crime prevention in neighborhoods essay spm

Essay on Crime Prevention

Crime is a global problem affecting each and every country. Every country suffers from increased crime rates which result to insecurities and a negative impact on the economy. This increased crime rate is fueled by poverty, parental negligence, low self-esteem, alcohol, and drug abuse, resulting from the lack of proper moral values (Topalli & Wright, 2014). Moral values are responsible for determining what is right and wrong and also establish what is socially acceptable. They are ideas considered by society as important and contribute to one’s general personality, and thus, without them, an individual is lost. It is significant to prevent crimes to raise the quality of life of all citizens. Preventing crimes also results to long-term benefits as it reduces social cost resulting from crimes and the costs involved with the formal criminal justice system. In order to prevent these crimes, there is the need to develop evidence-based and comprehensive approaches addressing several factors impacting crimes, including moral values on growing children.

Crimes result from negative moral values, and thus there is a need to promote positive youth development and wellbeing. Horace Mann believes that this prevalence of crime in society could be reduced by moral instruction in schools (Spring, 2019). He argues that for the crime rate to reduce, the moral value of the general public needs to be shaped accordingly. According to him, the most accurate method of doing this is by incorporating moral instruction in the education system. He referred to this method as putting a police officer in every child’s heart. This would enable the child to be conscious of the evil in society and be aware of good and bad. This would guide them as they grow up and prevent them from engaging or committing any crime.

The American Education book portrays crime as a global nuisance, and the more accurate and effective method to prevent it is through education. Mann suggests in this book that the number of police required by society would significantly be reduced by schooling. Thus, education is portrayed as a source of knowledge and a significant tool that would help reduce crime rates remarkably. It is supposed to do this by allowing students to acquire more educational attainment that leads to high paying jobs and thus higher earnings, which increases the opportunity cost of crime and consequently reducing crime. Mann also believes that education would reduce the crime rate by affecting individuals’ personality traits associated with crime. This is done by making students become patient, disciplined and moral. Despite this being a more suitable method of preventing crimes in society, it is not as effective as Mann and other researchers rate it.

Mann theory of preventing crime through schooling is a considerate method, but it is not enough to do so. There is no causal relationship between crime rates and school attendance (Lochner, 2020). It is assumed that schooling and crime rates are related, and thus if school attendance is increased, a consequent crime reduction would be noticed. However, this is wrong, and Mann theory has not proved a reality. According to Joel et al. (2021), the percentage of 5-to 17-years-old students increased from 82.2 in 1959-1960 to 91.9 percent in 2004-2005. The average days of attendance also increased from 160.2 in 1959-1960 to 169.2 in 1999-2000. There was also a rapid increase in violent crimes in 1960-2000 from 160.9 to 506.5 per 100,000 residence (Spring, 2019). As the number of students attending school and the attendance days increased from 1960 to 2004, so did the crime rate. This is proof that the crime rate is irrespective of the number of students going to school and the average days of attendance, and thus Mann theory is ineffective.

Moral value instruction is a vital tool to prevent crimes but implementing it only through schooling, such as Mann suggested, is not only a failing strategy but a waste of time and resources. Moral values in children need to be implemented in many different ways to ensure that they stick as they develop into adults (Damon, 2008). Implementing these moral values would ensure that they grow into morally upright adults, thus reducing crime rates. Implementing moral value through schooling is advised, but it would work with a combination of many other methods including through religion and good parenting. Religion helps in the spiritual growth of a person and emphasizes moral codes aimed to develop values such as social competence and self-control, which are major virtues in crime hating people. According to the study done by Brown and Taylor (2007) on how religion impacts child development, it was found that social competence and the psychological adjustment of third-graders were positive influenced with several religious factors. This shows that religion helps in developing children to become adults with a positive and better judgement that would keep them from engaging in any crime and thus would contribute to crime rate reduction.

Parents are responsible for their children, and they are required to guard and guide them as they contribute to their personality. According to Penn (2015), how a child turns out as an adult depends on how their parents brought them up. As a result of this, it is crucial for parents to be careful of how they handle their children. It is the responsibility of every citizen of a county to help fight and prevent crimes, and thus it is the responsibility of parents to reduce the crime rate by training their children to be better people in future. They should be consistent with rules and monitor their children behaviour to ensure that they instil good moral value in them, equipping them with the knowledge of good and evil. If a child is raised in a way that makes them hate crime, then they would not engage in any, and this would contribute to the general reduction of crime in the society.

In conclusion, the main way of preventing crime is by instilling positive moral values on growing children to ensure that they develop into morally upright adults who would not engage in criminal activities. It is assumed that to instil this moral values in children and prevent crimes in future, the best way is through schooling. But this is not the case as there is no causal relationship between crime rates and schooling, and thus schooling will not necessarily result to a reduced crime rate. In order to ensure that moral values are successfully instilled in children, schooling would have to be combined with other methods, some of which include religion and good parenting, resulting in adults who are conscious of good and evil. Increased crime rate is a problem experienced by all countries globally, and the only way to fight it is by shaping the personality of the future generation by instilling positive moral values as their driving force.

Topalli, V., & Wright, R. (2014).  Affect and the dynamic foreground of predatory street crime  (1st ed.).

Spring, J. (2019). American Education.  https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429274138

Lochner, L. (2020). Education and crime.  The Economics Of Education , 109-117.  https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-815391-8.00009-4

Joel, M., Bill, H., Jijun, Z., Xiaolei, W., Ke, W., & Sarah, H. et al. (2021).  National Center for Education Statistics: The Condition of Education 2019. NCES 2019-144 . ERIC. Retrieved 5 July 2021, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED594978.

