Crime in America, Community Policing Strategy - Essay Example

Crime in America Task Section Introduction Crime is a highly sensitive topic that captures the attention of many; therefore, understanding of the topic requires a description of various key terms. Crime can be described to be an act where an individual does something which is against the laws implemented to govern the public relations within a society. Crime is an offence which is likely to be punished upon conviction through such ways like imprisonment, since it is outlawed by the law. A community can be illustrated as social unit integrating individuals with shared characteristics. The police can be used to illustrate a group of persons the government has employed to control criminal activities in an area. This unit examines community policing as a tool for fighting crime, and examines a bunch of youth hooligans on section two of the paper (Travis & Visher, 2005). Community policing Crime rates have significantly augmented over the years leading to an augmentation in the levels of uncertainty globally. Rules had been drawn to monitor the unlawful activities taking place within the communities leading to the introduction of community policing. Community policing was a philosophy that advocated for the corporation of preventive techniques to aid in controlling the criminal activities which were on the rise in the society. The initiative was from the westerner’s nation and steadily cropped up to other nations as a policing tool monitoring the high rate of unlawful activities prevalent in the community. The public’s desire to be guaranteed of their safety led to the formation of the public policing unit (Miller, Hess & Orthmann, 2011). The police force went through a number of simultaneous changes that led to the growth of innovations to help curb the crime rate prevalent in the community. A good example of the reason that led to the foundation of community policing in America was the crisis that erupted amid the police and public. This was a massive political issue which dividing the then government since the politicians had diverse ideologies regarding the police public relations. The public were angered by the police behavior of neglecting minor crimes, and only heeding to their calls only when the situation had aggravated to become serious dilemma in the community. Community policing is planned partnership composed of different associates, as a result, it has 3 central components. They are community affiliations, organizational alteration and the crisis solving. 1 Community affiliation involves the joint decisions and sharing of resources by the key stakeholders in the community. The affiliations allow for a joint discussion between the forces and the public. The associate of the community affiliations includes the law enforcement envoys like the police bureaucrats, the community’s residents and the organizations or businesses inside the business. The associates come together in a forum to converse security issues they experience. They also channel their fears and reports criminal suspects to the police. They believe in the police; hence, advise partners of the group to trust the police force to help them unravel their problems. They mobilize the police and the society affiliates to cohesively interact establishing a friendly atmosphere amongst them. 2 Organizational alteration involves channeling the resources of an organization to help in achieving and supporting the community policing process. The alteration of resources to community poling should affect the organization negatively or lead to its downfall. The organization has various assets which when accurately used results to an effective community policing system inside the community. The organization resources, which can be, aligned to lead to a smooth running of the organization comprises of the organization leadership and climate. A stable organizational climate will impact positively on the community policing plan, since the procedure of decision making is reliable. Good organizational leadership has at heart the requirements of its personnel, as a result, will support the community policing program. 3 Crisis solving involves coming together of the different partners overseeing the day by day running of the community policing program. The procedure involves discovery of what problems are to be unraveled in the community through mutual agreement. Secondly the partners have to define or come up with what they discern about the issues, and evaluate the steps that should be taken to eradicate the problem. The purpose for creating community policing was to provide decent working association among the community and the police. Proper police relationship with the public gave the police easy access of in-sequence, since there was clarity of police roles leading to a positive change of the public’s perception towards the police. Community policing has developed to capture attention of the various stakeholders in the industry in the recent years. The police force in various countries like the USA have expanded and incorporated the community policing system in the force. The public policing program has been a vital force in monitoring criminal activities, in the pasts and the present. ‘Community policing’ is an emerging trend that has raised concerns in the past years, since individuals are constantly confusing it with the normal police force. Public debates have been hoisted to address the community policing issues as there are fears that it might replace the public police task force. Secondly, the government is