Federal Crime Prevention Programs in the United States - Case Study Example

FEDERAL CRIME PREVENSION PROGRAMS IN AMERICAA America, of late, bears witness to a lot of crimes of various types. People of almost every age group either suffer from or take part in these crimes. Gun violence, which includes gangster, school and family violence has almost mundane that now, its savagery does not shock the ordinary people as much as it used to before. The situation is such that homicide, murder, robbery and rape can occur at any place any time. The government finds it difficult to ensure the security of the lives of its people. What is contrasting is the fact that America is one of the places with the maximum number of immigrants. The rate of daily crimes shows that a person living in America cannot sure if he will live the next moment. “In America, the crime clock continues to click: one murder every 22 minutes, one rape every 5 minutes, one robbery every 49 seconds, and one burglary every 10 seconds.” (Anderson, 2009). The gravity of the situation has forced the government to make maximum efforts in the direction of controlling crimes of all kinds in the country. Various crime prevention programs are undertaken at federal, state and local levels. There are programs aiming every section of the people, implemented at each of these levels depending upon their importance and seriousness. It is found that many of these crimes involve teenagers or generally the youth. Juvenile crimes are a nightmare to the Americans. School violence and under-age drinking lead to fights and murders, suicides, rapes, gun violence and so on. It is found that under-age binge drinking is more among teenagers below the age of 21 than adults. Drug abuse is another major issue regarding the youth in America. Students are frequently seen carrying guns to schools. A major reason for this situation is the extreme exposure to television, computer games and internet. It was found that girls did more crimes than boys. To add on to it, juvenile justice system showed no mercy to these children. In 1970s the statistics of juvenile crimes rose terribly, making it very important for the government to control juvenile crimes and giving better juvenile justice to them, in order to reduce the crimes in America. For this purpose, the federal government introduced a new act, called the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act in the year 1974. The major aims were to prevent juvenile wrongdoings, improve the juvenile justice system in order to protect them. This act was reauthorized in 2008, to be called the ‘Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act’, as a result of studies which showed that minority are disproportionately treated by the current juvenile justice system and that children in adult jails increased by 208 percent between 1990-2004. Youth who are tried in adult courts are more likely to commit crimes in future than those put under the juvenile justice system. Such programs help in cost savings by preventing the children from committing crimes. Mental disorders are more prevalent among the youth in juvenile justice systems than the general population. (S. 3155: Juvenile justice and delinquency prevention reauthorization Act of 2008, 2008). The main aims of this act are to provide enough funds to stop juvenile contact with the justice system. The federal government provides allots to the states so that they can successfully maintain the rules and requirements of the act. The act makes sure that all its funds are rightly used to practice the law and that not even a single dollar is wasted. The act encourages in improving the juvenile justice systems by, emphasizing mental health and substance abuse. Enough funds are allotted for this purpose. The law makes it essential to check any kind of racial discrimination or ethnic disparity in the justice system. States are asked not to isolate the children, so that all dangerous practices can be avoided. Instead, they must be trained to live the right way. The law also states that it is better to retain the juveniles in juvenile homes rather than moving them to adult jails. Status offenders need not be kept in secure detention unless in specific cases. It is necessary to find an alternative to secure detention. They must not be put in adult jails because there is every chance to be physically assaulted or abused by adult criminals there. The act also emphasizes the federal relation with the states in supporting and encouraging them to follow the directions of the law. It gives the necessary support to every research done in this subject to further its advancement. All its plans are made transparent and thus familiar and clear to the public. Here is an excerpt from the statement of Sen. Patrick Leahy on the reauthorization and introduction of the act in 2008. “The basic goals of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act remain the same: keeping our communities safe by reducing juvenile crime, promoting programs and policies that keep children out of the criminal justice system, and encouraging states to implement policies.” (U.S senator Patrick Leahy, (n.d)). Crime triangle can be defined as the three factors which help in doing crimes, and the absence or control any of which will prevent crimes from happening. They are opportunity, ability or target and desire. The act seeks to address this crime triangle to control crimes among children. The desire to commit crimes depends on the children. An outsider cannot influence their thoughts. Even counseling and talks can only try to change their mentality. An alternative is to prevent either the target or the opportunity. It is important not to bring the offender and their target together. Putting the