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8.6 Reducing Crime

Learning objective.

Describe five strategies that criminologists have proposed to reduce crime.

During the last few decades, the United States has used a get-tough approach to fight crime. This approach has involved longer prison terms and the building of many more prisons and jails. As noted earlier, scholars doubt that this surge in imprisonment has achieved significant crime reduction at an affordable cost, and they worry that it may be leading to greater problems in the future as hundreds of thousands of prison inmates are released back into their communities every year.

Many of these scholars favor an approach to crime borrowed from the field of public health. In the areas of health and medicine, a public health approach tries to treat people who are already ill, but it especially focuses on preventing disease and illness before they begin. While physicians try to help people who already have cancer, medical researchers constantly search for the causes of cancer so that they can try to prevent it before it affects anyone. This model is increasingly being applied to criminal behavior, and criminologists have advanced several ideas that, if implemented with sufficient funds and serious purpose, hold great potential for achieving significant, cost-effective reductions in crime (Barlow & Decker, 2010; Frost, Freilich, & Clear, 2010; Lab, 2010). Many of their strategies rest on the huge body of theory and research on the factors underlying crime in the United States, which we had space only to touch on earlier, while other proposals call for criminal justice reforms. We highlight some of these many strategies here.

Applying Social Research

“Three Strikes” Laws Strike Out

The get-tough approach highlighted in the text has involved, among other things, mandatory minimum sentencing, in which judges are required to give convicted offenders a minimum prison term, often several years long, rather than a shorter sentence or probation.

Beginning in the 1990s, one of the most publicized types of mandatory sentencing has been the “three strikes and you’re out” policy that mandates an extremely long sentence—at least twenty-five years—and sometimes life imprisonment for offenders convicted of a third (or, in some states, a second) felony. The intent of these laws, enacted by about half the states and the federal government, is to reduce crime by keeping dangerous offenders behind bars for many years and by deterring potential offenders from committing crime ( general deterrence ). Sufficient time since the first three strikes laws were passed has elapsed to enable criminologists to assess whether they have, in fact, reduced crime.

Studies of this issue find that three strikes laws do not reduce serious crime and, in fact, may even increase the number of homicides. Several studies have focused on California, where tens of thousands of offenders have been sentenced under the state’s three strikes law passed in 1994. Almost all these studies conclude that California’s law did not reduce subsequent crime or did so by only a negligible amount. A few studies also have examined nationwide samples of city and state crime rates in the states that adopted three strikes laws and in the states that did not do so. These studies also fail to find that three strikes laws have reduced crime. As one of these studies, by three criminologists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, concludes, “Consistent with other studies, ours finds no credible statistical evidence that passage of three strikes laws reduces crime by deterring potential criminals or incapacitating repeat offenders.” The national studies even find that three strikes laws have increased the number of homicides. This latter finding is certainly an unintended consequence of these laws and may stem from decisions by felons facing a third strike to kill witnesses so as to avoid life imprisonment.

In retrospect, it is not very surprising that three strikes laws do not work as intended. Many criminals simply do not think they will get caught and thus are not likely to be deterred by increased penalties. Many are also under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol at the time of their offense, making it even less likely they will worry about being caught. In addition, many three strikes offenders tend to be older (because they are being sentenced for their third felony, not just their first) and thus are already “aging out” beyond the high-crime age group, 15–25. Thus three strikes laws target offenders whose criminality is already declining because they are getting older.

In addition to the increase in homicides, research has identified other problems produced by three strikes laws. Because three strikes defendants do not want a life term, some choose a jury trial instead of pleading guilty. Jury trials are expensive and slow compared to guilty pleas and thus cost the prosecution both money and time. In another problem, the additional years that three strikes offenders spend in prison are costing the states millions of dollars in yearly imprisonment costs and in health-care costs as these offenders reach their elderly years.

As should be clear, the body of three strikes research has important policy implications, as noted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham scholars: “(P)olicy makers should reconsider the costs and benefits associated with three strikes laws” (p. 235). Three strikes laws do not lower crime and in fact increase homicides, and they have forced the states to spend large sums of money on courts and prisons. The three strikes research strongly suggests that three strikes laws should be eliminated.

Sources: Kovandzic, Sloan, & Vieraitis, 2004; Walker, 2011

A first strategy involves serious national efforts to reduce poverty and to improve neighborhood living conditions. It is true that most poor people do not commit crime, but it is also true that most street crime is committed by the poor or near poor for reasons discussed earlier. Efforts that create decent-paying jobs for the poor, enhance their vocational and educational opportunities, and improve their neighborhood living conditions should all help reduce poverty and its attendant problems and thus to reduce crime (Currie, 2011).