Damon, W. (2008).  Moral child: Nurturing children’s natural moral growth  (3rd ed.). FREE Press.

Brown, S., & Taylor, K. (2007). Religion and education: Evidence from the National Child Development Study.  Journal Of Economic Behavior & Organization ,  63 (3), 439-460.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2005.08.003

Penn, H. (2015).  Understanding early childhood  (3rd ed.). Open University Press.

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Urban Crime Prevention and Resolution, Essay Example

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Description of Problem

The growing number of individuals living in urban areas is one issue that highly developed locations need to give attention to at present. People from different areas [from different locations within and even outside the country] often go to more developed locations that promise them the possibility of embracing a new sense of purpose, one that would allow them to take a new sense of being through the expected economic freedom that they hope to engage in. However, upon reaching the locations they dream most about, they find that the opportunities they hoped to embrace are not as robust as expected. As a result, the growing number of population is not fully supported by the system existing in the area, thus location problems arise, including the rise of crimes within these urban locations.

This is where the need of changing the process of crime prevention and resolution comes into place. Relatively, it could be understood that somehow, the capacity of the police force to control the situation becomes even weaker in form; especially as the number of the individuals to control rises against the number of law enforcers. It is then expected that new ways of containing the situation needs to be established, especially in terms of making a definite difference on how the modern forms of law enforcement is able to change the situations occurring in a modern society such as an urban city.

Best Solution

The procedures presented under the structural function of the society makes it easier for the law enforcers to function according to their sworn responsibilities. Getting everyone involved in the situation is one way of making it easier for the prevention procedures to be implemented accordingly and for the resolutions to be applied accordingly. What makes this approach relatively effective is the involvement of everyone else in the picture. It could be realized the realization of the society in consideration with the role that they share in the process of controlling the situation of the communities where they are living in. This will allow them the chance to see the overall picture of resolution that they ought to be involved with [for the sake of their own safety and that of their family’s as well].

How does the involvement of the society affect the suggested point of resolution? Getting people involved in the system increases the capacity of the law to become more effective in the assumption of how people support each other especially in making a more secured and safe community for themselves and for those who are important to them. This will make it easier for situations to be sanctioned before they even get worse.

Furthermore, the work of each person in par with the efforts that others are putting into the process creates a realization amongst themselves especially in determining the kind of distinction that they have with regards the role they ought to embrace in relation to what they have to do to make themselves secure enough through doing good for others and looking for the welfare of their fellowmen in the community.

The structural function of the society obviously allows a more definite essence on how people live alongside each other in a more positive scoring of how they perform their interpersonal relation between each other as humans and as independent units of the community. Creating a hierarchical system that provides a more definite essence on how each community agency works alongside each other, therefore making a stronger and more established system of law-defining operations that makes community efforts work in containing the existence of crimes and other law defying actions from social rebels and misunderstood individuals.

Justification of Suggested Solution

Allowing the members of the society to work with each other gives each person a sense of purpose especially as he takes on the chance of empowering his fellowmen into becoming better individuals. Seeing the benefit of these effort-defined operations that individuals are supposed to take into account will make the sense of involvement more purposeful and personally beneficial for each individual.

Another reason for this approach’s practicality is that of its capacity to enhance the ways by which people live alongside each other; watching out for each other’s need for safety and survival as they face the different possibilities of growth that they are to engage with in the community. Looking out for other’s welfare makes a more purposeful approach for the system in lessening the elements that makes it possible for individuals to take advantage of their fellowmen therefore giving birth to crimes and other law-defying acts.

The most important value of the structural function of the society in facing the issues of urban crime is that of the ways by which it creates a connection between individuals, agencies and the government in order to contain the situations that might not be easy to deal with; especially In relation to how the community develops into a more urbanized location; one that provides the most wanted opportunities for the people. Lessening the pressure on the law enforcement agencies and putting the weight on the personal understanding of the people towards the importance of their personal and communal safety shall help pacify the situation while creating a better picture of progress in empowering the police-systems as they engage in effective and eventual procedures of containing crimes as they happen.

Description of Alternatives

A possible alternative to the solution suggested herein is the creation of new policing rules that specifically address the growing number of each community; particularly depending on the most common issues that each community has to deal with. Through survey and research procedures, these problems could be noted and recorded and resolved accordingly. Concentration on specific problems could help ease out the condition of the society in relation to the rising rate of particular crimes occurring in the area.

Summary of Presentation

As seen from this discussion, the focus of the solution is dedicated towards guiding the community into realizing their personal role in setting the grounds of security and safety for themselves and their fellowmen. This is where the efforts of the community comes in. Through educating them in why they ought to be involved in controlling the increasing rate of existing urban crimes, they would be given the chance to understand the importance of their roles as concerned individuals aiming to become more productive and trustworthy in their posts as watchers of security and safety not only for themselves, but for their families and the members of their community as well. Most likely, it is expected that through a unified effort of controlling the situation, fighting urban crime would not be an impossible goal to reach for the community.

Considerably, resolving the problem through the help of everyone else would be much easier to handle. Getting the people to know of the situation that they are in and become more endowed to accepting the solutions as part of their daily lifestyle would make the solution more realistic and applicable for everyone else to gain benefit from. In this case, it would be best to give the community members a chance to know about the situation and know about the condition of changes that they ought to go through in order to be unified with the desire of lessening urban crime rates.

Knepper, P., Doak, J., &Shapland, J. (2009).  Urban crime prevention, surveillance, and restorative justice: Effects of social technologies.  United States: CRC Press.

Neal, D.L. (2011).  Social capital and urban crime.  United States: LFB Scholarly Publishing.

Parenti, C. (1999).  Lockdown America: Police and prisons in the age of crisis.  United States: Verso.

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