children in adult jails gives opportunities to the other adults in jails to physically and mentally assault them. The juveniles, who are the targets are made available to the offenders. Showing injustice to the minority groups makes a desire in the children to do more crimes. Instead they must be given a second chance to change themselves. In order to accomplish this tedious task, the act keeps updating and introducing various methods like new technologies and advancements, and initiatives and campaigns. It includes, electronic mapping, mentoring, community initiatives, anti-gang initiatives, juvenile drug court initiatives, tribal youth program, under-age drinking laws program. The SMART system (electronic mapping) helps in positioning local resources. “The system contains crime data, census data, and locations of community resources, including YMCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs, and police stations.” (Smart system improves mapping display, 2008). The community initiatives help various communities in getting federal funds which they deserve. The communities are given grants to provide mentoring services to children who have tendency towards doing crimes. The anti-gang initiatives are coordinated by the US Attorneys. The method followed is to make detailed studies of the existence of gangs and resist their violence to the maximum extent. It also strengthens the justice system with formula grants program, juvenile accountability block grants program and community prevention grants program. The act provides funds to the states to implement the act successfully. OJJDP makes it mandatory to create an account of all the offenses, hold the offenders responsible according to how severe the crimes are. It also provides technical assistance and training about detention facilities, restoration details and so on. Another program aids the different communities to prevent delinquencies by reducing risk factors in schools. A huge amount is spent on checking under-age drinking. Retail outlets are carefully studied, senior students are stopped from providing their juniors alcohol, and false identities are punished. It helps the children from victimization through project safe childhood, Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, Missing Children’s Day, AMBER Alert and Safe Start Initiative. Project Safe childhood helps in punishing computer-facilitated child exploitation. It educates the families about the dangers of over-exposure to the internet. Every cyber crime is recorded by the officials and the necessary actions are taken against the offenders, because it is found that such crimes affect even the health and safety of children. Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children which includes, prostitution, sex tourism, early marriage, pornography and so on are punished because such activities harm the children physically, emotionally and mentally. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provide 24 hour services and support to families of the victims. The AMBER alert is a media alert on any medium or highway, given when a child is known to be in danger due to abduction. Family and community violence are known to affect children in many ways. Safe Start Initiative tries to reduce or prevent these effects on the children by giving enough care and support to them. These are just a few programs initiated by Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. Many campaigns, workshops and talks are also conducted to inform people about the law and its facilities. As a result, more people are becoming aware of the act and its programs. The workshops and talks have played a great role in educating the public about the services and help provided by the law. Most of these attempts have brought successful results by bringing down the crime rate. Girls are found to form a majority of the juveniles. Between 1997 and 2006, the crime rate showed a decrease by 2 percent in the case of girls and 13 percent in the case of boys. There was also a decrease by 11 percent in the overall juvenile custody population. The number of white youth doing crimes sharply reduced by 21 percent between the years 2001 and 2006. Minority white children indulging in crimes reduced by 4 percent, black by 8 percent, American Indians by 16 percent and Asians in general by a great 23 percent. Studies also show that most of the states are in compliance with the law, which is a very positive sign. (Mukasey, Sedgwick, & Robert, 2008). However, the act has faced criticisms from a few senators, that the law does not address issues with grant management. “Together with the increased spending authorizations contained in S. 3155, this reauthorization misses the mark when it comes to reforming grant management and ensuring that taxpayer dollars that are provided to juvenile justice grantees are free from fraud, waste, or abuse.” (Minority views from senators Grassley, coburn and kyl, (n.d)). Critics claim that there are still imperfections in the law. Funds allocated for different states concentrate on a few programs alone. There was also a resistance in the house when the senate included gun control provisions. Accountability Incentives Block Grants too is flawed, according to some critics. “The bill, which passed by voice vote, reportedly lacks the harshly punitive provisions targeting child offenders that were included in similar juvenile justice legislation last year.” (Juvenile justice and delinquency prevention act reauthorization, (n.d)). According to them, all the provisions could be included by amending this particular program a bit more. Crime of any kind affects the society to a great extent. Violence of any kind results in the injury and death of innocent people. When the offenders