Problems And Challenges That Exist In Crime And Criminology - Essay Example

Problems And Challenges That Exist In Crime And Criminology Social and Mass Media In the recent days, social and mass media continue to impact peoples’ social lives and way of thinking, as compared to the past. It does not only report on daily events but gives the processes on how the occurrences take place. The social and mass media is responsible for reporting the injustices that occurs in the society and ensures that the oppressed get justice. Even though the media is a powerful tool in the finding of justice for the oppressed, it also has negative effects on the way of thinking resulting in high crime rates in the society. It cultivates evil thinking in the minds of the young generation through peer pressure and interaction with strangers. In addition, since the human beings are social and the environment influences their way of thinking (Fedler, 1978). Problems and challenges that exist in crime and criminology Increase in the use of social media results in high rates of crimes such as cyber bullying, hacking of personal accounts, and the spread of hate speech. With the increase in the usage of social sites such as Facebook and MySpace, the young are vulnerable to cyber bullying by online predators, as well as friends. Some of the predators use fake accounts pretending to be people close to them but in the end, they terrorize them leaving a permanent mental scar. A number of cases of cyber bullying lead the young people to commit suicide or live in fear for the rest of their lives (Lea, 2002). The drug traffickers use the social media to carry out their illegal activities such as drug peddling, and communicating with potential clients. Such activities make the law enforcers unable to arrest them in the act of doing their illegal businesses. Efforts from law enforcers have lead to the establishment of the cyber crime units in most countries. Some of the users of social media pass information on how to bypass the security devices on mobile phone or television decoders without payment of the subscription fees. Such activities make the telecommunication firms suffer losses due to the passage of sensitive information concerning their security operations (Arrigo, 2006). Most people in the social networking site post their private details for public viewing. This makes them vulnerable to the attacks by criminal gangs since it provides information about their home address, place of work, and current location. Most of the social sites encourage users to be public about their private lives. Such publicity results in criminal cases such as theft and death in most extreme cases. Increased use of social and mass media causes social change that results in a culture in which the society saturates with the images of crime, and fear of crime. It affects the way the crime team analyzes and solves the crime. In the recent days, crime has become more noticeable and important than it used to because the society has more exposure to the information. Criminology in today’s society is responsible for engaging the public in addressing crimes that face them because of the social changes (Howitt, 1982). High number of crimes and challenges in crime policies caused by the increase in social and mass media result in significant intellectual challenges to criminology. The effort put to ignore the challenges make the federal agencies assume some of the important factors to consider in solving crimes. In addition, they can turn away from the contemporary public thought and public policies that the criminology department observes. Social transformation and modernity poses great challenges to the crime and criminology department and has adverse effects on the intellectual dispositions and political commitments that it purposes to uphold (Larsen, 1968). Internal and external stakeholders in crime and criminology The implementation of crime prevention programs requires the involvement of all the stakeholders that includes federal agencies, the central and local government, and non-governmental organizations. It is the responsibility of the federal agencies to formulate and implement the crime prevention and solution strategies. They provide skilled specialists in the fields of cyber crimes to work in partnership with other stakeholders to solve crime. They also provide funding to the different security programs that the stakeholders initiate to fight crime (Smith, 2009). To prevent modern crimes, there should be detailed research on their causes and impacts. The specialists should evaluate the findings, after which they develop and implement the security programs. To reduce social and media crimes, there should be an active involvement of the local community in the planning process. The federal agencies and the central government ought to educate parents on how to protect their kids from the online predators. In addition, they should advise them on the legal procedures to follow in the case where they suspect their kids’ vulnerability to cyber bullying (Kenley, 2012). The government formulates legislations that regulate programmes aired on television sets. This prevents media houses from displaying contents that may disturb the viewers. Some television channels encourage violence by broadcasting news about wars between different tribes and countries. Such public display of negativity mobilizes demonstration and fights. The government can avoid this by ensuring cautious broadcasting through proper formulation and enforcement of legislations. Young kids who watch adult and violent movies imitate what they see to their classmates at school. This can lead to serious injuries or even death in extreme cases. The parents are to ensure their kids do not have exposure to violent movies or materials that may erode their minds with negative thoughts. Data and Information The research project includes data and information on the types of crimes on social and mass media, the responsibility of different stakeholders in the fight against crimes in the social media, the impact of the new crimes on criminology that results due to technological advancements. The data is relevant because, there are changes in social lives within the society with improvement in technology. This influence the way human beings behave and think. Most crimes in today’s world are more technical such as cyber attacks. This requires intelligent agencies to solve these crimes (Lea, 2002). Recommendation There is an increase in crime rates because of social and mass media. The central government should allocate more funds to federal agencies for research on the modern crimes. The government should initiate effective community programs that train parents and other society leaders on how to cultivate positive thinking among young people. The cyber crime units should ensure that there are proper controls on sensitive documents posted online and social and media accounts. This will minimize the rate of cyber crimes because unauthorized persons will not get access to other online users’ accounts. There should be stiff penalties on those who commit the cyber crimes. This will discourage those planning to commit the offense; hence, enhancing cyber security. The central government, the local government, the community, and the federal agencies should work in unison to enforce laws regarding social and mass media crimes. References Arrigo, B. (2006). Philosophy, crime, and criminology. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Top of Form Bottom of Form Fedler, F. (1978). An introduction to the mass media. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Top of Form Bottom of Form Howitt, D. (1982). The mass media and social problems. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Top of Form Bottom of Form Kenley, H. (2012). Cyber bullying no more parenting a high tech generation. Ann Arbor, MI: Loving Healing Pr. Top of Form Bottom of Form Larsen, O. (1968). Violence and the mass media. New York: Harper & Row. Top of Form Bottom of Form Lea, J. (2002). Crime & modernity continuities in left realist criminology. London, Eng.: Sage Publications. Top of Form Bottom of Form Smith, A. (2009). The roles and responsibilities of central agencies. 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