Reduction in Violent Crime Rates in El Salvador - Assignment Example

Reduction in Violent Crime Rates in El Salvador Module Group Module Assignment ID Number Table of Contents 1.0Introduction 3 2.0 Background 3 3.0 Presentation of Methods 4 3.1 Incarceration 4 3.2 Anti-gang Policies 4 4.0 Requirements 6 4.1 Cost 6 4.2 Effectiveness 6 5.0 Comparison of Methods 6 5.1 Cost 6 5.1.1 Incarceration 6 5.1.2 Anti-gang policies 7 5.2 Effectiveness 7 6. Conclusion 8 7. Recommendation 9 1.0 Introduction Violent crime is defined as the offences which involves force or threat of force. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI), Uniform Crime reports, violent crime includes murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, robbery, aggravated assault and forcible rape. It has been estimated that the occurrence of violent crimes has decreased in the United States by 6 % in 2010 from the estimate of 2009 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2010). Crime affects lives of individuals as well as the progress of an economy. It hampers private security and gives rise to problems regarding altering homes or confining the hours of work to the morning when one has the assurance that they are safe. Crime increases the institutional costs to the government for additional judicial and security costs (World Bank, 2011). Crime also has negative impacts on the business climate of a state. Thus, it is extremely important to reduce the crime rates of a nation to provide relief to its citizens and also to improve the economic performance of the country. The purpose of the report is to assess the effectiveness of two ways of reducing violent crimes. El Salvador is the most densely populated and the smallest country in Central America with a population of 6,125,512 as on July 2014 (Central Intelligence Agency, 2015). It is situated between the Honduras and Guatemala and is bordered by the North Pacific Ocean and its capital city is Sal Salvador (globalEDGE, 2013). El Salvador is considered one of the most violent countries in the world and is rated as “critical for crime” by the U.S. Department of State (OSAC, 2013). 2.0 Background The country achieved independence in 1821 from Spain and political and military reforms took place after the 12- year long civil war ended in 1992. The per capita murder rate is “69 per 100,000” in El Salvador in 2012 which is second highest in the world (OSAC, 2013).The country is vulnerable to extreme weather conditions and frequent earthquakes. It is heavily dependent on the United States and the structure of the public and external accounts is very weak. The country is characterized by high inequality and extreme poverty rates and suffer from high insecurity associated with drug trafficking. The percentage of violent crimes such as robbery and burglary and overall victimization rates is found to be significantly less compared to the homicide rate in El Salvador (World Bank, 2011). There is no area in the country where the crime rate is less than 5 per 100,000 (World Bank, 2013). 3.0 Presentation of Methods 3.1 Incarceration Incarceration is the most widely used way of reducing violent crime in almost all countries. The judicial system of the countries believes that it is the most efficient method to punish the criminals. The incarceration rate of the United Nations has increased by 240 % from 1980 to 2008 (Schmitt, Warner & Gupta, 2010). It has been observed that the increase in the imprisonment rate does not lead to the proportional increase in violent crimes. Over the years, the philosophy of incarceration has been shifted from rehabilitation to that of deterrence and retribution in the United States (National Policy Committee, 2000). The three main factors behind punishment are retribution, deterrence and incapacitation. Retribution is the way in which the person committing crime pays for his or her offence. Incapacitation ensures that the offender poses no threat to the society in the future and deterrence is the perception philosophy which indicates that severe punishment of offenders deters other individuals from committing violent crimes in the future (MacDonald, 2012). 3.2 Anti-gang Policies Anti-gang policies are relevant in areas which suffer from severe gang problem. The northern triangle region of Central America comprising of Honduras Guatemala and El Salvador is dominated by various gangs (Eguizábal et. al, 2015). The inhabitants of El Salvador are traumatized by organized crime and street level crime which involves distribution of drugs and extortion rackets. The two main prominent gangs in El Salvador are “Mara Salvatrucha” and “Barrio 18” (Princeton University, 2015). Regressive anti-gang laws have been observed to be ineffective and governments are increasingly adopting unusual methods for reducing the gang problem (Seelke, 2014). Drug-trafficking is associated with the increase in the number of youth gang members in the countries of Central America including El Salvador. Gang members are found to carry out rampant extortion and are associated with migrant smuggling and human trafficking (Figure 1) (United Nations Publications, 2007). Figure 1: Number of Central American nationals arrested for Drug-trafficking in US in 2004 (Source: United Nations Publications, 2007). Figure 2: Rank and Homicide Rate for El Salvador (2005-2012) (Source: Eguizábal et. al, 2015) The government negotiated with the two main gangs of the region and an agreement was reached between the two in 2012. This has reduced the rate of homicide in 2012 (Figure 1). In the agreement in 2012, the gang leaders have committed to stop killing each other and reduce homicide in the country. The negotiations with the gang leaders have increased in the engagement of gang members in societal activities (Princeton University, 2015). 4.0 Requirements The two methods to reduce violent crimes can be analyzed against the backdrop of the following requirements: 4.1 Cost El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and its economic growth rate has declined constantly from 2009 due to the global recession. The present growth rate of the country is 1.7% (2014) (Central Intelligence Agency, 2015).Moreover, the high crime rate in the country adversely affects the investment climate and allocates huge amount of resources from the productive sectors to crime prevention. So, the cost aspect of the adopted method is important for the development of the country. 4.2 Effectiveness The current situation of security in the country of El Salvador is extremely volatile as the rate of homicide is more than the rate of other crimes in the region. The gang problem is very severe in the region and the youth of the country is getting absorbed in the gangs due to high poverty levels, widespread unemployment, faulty education system and lack of economic prosperity of the country (Seelke, 2014). This indicates that the method widely used to tackle crime in the region is ineffective and needs to be revised. 