are kids, it affects their future too. A negative stigma gets attached to them once, they involve in some kind of offence. People alienate them from the society, which means no proper education and support. Such a situation depresses them psychologically and they turn to more violence and offences. Often, discrimination and prejudice in jails become social issues, and lead to fights between communities. Children who should be brought up as responsible citizens, do not even care for human lives or their society, thus affecting the public life terribly. In many cases, the reasons for the youth turning to crimes include social ones like poverty, race and family characteristics. (Finley, 2007, p.277). This direct relation between society and juveniles cannot be ignored. When the youth behaves anti-socially, the country cannot hope for a good future. Such social factors naturally demand for a strict law which support and give care to the kids to grow into successful citizens. Now, the act helps the rehabilitation and ensures the safety of juveniles. Advancements such as electronic mapping and AMBER alarm already helps in reducing crimes and in arresting the offenders. The federal government is ready to spend any amount of money for research purposes in this field, because of the seriousness it demands. Soon, there would be more advancements in this field. Cameras might be introduced which can be fixed on the highways, not to make a record of the cars crossing the speed limits or not following the traffic signals, but to record any kind of crime happening. The juvenile facilities might further improve the kids’ education and care, so that they understand the need to live following the rules of the society. Technology that helps in making education more interesting can be used in schools too, so that the number of drop-outs can be reduced. The federal government provides all the funds necessary for the implementation of various programs under this act. In 2008, The Formula Grants program was given $60 million, to the designated state agencies. Approximately, $42 million was distributed to the states as part of the implementation Juvenile Accountability Block Grants program. Each state got $ 48,360 for introducing the Title V Community Prevention Grants program to help the communities in preventing delinquencies. Together with subgrants requested by the states, the expenditure reached to almost $ 15 million. The cost of Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Program was approximately $19 million, in which #3,50,000 were given to five territories. Totalling the costs, it is evident that the federal government is making a sincere effort in improving the situation in America. Though there are rumors that the funds are concentrated to just a few states and programs, the amount spent has brought results which are encouraging. Many other parts of the world too emphasize the importance of giving enough care and better treatment to the juveniles. The UK for example, follows a policy of providing special attention to the future citizens, with the aim of bringing them back to normal life, rather than turning them into criminals. In Australia, the South Australian Crime Prevention Strategy make efforts to understand the causes of juvenile crimes and introduce effective methods to divert the youth from such growing into criminals. They are indulged in extra activities, like fishing, camping, hiking and, arts and crafts. Many of these methods are found successful in controlling the crimes in Australia. Criminals can be punished after they commit crimes, but it is better to prevent it from happening rather than punish them. Children, especially should be given enough care and support, because childhood is the period during which their personalities are molded. Since the results prove the worthiness of spending large amounts for their rehabilitation and safety, the federal government should continue to fund for such programs and researches which will bring advancements in the field. Reference Anderson, Kerby. (2009). Probe ministries: Crime in America. Leadership U. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/crime.html Finley, Laura L. (2007). Encyclopedia of juvenile violence. Greenwood Publishing Group. 277. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://books.google.co.in/books?id=PdOlie8UbVMC&pg=PA145&dq=juvenile+justice+and+delinquency+prevention+act&ei=qiXnSdH4C5DakASFzsyxAQ#PPA277,M1 Juvenile justice and delinquency prevention act reauthorization: Issue background. (n.d). Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://www.alliance1.org/Public_Policy/fact/juvenile_justice_and_delinquency.htm Mukasey, Michael B., Sedgwick, Jeffrey L., & Robert Flores, J. (2008). How OJJDP is serving children, families and communities. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/225036.pdf Minority views from senators Grassley, coburn and kyl. (n.d). The Library of Congress Thomas. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&dbname=cp110&sid=cp110VMXPu&refer=&r_n=sr472.110&item=&sel=TOC_52331& S. 3155: Juvenile justice and delinquency prevention reauthorization Act of 2008. (2008). Scribd, Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/4285876/S-3155-Juvenile-Justice-and-Delinquency-Prevention-Reauthorization-Act-of-2008 Smart system improves mapping display. (2008). OJJDP. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/news_at_glance/224013/sf_4.html U.S senator Patrick Leahy: Statement of sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee, On The Introduction Of The Juvenile Justice And Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act” June 18, 2008. (n.d). Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200806/061808b.html Read More