Community Crime Prevention - Literature review Example

Community Crime Prevention Student Name Course Institution Date Executive summary The measures put in place by the communities to fight crime plays an important role in ensuring the security of the communities. The security of communities promotes development through the initiation of business and attracting investors. According to the literature review, the measures are aimed at addressing the root cause of crime as well as putting in place preventive measures. Partnering with other stakeholders is important in terms of addressing the root cause of crime and hence its prevention. Community policing of the other hand ensures that organized crimes are reported and hence its prevention. Initiating the people in income generating activities also has positive impacts on the prevention of the crime. However poverty and lack of resources are among the challenges that hinder the prevention of crime by the communities. Creation of awareness among the community and stakeholders is however important in terms of promoting the measures to prevent crimes by the community. Introduction The crime prevention measures are important for the purpose of ensuring that the society is safe. Crime prevention enables the growth and development of a community. The community crime prevention measures involve all the activities that aim at changing the social conditions that leads to crime. In most communities social issues are responsible for the rise in crime rates. It is for this reason that the society should be involved in the prevention of crime. Several models and approach has been used by different communities for the purpose of crime prevention. The success of the community crime prevention is also dependant on the levels of commitment by the society (Crawford, 2013). It has become evident in most societies that the work of fighting crime should not be left to the police alone. This is because the criminal activities takes place in the society and most of the criminals are well known to the members of the society. The paper seeks to find out some of the community approaches towards crime prevention. Research question What are the practices and activities that are involved in the prevention of crime by a community and how effective are they in preventing the crimes? Research methodology The research relied immensely in literature works. Different sources of literature were used to obtain materials. Books, peer reviewed journals and recognized internet websites provided the required information. The research also involved the use of Google scholar which has a wide range of academic journals as well as books concerning the topic. Some of the materials were academic while others were not academic. The non academic materials were mainly research carried out by government institutions and were mainly for the purposes of implementation of the strategies by the government. Literature Review According to Pitts (2013), it has become evident that crime prevention cannot be achieved by the laws enforces and the justice system alone. Partnership is one of the best ways of preventing crime that has been utilized in most of the communities. The law enforcing agencies have partnered with the communities and other stakeholders for the purpose of preventing crime. The community plays an important role in the partnership as it is involved in the implementation of the strategies for crime prevention. The community is allowed to make a diagnosis of the problems affecting it and contributes to crime (Crawford, 2013). The involvement of the community in solving the problems at the grassroots level is important in terms of preventing crime. This duty is allocated to the community by the other stakeholders in the security sector. The locals always have confidence when problems are solved internally as opposed to the external measures. This is important in terms of preventing crime. This is opposed to situations where there is no partnership and hence leaving the law enforces to be fully in charge. The partnership is also important as it allows the members of the community to raise the issues affecting them and contributes to crime. The needs of the community are identified through the partnership and hence preventing the crime. The community is also able to benefit from other stakeholders in terms of addressing the factors that leads to crime and hence its prevention. Partnership is thus an important strategy in the community crime prevention and it has positive impacts on crime prevention (Weisburd, et al, 2010). Wormith et al, (2011) points out that community policing is also one of the most important concept of community crime prevention. This is because the community policing ensures that the community is in charge of their safety. Through community policing, crimes are prevented within the community. This achieved through reporting any suspicious activities within the community to the police. This definitely leads to the arrest of suspects before the crime is committed. The community members are in a better position to prevent crime as opposed to the law enforcers (Newburn, 2012). This is because the crimes occur in their localities and most of the criminals are also from the locality and are well known by the members of the community. It is also through this strategy that the members of the community have handed over criminals to the police. This is also an important measure aimed at preventing crime. On the other hand some of the courts rely on the evidence from the members of the community. The testimony of the members of the community influences the prosecution and hence ensuring that the criminals receive the deserved sentencing. This prevents the chances of hardcore criminals being released back to the society and ends up committing more crimes. The community policing is thus an important strategy that is used to prevent crimes within the community. It also ensures that a good relation is created between the community and the law enforcers and hence preventing crimes in the society. This promotes safety within the community and hence leading to development (Welsh, et al, 2010). Organized crimes are common in low income neighborhoods. This is because most of the people commit the crimes for a common reason which is poverty. However the main purpose of community crime prevention is to identify the factors promoting crimes and hence addressing the cause of the problem. Engaging the people in income generating activities is important in terms of preventing organized crimes. This has enabled most of the communities to be able to prevent crimes despite living in low income areas. The crime rates in most of the low income areas have reduced due to the community crime prevention