A second strategy involves changes in how American parents raise their boys. To the extent that the large gender difference in serious crime stems from male socialization patterns, changes in male socialization should help reduce crime (Collier, 2004). This will certainly not happen any time soon, but if American parents can begin to raise their boys to be less aggressive and less dominating, they will help reduce the nation’s crime rate. As two feminist criminologists have noted, “A large price is paid for structures of male domination and for the very qualities that drive men to be successful, to control others, and to wield uncompromising power.…Gender differences in crime suggest that crime may not be so normal after all. Such differences challenge us to see that in the lives of women, men have a great deal more to learn” (Daly & Chesney-Lind, 1988, p. 527).

Lessons from Other Societies

Preventing Crime and Treating Prisoners in Western Europe

The text suggests the get-tough approach that the United States has been using to reduce crime has not worked in a cost-effective manner and has led to other problems, including a flood of inmates returning to their communities every year. In fighting crime, the United States has much to learn from Western Europe. In contrast to the US get-tough approach, Western European nations tend to use a public health model that comprises two components. The first is a focus on crime prevention that uses early childhood intervention programs and other preventive measures to address the roots of crime and other childhood and family problems. The second is a criminal justice policy that involves sentencing defendants and treating prisoners in a manner more likely to rehabilitate offenders and reduce their repeat offending than the more punitive approach in the United States.

The overall Western European approach to offenders is guided by the belief that imprisonment should be reserved for the most dangerous violent offenders, and that probation, community service, and other forms of community corrections should be used for other offenders. Because violent offenders comprise only a small proportion of all offenders, the Western European approach saves a great deal of money while still protecting public safety.

The experience of Denmark and the Netherlands is illustrative. Like the United States, Denmark had to deal with rapidly growing crime rates during the 1960s. Whereas the United States responded with the get-tough approach involving longer and more certain prison terms and the construction of more and more prisons, Denmark took the opposite approach: It adopted shorter prison terms for violent offenders and used the funds saved from the reduced prison costs to expand community corrections for property offenders. Finland and the Netherlands have also adopted a similar approach that favors community corrections and relatively short prison terms for violent offenders over the get-tough approach the United States adopted.

All these nations save great sums of money in prison costs and other criminal justice expenses because they chose not to adopt the US get-tough approach, yet their rates of serious violent crime lag behind the US rates. Although these nations obviously differ from the United States, the advantages of their approach should be kept in mind as the United States evaluates its get-tough policies. There may be much to learn from their less punitive approach to crime: While the United States got tough, perhaps they got sensible.

Sources: Dammer & Albanese, 2011; Waller & Welsh, 2007

A third and very important strategy involves expansion of early childhood intervention (ECI) programs and nutrition services for poor mothers and their children, as the Note 8.28 “Children and Our Future” box discussed earlier. ECI programs generally involve visits by social workers, nurses, or other professionals to young, poor mothers shortly after they give birth, as these mother’s children are often at high risk for later behavioral problems (Welsh & Farrington, 2007). These visits may be daily or weekly and last for several months, and they involve parenting instruction and training in other life skills. These programs have been shown to be very successful in reducing childhood and adolescent misbehavior in a cost-effective manner (Greenwood, 2006). In the same vein, nutrition services would also reduce the risk of neurological impairment among newborns and young children and thus their likelihood of developing later behavioral problems.

A fourth strategy calls for a national effort to improve the nation’s schools and schooling. This effort would involve replacing large, older, and dilapidated schoolhouses with smaller, nicer, and better equipped ones. For many reasons, this effort should help improve student academic achievement and school commitment and thus lower delinquent and later criminal behavior.

A final set of strategies involves changes in the criminal justice system that should help reduce repeat offending and save much money that could be used to fund the ECI programs and other efforts just outlined. Placing nonviolent property and drug offenders in community corrections (e.g., probation, daytime supervision) would reduce the number of prison and jail inmates by hundreds of thousands annually without endangering Americans’ safety and save billions of dollars in prison costs (Jacobson, 2006). These funds could also be used to improve prison and jail vocational and educational programming and drug and alcohol services, all of which are seriously underfunded. If properly funded, such programs and services hold great promise for rehabilitating many inmates (Cullen, 2007). Elimination of the death penalty would also save much money while also eliminating the possibility of wrongful executions.

This is not a complete list of strategies, but it does suggest the kinds of efforts that would help address the roots of crime and, in the long run, help to reduce it. Although the United States may not be interested in pursuing this crime-prevention approach, strategies like the ones just mentioned would in the long run be more likely than our current get-tough approach to create a safer society and at the same time save us billions of dollars annually.

Note that none of these proposals addresses white-collar crime, which should not be neglected in a discussion of reducing the nation’s crime problem. One reason white-collar crime is so common is that the laws against it are weakly enforced; more consistent enforcement of these laws should help reduce white-collar crime, as would the greater use of imprisonment for convicted white-collar criminals (Rosoff et al., 2010).

