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Six primary crime prevention approaches
The Goals And Principles Of Community Policing
The Goals And Principles Of Community Policing
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Within the profession of policing, there are many ideas that have been brought forth with the goal of reducing crime. Crime is a blight on society that impacts many in different ways. Whether it is violent crime or a property crime, many usually feel the impact. The victim of each crime is obvious; they feel the loss involved directly. If you are the victim of a violent crime, you feel your loss by pain felt, doctor bills accrued, time needed to recover, and the trouble of putting your life back together, etc. Additional to the victim, others feel these crimes as well. Family and friends of the victim feel sorrow and tax payers take on the financial burden if the victim does not have self paid medical insurance, to name but two issues. …show more content…
In that publication, George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson had their essay “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety” published. The essay was meant to address crime within neighborhoods, and based on the ideas in the essay the broken windows theory emerged. The basis for the idea was that if a neighborhood allowed one broken window to stay broken, then the neighborhood would soon suffer more broken windows. The idea of the theory is that serious crimes such as murder and rape are enabled by misdemeanor level crimes like public intoxication, vandalism, prostitution, loitering, and vagrancy type crimes. Within the belief of the theory, people are not naturally bad individuals. It is the environment in which they are raised and they live in that is responsible for their criminal behavior. To respond to these lower level crimes, the essay says that patrol officers should be encouraged, or managed to get out of their police cars and walk the beat. This way, they are mingling amongst the citizens and building good relationships with the people that live in those neighborhoods. They are also expected to address people committing those minor crimes already listed by either arrests or citations depending on their …show more content…
Does this approach have an impact on violent crime numbers? I think that depends on how it is implemented. No level of research has definitively proven the attack all the smaller crimes with an arrest to be an effective way of policing. Their have been some research that claims the theory has dropped crime, but those very same results have also been attributed to other things occurring during the same time that could have contributed to the crime rate drop as well. I do not think you can arrest your way out of a violent crime problem. With the implementation of community orientated policing (COP) in many departments, I think you can implement of combination of things a be effective. COP ideas have come in and stated building a relationship between the community and the police have an impact. Also, if a neighborhood looks bad, then people will fear being there, and that will breed crime. I agree with the theory on that aspect. Simply put if I may, if a window is broke, fix the window, literally. Everyone has a negative stigma of public housing, and if you drive through most big city public housing, you can see why. It looks really bad. If you make the those lower income neighborhoods look better, than pride in their surroundings should breed. Fresh well kept landscaping, nicely painted buildings, and an inviting environment is what can work. I’ve seen it work in many parts of my city, and in neighboring cities. I’ve also
The broken windows theory, was proposed by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling (1982). This used broken windows to describe disorder within neighbourhoods.Their theory links disorder and unsociable behavior within a community leading to serious crime. Prior to theories such as broken windows, law enforcement and police tended to focus on the serious crime. However, Wilson and Kelling took a different view from this. They saw serious crime as the final result of a chain of events, which emerged from disorder. If we eliminated disorder, then serious crimes would not occur as mentioned by Mckee
Kelling created Broken Window Policing to maintain clean and organized neighborhoods in order to decrease possible crimes. Kelling designed the theory using vague language, which allowed for multiple interpretations when designing broken window policing. Instead of reducing crime rates, this policy over criminalized small crimes. The results of broken window policing did not meet Kelling’s expectations, which resulted in him blaming the negative results of the policy on bad policing. But the negative outcomes of the policy did not arise from just bad policing; Kelling’s broken window policing opened the door for discriminatory practices, and fed the prison system. Not only is the policy problematic, but it has not lead to a decrease in crime
American policing originated from early English law and is profoundly influenced by its history. Early law enforcement in England took on two forms of policing, one of which heavily influenced modern policing and it is known as the watch (Potter, 2013). The watch consisted, at first, of volunteers which had to patrol the streets for any kind of disorder including crime and fire. After men attempted to get out of volunteering by paying others, it became a paid professional position (Walker & Katz, 2012). The three eras of policing in America are shaped by these early ideas and practices of law enforcement. Throughout time, sufficient improvements and advancements have been made from the political era to the professional era and finally the community era which attempts to eliminate corruption, hire qualified officers and create an overall effective law enforcement system.