5.0 Comparison of Methods 5.1 Cost 5.1.1 Incarceration The method of incarceration involves high budgetary costs. The United States has the highest imprisonment rate in the world in 2008 with nearly “753 persons per 100,000 in prison or jail” (Schmitt, Warner & Gupta, 2010).Imprisonment costs form a large part of the local and state governments. It has been observed that if the rate of imprisonment would have been halved, then the correctional expenditures of the government would have been reduced by $ 16.9 billion per year (Schmitt, Warner & Gupta, 2010). Thus, the method of imprisonment is very expensive and using it as a method to reduce crime may affect the economic prosperity of the country. 5.1.2 Anti-gang policies Anti-gang policies are usually very suppressing and enforcing in nature. Mano Dura (firm hand) and super Mano Dura (super firm hand) are some of the anti-gang policies which are adopted by the government (USAID, 2006). Since these are law enforcement approaches, it needs a huge force of law personnel to implement the laws. Thus, it also involves cost to the government. 5.2 Effectiveness The effectiveness of the incarceration method has been proved to be ineffective in the case of El Salvador as it has been observed that increase in the rate of incarceration is not due to the rise of violent crime and involves nonviolent crimes such as property crimes (Schmitt, Warner & Gupta, 2010). It has been proved ineffective as organized crime prevails in the country. It suffers from severe gang problem. The gangs are highly prevalent in the countries of Honduras and Guatemala along with El Salvador in Central America. These three countries form the “northern triangle” of Central America (Seelke, 2014). The estimated gang-membership of two dominant gangs named, “18th Street” (MS-18) and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), in these countries are shown in Figure 3 (Seelke, 2014). Initially the enforcement of tough anti-gang laws was proved to be effective as the police force was able to crack down on the gangs but in the recent times the gang members have become more cautious. They change their clothing style, remove or hide their tattoos and avoid using their hand signals which makes it more difficult for the investigating agencies to arrest or identify them. Figure 3: Estimated Gang Membership in the countries of Central America (Source: Seelke, 2014) The countries in the northern triangle including El Salvador enforce more aggressive anti-gang policies than the other countries of Central America. Tough enforcement laws resulted in negative consequences in the mid 2000s. For this, the governments of these countries are moving towards “second generation’ anti-gang policies which includes innovative programs focusing on the prevention of youth at risk, encouraging youths to leave the gangs and participate in municipal alliances created to act against crime and violence. However, the novel and risky anti-gang policy undertaken by the government of El Salvador by facilitating a truce between the 18th Street gang and MS- 18 to combat the gang violence has received the attention of the world. In order to tackle the gang problem, the government of El Salvador had adopted many anti-gang policies, but the suppressing nature of the laws was the reason behind its failure. These laws do not address the main cause of the problem of gang such as extreme poverty, youth unemployment, failure of the education system to retain the youth of the country, access to illicit economy and many other causes (USAID, 2006). 6. Conclusion 6.1. The incarceration method is ineffective for the El Salvador. 6.2 The traditional anti-gang policies adopted by the government of El Salvador do not solve the severe gang problem in the region. 6.3 The truce between the two dominant gangs in the region has proved to be efficient to reduce the rate of violent crime in 2012. 7. Recommendation The government of El Salvador must focus on designing an effective anti-gang strategy. The strategy must include improved police capability, reforms in the prison, better targeted arrests and more opportunities for the young convicted gang members and preventive measures for the youth at risk. The anti-gang strategy must aim at achieving inclusive growth, employment creation and economic development. The authority must concentrate on maintaining the agreement of the gang leaders with the government as they have the capacity of influencing the homicide rate of the country. The officials in the government must emphasize on the rehabilitation of the prisoners. It should continue to develop and monitor the further evolution of gangs in the country. Gangs must be encouraged to participate in the development of the society and collaboration with international organizations must be increased to provide support for the actions taken by the El Salvador government to improve the security condition in the state. References Central Intelligence Agency. (2015). El Salvador. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/es.html Eguizábal, C., Ingram, M.C., Curtis, K.M., Korthuis, A., Olson, E.L. & Phillips, N. (2015). Crime and Violence in Central America’s Northern Triangle. Retrieved from http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/FINAL%20PDF_CARSI%20REPORT_0.pdf Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2010). Violent Crime. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/violent-crime globalEDGE. (2013). El Salvador. Retrieved from http://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/el-salvador/memo MacDonald, E. (2012). Does Imprisonment as a Punishment Deter Crime? Retrieved from http://justspeak.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Does-imprisonment-deter-crime.pdf National Policy Committee. (2000). The Use of Incarceration in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/RACIAL/Reports/ascincarcerationdraft.pdf OSAC. (2013). El Salvador 2013 Crime and Safety Report. Retrieved from https://www.osac.gov/pages/ContentReportPDF.aspx?cid=13875 Princeton University. (2015). Best Practices In Reducing Violent Homicide Rates. Retrieved from https://wws.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/content/591g%20Homicide%20Reduction%20in%20Honduras_1.pdf Schmitt, J., Warner, K. & Gupta, S. (2010). The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration. Retrieved from http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/incarceration-2010-06.pdf Seelke, C.R. (2014). Gangs in Central America. Retrieved from https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34112.pdf United Nations Publications. (2007). Crime and Development in Central America. Retrieved from http://www.unodc.org/pdf/research/Central_America_Study_2007.pdf USAID. (2006). Central America and Mexico Gang Assessment. Retrieved from http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADG834.pdf World Bank. (2011). Crime and Violence in Central America: A Development Challenge. 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