminals an opportunity to carry out theft, robbery and murder. Criminals break into people homes and businesses. It takes the time to restore electricity as power stations are unable to send their workers to restore which gives criminals ample time to carry out their activities. Often, people always imagine the worst and thinks that there is danger in the dark. Criminals are opportunistic enough, and it is in the dark that they plan on getting multi-million dollar robbery. When it is raining so heavily, many motorists rush to their car garages, turns on their cars and then goes back to their houses leaving their cars to warm up. Thieves often take advantages of this situation, and they look for puffs of warm exhausts driving from car tailpipes and then snatching the cars. There are usually many cases of car theft when there are floods as there are many cars abandoned on roadsides due to impassible roads. Another major crime that happens during hurricanes and floods is assassinations as criminals consider that there will be no evidence. Bodies of the victims will be left lying in floods, and most people will associate the death with hurricanes and floods. Actions to prevent effects of crime a community dealing with weather related events Many scientists argue that extreme weather conditions will increase in severity and or frequency for the coming years because of climate change. Many communities remain helpless to the climatic changes putting citizens and economy at a significant risk. The mostly affected by weather-related events in Chicago are lower and middle-income earners. There are several actions that should be taken to mitigate or prevent crimes that are weather related events. One action that should be taken is by making sure that they have strong doors that cannot be broken easily. The public should be armed with adequate information through the media to stay alert during the times of floods as criminal may take advantage and break into their households. Police officers should be armed with automobiles so as to increase and maintain patrols to keep away criminals. In places where police officers cannot reach, there should be an air patrol to check on illegal activities. To prevent car theft people should be warned about leaving their cars running not even for a short. Conclusion In conclusion, there are some traditional beliefs that associate weather and human behavior based on wraithlike causes, this ranges from the weather gods to the location of the heavenly bodies. People believe that since southern regions of United States is hot, the people born from those regions are warm-blooded while the northern part is cold, and, therefore, the people born from the area are cold-blooded. . Many scientists have criticized most of the assumptions that relate crimes and weather. However, some current theories of crime provide some reasonable arguments why climate is said to influence criminal behaviors. The worst floods that have ever happened in Chicago was in April 1992 when it destroyed the wall of a utility tunnel of the Chicago River. Floods in Chicago brought massive and devastation impacts that have effects on the environment, people and economy. Major crimes that often occur during hurricanes and floods are robbery, murder, and car thefts. To mitigate these crimes during a flood, people should warm about leaving their cars running. Police officers should be armed with vehicles and other equipment that should enable them make patrols when there are floods. References Brown, J. (2012). The Economic Effects of Floods: Investigations of a Stochastic Model of Rational Investment Behavior in the Face of Floods. Chicago: Springer Science and Business Media. Churchman, A., & Bechtel, R. (2003). Handbook of Environmental Psychology. Chicago: John Wiley & Sons. Siegel, L. (2008). Criminology. Chicago: Cengage Learning. Read More