Before the theory was enacted, there was a wave of immigrants migrating to New York City. The city was home to younger individuals that could be influenced positively instead of negatively. It was considerably a new era for change. The Broken Windows Theory came from realizing that disorder in a community leads to crime so, “If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge” (Gladwell 152). Once people assume that there is no order, they start to believe that they can get away with committing criminal act whether it’s big or small. This leads to a pattern of increased crimes instead of a decrease. The Broken Windows Theory implies that crime is “contagious” and can therefore spread through the city. This can create a pattern in the community leading to a city filled with crime. It is not new for a city to repeat negative habits within its community. Friedrich Engels documented the city of Manchester and “the patterns of human movement and decision-making that have been etched into the texture of city blocks, patterns that are then fed back to the Manchester resident themselves, altering their subsequent decisions” (Johnson 199). Friedrich Engel’s study of the behavioral patterns emerging in cities correlates with the Broken Window Theory. The theory deals with minor problems leading to the invitation to more serious
Policing and criminal justice practices can have an affect on people’s health care through many forms. There are a couple of models that Herbert Parker introduces that can have a future impact on criminals health whether they are guilty or innocent as well as outside individuals in the community. Mandatory minimum sentencing, specifically with drugs, can affect those who are involved. The police officers can have their own downside to working in the field relating to their health.
9. Sherman L., Gottfredson D., MacKenzie D., Eck J., Reuter P., Bushway S. Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Promising. A Report to the United States Congress. College Park, MD: University of Maryland, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1997.
It is a myth to believe that an officers job is spend fighting dangerous crimes, in reality officers spend more time handing smaller cases. For example, police officers spend a lot of time doing daily tasks such as giving speeding tickets and being mediators in disputes (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Handing out speeding tickers and handling minor disputes are far from fighting crime. Police officers spend more time doing preventive measures (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Preventive measures involve officers intervening to prevent further altercations. Victor Kappeler and Gary Potter discussed the myth of crime fighting as invalid and misleading notions of an officer’s employment.
This field of study is uncertain to affirm this kind of assumption. But all this discussion about Broken Windows Theory leads us to reflect why not try to prevent crime instead of act after the crime has been committed? The main idea of Kelling and Wilson was applied in this specific case of NYC’s subway and had been successful. The idea that the police have to work more engaged in a community is good for all sides. The ideal of prevention should be more disseminated in all branches because focus on roots of the problems. The main point for these strategy is do not wait until serious crimes occur to intervene, extremely opposite this, it is necessary deal with disorder behavior early and this form contribute with the development to all
There have been many contributors when it came to tackling anti-social behaviour and preventing crime however, the most influential contributors are Wilson and Kelling. They came up with the theory of broken window which will be further explain in this essay. This essay will outline the broken window theory, as well as explain what is meant by broken window. Finally it will give examples that exemplify the broken window theory. (Maguire, Morgan and Reiner, 2012)
Kelling, George L. and Wilson, James Q. (1982) "Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety." Published in the Atlantic Monthly.
In order to have effective policing I believe integrity and ethics play a huge part in helping build trust within communities. Sound conduct by police improves community interactions, enhances communication, and promotes shared responsibility for addressing crime and disorder. There are three ways that police departments can strengthen community relationships just by training officers about procedural justice, bias reduction, and racial reconciliation. If we implement these concepts, we can create an environment in which effective partnerships between the police and citizens can flourish.
Crime Analysis has many benefits to the community. Community engagement, targeted initiatives, strategic use of resources, and data-driven decision-making contribute to decreasing crime. Crime prevention and community satisfaction with police services, while linked to the number of officers on the streets, does not depend entirely on the visibility of patrol officers. Community engagement, targeted initiatives, strategic use of resources, and data-driven decision-making contribute to decreasing crime. So in closing I believe that departments that take the positive elements of foot patrols and combine their efforts with crime analysis that focuses on the time, location, and type of crime, may use the findings to develop strategies to decrease crime and enhance the quality of life in their communities.
To conclude, Community policing represents a major development in the history of American law enforcement, but the extent to which this approach is a success and dominates contemporary policing remains a source of debate. In my point of view, community policing is good for communities. It has challenged the traditional concept of the police as crime-fighters by drawing attention to the complexities of the police role and function. In addition to the police officer hard work; citizens can also make a difference and contribute to make neighborhoods a better place to live. For instance, citizens can hold community meetings to talk about concerns and agree on solutions help organize healthy activities for children in your neighborhood, join or starting a neighborhood crime watch program, and talk to your community police officers and share information and concerns.
We are all affected by crime, whether we are a direct victim, a family member or a friend of a victim. It can interfere with your daily life, your personal sense of safety and your ability to trust others.