Crimes in the United States - Research Paper Example

 Introduction The topic of discussion is crimes in the United States. The following is a report with recommendations to the President about the most difficult and the easiest crimes in the United States and how to address each of these crimes to the satisfaction of the citizens of the nation. The two type of crimes mentioned above will therefore be addressed in detail and the recommendation on how to curb them also given. The recommendations that will be indicated are according to the constitution of the United States and therefore within the powers of the president to implement them whichever way he likes and deems possible. Crime 1 The most difficult crime to address is the property crime. This is related to theft of all types of property from the simplest to the most sophisticated property. According to the statistics in 2010 by National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), property crime, there were over 14.8 million cases reported of property crime. Even though the statistics show a downward trend of the crime since 1990, the reduction percentage has always been less than 3 % each year and this is a very low percentage considering the high number of prevalence cases. The overall cost associated with fighting this type of crime per year is over $200 million and that is still not enough to fight all the over 14 million reported crimes each year (Truman, 2011). Plan to Address Crime 1 As statistics above indicate, this is type of crime is a menace to the tax payers of the Unites States. There are several steps that may be involved in fighting this type of crime and they will involve the use of several law maintaining organs to participate. These steps will also require a budget of their own and the results of their progress will be reported directly to the President of the United States. Authorization may also be required from the president and especially when it comes to access of the secret files about criminals and even gangs. Leave of absence for the personnel who will be collaborating with the police will also be required to be requested and processed within the shortest duration possible. The first step is to identify specialized personnel in the different forces present in the country including the police, military and the criminal investigations branches. The importance of this identification and selection of such personnel is their experience in not only fighting such property crime but also in determining patterns of occurrences of such crimes and their knowledge in criminal behavior and hence may prevent such crimes from happening in future. The task force will be effective for a period of a year. This will therefore not only be a curative but also a preventive strategy in the long run. After identification of such personnel, all the available resources should be availed to them about property crime and this will include some classified information about gangs and criminals and also funds to purchase the other resources needed. They will also need additional personnel from the police force to assist them in fighting the crime and training them on the knowledge they have and share their experiences so that after the task force has done its job, the police will have manpower to fight on their own (Cole, Smith and Dejong, 2012). Crime 2 The easiest crime to address is the criminal victimization (assault crimes). These include spousal assault, sexual assault, rape and other physical assault during crimes which are also reported frequently in the US. The statistics of these assaults as at year 2010 is that there were 3.8 million reported cases of assault which ranged from sexual assault to spousal assault. The victimization rate has been on the decline but no much action has led to it reducing completely. The budget allocated for fighting such crimes is usually less that $10 million per year. Statistics also indicate that majority of the victims are female and many cases go unreported or follow up is not made and especially in spousal victimization (Truman, 2011). Plan to Address Crime 2 In order to fight this easy crime and make an impact to the whole nation, certain things need to be established and tighter actions and policies surrounding the victimization crimes need to be formulated and enforced. The president should order to have a specialized group consisting of civil society groups dealing with human rights and violence cases, counselors, community workers and police officers. The police officers should be trained and equipped with skills specifically to fight this type of crime before being allocated duties. This process should take at most six months. The role of the community workers in this case is to identify homes with cases of criminal victimization and especially sexual assault and spousal assault most of which are not reported. After the identification, they are to report the case to the police who have been trained and the police can then take it from there. After the reporting of the case, the community workers can also follow up on progress of victim and even the perpetrator if he or she is around. Counselors are included in order to provide the necessary guidance and counseling to both the victims and the perpetrators and lead them through the traumatic period. For those who will relocate or placed under witness protection, constant visitation by the counselor to talk and offer them hope is necessary. After the training, the police officers should work closely with the counselors and community workers to identify and monitor cases of victimization and especially those that go unreported. They should also be given special powers to deal with such perpetrators directly since the court process is long and they might end up repeating the same crime. A substantial budget of over $ 50 million should be set aside in order to even relocate other victims (those that may require to be placed under witness protection) and rehabilitate them (especially the perpetrators) if need be all in the name of fighting this easy crime. This exercise should be advertised in all the media in order to act as a warning to such perpetrators and facilitate victims to come forward and report (Cole, Smith and Dejong, 2012). Conclusion If the above recommendations are put in to action effectively and efficiently, then these two types of crime mentioned above will reduce drastically. The national campaign against victimization crimes will also leave a legacy for the president since the majority of the victims are also the majority of the citizens. If these recommendations work well, then the same strategies can be employed in future to fight the other types of crimes and in the end reduce completely the crime rate in US. Care should however be given when implementing these recommendation and especially where time limits have been set. Any rush may lead to jeopardizing the whole plan and hence end up having the same cycle of the crimes. The action that will emanate from these recommendations may be passed into law to ensure their continuity and prevention of such crimes in the future. References Cole, G. F., Smith, C. E. and Dejong, C. (2012). The American System of Criminal Justice. New York: Cengage Learning. Truman, J. L. (2011). Criminal Victimization, 2010. Retrieved from: http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2224 Read More