Creating Connections: Relationship Between Crime And Violence

Milestone 3 SOC 112 Creating Connections

Crime and Violence

Cultural Beliefs

Gangs and Crime are related in that most people will join a gang to be a part of something. This is mostly young males who come from broken homes, usually have no male role model figure in their life and find the gang an attractive concept when it comes to being a part of something. They join to be protected as well. Members of the gangs are very loyal to each other and provide a sense of being protective of one another. The gang provides them with financial rewards. Most gangs are in to criminal activities such as selling drugs, prostitution and other forms of theft in order to provide income. The gangs have a definite negative effect on crime and violence.

The perception that the police will use unnecessary force in any encounter causes some citizens to fear the police. This causes a strained relationship with the citizens in the community. Most people will start to no longer trust the police. This is evident in major metropolitan urban areas, where the people in the community do not trust the police and have a bad view of them and usually will not provide any assistance to the police when it comes to helping them solve crimes in the community. This can also be a result of fear and intimidation from the many street gangs which inhabit the urban housing projects. Once the perception is there that the police will be violent when dealing with citizens, it causes the citizens to resist and in some cases use violence back at the police which usually results in unnecessary

In the more affluent communities, the relationship between the community and the police is usually a positive one. The police have the trust and confidence of the community and the community supports the police department. This is especially true in small town communities where the police forces are usually very small and made up of long time community members who have a vested interest in the community. That is not to say that some police officers who work in larger cities do not have a vested interest in the community, it is that they can disappear with the usually higher numbers of officers on the force. The community police model is by far the best method of policing in today’s society. This is where the officer actually gets to interact with the community at a time and place where he or she may not necessarily be there on a call but rather is there to develop the relationship with the community. I have seen numerous videos lately of police officers actually getting out of the patrol car and playing a game of basketball with the children or jumping rope, all of these efforts go along way into making the police officer seem to be a member of the community and not just someone who is there to lock them up or to hurt