measures. Such measures by the stakeholders also create a sense of belonging among the locals and hence preventing the crimes in the community. Empowerment of the members of the community is also important in terms of preventing crimes. The economic and financial empowerment within the community mainly contributes to the prevention of the crimes. Weisburd et al. (2010) argue that coordination of the crime prevention activities is also important t when it comes to crime prevention within a community. Coordination of the activities requires resources as well as the commitments of the community members and the stakeholders. Creation of awareness among the community members regarding the crime prevention measures is always useful. This makes the community to be more active in the crime prevention initiatives. The reduction in crime rates is one of the major benefits of community participation in crime prevention. Reduced crime rates in the communities involved also impacts positively on the business development (Wormith, et al, 2011). Despite the benefits and success of the community prevention measures in fighting crimes, some challenges are also evident and it undermines the process. This has directly contributed to the failure of the community to prevent crimes. The failure of the community members to reports some crimes is a change to the community crime prevention measures. This is common in violent crimes like the domestic violence which goes unreported. This makes its prevention difficult in the society. Lack of full time commitments by the members of the community also impacts negatively on the community crime prevention. Most members of the community may be buy with other economic activities and thus gives them little time for engaging in the community policing which is important in preventing crimes (Guerette, 2009). On the other hand, lack of resources remains the biggest challenge for a community in terms of preventing crimes. This is because the community may not be in a position to mobilize enough resources to engage the people in income generating activities. Poverty is also a challenge for the strategies as it exposes the people to crime. Lack of awareness among the members of the community and some law enforcement agencies are also a challenge to the process. Some of the law enforcers feel that the communities are encroaching on their work and hence failing to support the initiatives. This challenge can however be solved through the creation of awareness among the stakeholders. It thuds evident that challenges exists during the participation of the communities in the process of preventing crimes (Hedayati, 2012). Findings Partnership between the community and other stakeholders is one of the strategies used by the communities to prevent crimes. The partnership involves engaging the community members in other income generating activities so as to prevent crimes. The partnership is an effective method as it gives the community an opportunity to develop through crime prevention. On the other hand, community policing is an important strategy that is used to prevent the crimes within the society. This is achieved through a close relation between the law enforcers and the members of the community. The community members are able to prevent crimes through reporting any suspicious activities within the community. This method is also efficient as it leads to the arrests of the culprits as well as the prevention of the crime. Empowering the community is also an important strategy that ensures that the community is able to develop through focusing on the crime prevention initiatives. However it is also important to note that the communities are usually faced by various challenges during the implementation of the crime prevention measures. The challenges undermines the crime prevention activities and hence the failure of the communities to effectively prevent crime. Discussion The literature review from different materials answers the questions of strategies and their effectiveness in community crime prevention. The different sources also have some aspects in common with regard to the topic. Most of the sources identify partnership and community policing as the main strategies used in the prevention of the crime. The sources are also in support of empowering the communities for the purpose of preventing the crimes in the community. The low income areas are also identified as areas that are prone to crime and hence the need for empowerment. Poverty is also one of the factors that have been identified as the main propagating factor of crime. The lack of resources has also been established as a factor that hinders the community from preventing the crimes. Most of the literature has also identified lack of cooperation by some community members as a factor promoting violent crimes like the domestic violence. However future research should focus on the crime prevention measures in high income areas. The role of the government in the community crime prevention should also be research thoroughly in future. Conclusion In conclusion, it is evident that the crime prevention measures by the members of the community plays an important role in reducing the crime rates. The measures are also aimed at developing the communities by ensuring the business operations can be conducted safely. The community policing process as well as partnership with the other stakeholders plays a crucial role in the reduction of crime. It is also evident that the community benefits from some of the initiatives. However, the challenges are responsible for the poor performance of the concepts and hence the failure of communities to eliminate crime in their neighborhoods. List of References Crawford, A 2013, Crime prevention policies in comparative perspective, Willan Publishing, London. Pitts, J 2013, Crime, disorder and community safety, Routledge, London Weisburd, D, et al. 2010, The importance of place in policing: Empirical evidence and policy recommendations, Brottsförebyggande rådet (BRÅ). Welsh, B, et al, 2010, When early crime prevention goes to scale: A new look at the evidence. Prevention Science, 11(2), 115-125. Wormith, J, et al, 2011, The Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) Model Does Adding the Good Lives Model Contribute to Effective Crime Prevention?, Criminal Justice and Behavior, 38(7), 735-755. Hedayati, M 2012, The influence of crime prevention through environmental design on victimization and fear of crime, Journal of environmental psychology, 32(2), 79-88. Newburn, T 2012, Handbook of policing, Willan, London. Guerette, R, et al. 2009, Assessing the extent of crime displacement and diffusion of benefits: a review of situational crime prevention evaluations, Criminology, 47(4), 1331-1368. Read More