making it an initiative to pump money to improve the initiative in community policing, in America. Community policing is a disadvantage when not accurately applied. The strategy is rather different from ‘foot patrol’ operations, since officers walking down the streets have a greater chance of coming across criminals, but not information that may direct them to obtain useful suspects of groups performing criminal activities. Community policing has some element of a stable relationship with the community leading to the free flow of information amid the public and the system, whereas, ‘foot patrol’ has no reliable relationship with the community and always stakes hours searching for information from the public without much success (Kappeler & Gaines, 2012). Section 2 Response on youth gang Youth gangs are common especially to industrialized areas. The gang can be described as a compilation of adolescent adults whose daily activities causes harm or havoc to the members of a community. Youth gangs are prohibited by the law enforcement bureaus and the community members, since they terrorize the community members with their unlawful activities. The history of adolescence gangs can be mapped out back to Europe and Mexico. In my judgment, the gangs may have resulted after the American insurgency or as clusters formed by young populace for enjoyment. Various schools of thought have their own explanation of the history of youth gangs. An example of one school of thought is that the clusters resulted to the exodus after the Mexican insurgency. The gangs groups increased with the expansion of large cities to diverse parts of the globe The developments in technology in modern times have increased gang activities in the community, since there is an ease of accessibility of lethal weapons (Cooper, 2009). The bases of youth gangs are, as a result, of various factors amongst them the economic, social and political factors. Economic factors are the key factor motivating youths to bond to gangs. These youths find themselves in various contradicting situations, as a consequence, they resort to felony to get the things their parents or guardians can not afford them. Youth gangs can be categorized into two distinct groups depending on the youths constituting the gangs as aboriginal and non-aboriginal youths. Aboriginal youths are easily influenced into committing unlawful activities within the community. They are difficult to correct, since they have lost all hope in life and resorts to crime as the only option of surviving. Contrary, the non –aboriginal youths, are not dangerous can be easily corrected. In my opinion, all these youth area linked to gangs for a number or causes as making money and for protection. In my opinion, the results of youth gangs are devastating to the daily activities of any community, since they are always associated with felonies and aggression. I deem criminal activities related to youths gangs are heightened with a gang member’s release from a correctional facility. I think that it is not rear to find ordinary youths affiliated in criminal gangs without influence from an experienced gang affiliates. These knowledgeable members are adults who exploit the youths for their selfish gains. For centuries, youths, have been associated to household aggressions. I judge that many youths involved in crimes are associated to youth gangs, which instill, negative attitudes and behavior on them. Gang linked adolescents are the highest rated criminal gangs amongst the youths. In my opinion, the high rate of drugs and gun use are associated to various gangs amongst the youths. The youths are coaxed to use drugs to aid them in their unlawful activities. In my opinion gangs are associated to drug abuse, as a result, youths who associates themselves to the activities of a gang abuse drugs to cloud the humanity aspect in them when committing crimes. The gang youths normally compete for boundaries where they exercise their unlawful activities; as a result, there is a spread for the use of guns in the avenues. An example is that, in the streets of America, the use of guns is popular among streets gangs below the age of thirty. I deem that the gangs use the guns to have a sense of security from other aggressive individuals (Short & Hughes, 2006). Conclusion Conclusively, community policing is a strategy used to control criminal actions to the grass roots inside the community. Different initiatives were used in the past without much success, since the association among the police and the public was tainted with various factors. The importance of the policy can not be underestimated because of an optimistic change of various parties within a community like increased security. The difficulties of youth gangs is a rising issues of society’s concern. Youths are associated with diverse gangs for various reasons like defense. The solution to the problem of youth gangs is proper parental guidance from the parents and guardians. References Cooper, J. G. (2009). Youth gangs: Causes, violence and interventions. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Kappeler, Victor E., & Gaines, Larry K. (2012). Community Policing: A Contemporary Perspective. Anderson Pub Co. Miller, L. S., Hess, K. M., & Orthmann, C. M. H. (2011). Community policing: Partnerships for problem solving. Australia: Delmar Cengage Learning. Short, J. F., & Hughes, L. A. (2006). Studying youth gangs. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press. Travis, J., & Visher, C. A. (2005). Prisoner reentry and crime in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More