Key Takeaways

The get-tough approach has not been shown to reduce crime in an effective and cost-efficient manner. A sociological explanation of crime thus suggests the need to focus more resources on the social roots of crime in order to prevent crime from happening in the first place.
Strategies suggested by criminologists to reduce crime include (a) reducing poverty and improving neighborhood living conditions, (b) changing male socialization patterns, (c) expanding early childhood intervention programs, (d) improving schools and schooling, and (e) reducing the use of incarceration for drug and property offenders.

For Your Review

The text notes that social science research has not shown the get-tough approach to be effective or cost-efficient. If this is true, why do you think this approach has been so popular in the United States since the 1970s?
Of the five strategies outlined in the text to reduce crime, which one strategy do you think would be most effective if it were implemented with adequate funding? Explain your answer.

Barlow, H. D., & Decker, S. H. (Eds.). (2010). Criminology and public policy: Putting theory to work . Philadelphia, PA: Temple Univeristy Press.

Collier, R. (2004). Masculinities and crime: Rethinking the “man question”? In C. Sumner (Ed.), The Blackwell companion to criminology (pp. 285–308). Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell.

Cullen, F. T. (2007). Make rehabilitation corrections’ guiding paradigm. Criminology & Public Policy, 6 (4), 717–727.

Currie, E. (2011). On the pitfalls of spurious prudence. Criminology & Public Policy, 10 , 109–114.

Daly, K., & Chesney-Lind, M. (1988). Feminism and criminology. Justice Quarterly, 5 , 497–538.

Dammer, H. R., & Albanese, J. S. (2011). Comparative criminal justice systems (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth

Frost, N. A., Freilich, J. D., & Clear, T. R. (Eds.). (2010). Contemporary issues in criminal justice policy: Policy proposals from the American society of criminology conference . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Greenwood, P. W. (2006). Changing lives: Delinquency prevention as crime-control policy . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Jacobson, M. (2006). Reversing the punitive turn: The Limits and promise of current research. Criminology & Public Policy, 5 , 277–284.

Kovandzic, T. V., Sloan, J. J., III, & Vieraitis, L. M. (2004). “Striking out” as crime reduction policy: The impact of “three strikes” laws on crime rates in US cities. Justice Quarterly, 21 , 207–239.

Lab, S. P. (2010). Crime prevention: Approaches, practices and evaluations (7th ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Anderson.

Rosoff, S. M., Pontell, H. N., & Tillman, R. (2010). Profit without honor: White collar crime and the looting of America (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Walker, S. (2011). Sense and nonsense about crime, drugs, and communities: A policy guide (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Waller, I., & Welsh, B. C. (2007). Reducing crime by harnessing international best practices. In D. S. Eitzen (Ed.), Solutions to social problems: Lessons from other societies (pp. 208–216). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Welsh, B. C., & Farrington, D. P. (2007). Save children from a life of crime. Criminology & Public Policy, 6 (4), 871–879.

Essay on Crime Prevention

Students are often asked to write an essay on Crime Prevention in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Crime Prevention

Understanding crime prevention.

Crime prevention is the act of stopping crime before it happens. This is done by identifying the causes of crime and finding ways to reduce them. It’s like a doctor who tries to prevent illness by promoting healthy habits.

Types of Crime Prevention

There are two main types of crime prevention. The first is ‘primary prevention’ which aims to stop crime before it starts. It includes things like education and community programs. The second type is ‘secondary prevention’. This focuses on areas or people at high risk of crime.

Importance of Crime Prevention

Crime prevention is important because it helps keep our communities safe. It also reduces the cost of law enforcement and the justice system. By preventing crime, we can create a better society for everyone to live in.

Role of the Community

The community plays a big role in crime prevention. Everyone can help by reporting suspicious activity to the police, participating in neighborhood watch programs, and teaching children about the dangers of crime.

In conclusion, crime prevention is a vital part of maintaining a safe and peaceful society. Everyone has a role to play in preventing crime and creating a safe environment for all.

250 Words Essay on Crime Prevention

Crime prevention is all about stopping crime before it happens. It’s like a game plan to keep people safe. This plan includes things like making laws, teaching people about safety, and having police officers around to help.

The Importance of Crime Prevention

Crime prevention is very important because it helps keep our community safe. Without it, there would be more crime and people would not feel safe. When people feel safe, they can do their work better, kids can play outside, and the community can grow stronger.

Ways to Prevent Crime

There are many ways to prevent crime. One way is through laws. Laws tell us what we can and cannot do. When we break a law, there are consequences like fines or jail time. This can stop people from doing bad things.

Another way is through education. Schools and community groups can teach people about the dangers of crime and how to stay safe. This can help people make good choices and avoid dangerous situations.

Police officers also play a big role. They patrol our streets and respond to emergencies. Their presence can deter criminals and make people feel safer.

Role of Community in Crime Prevention

The community also has a big role in crime prevention. People can look out for each other and report suspicious activities to the police. Community programs can also provide support and resources to those in need, which can reduce crime.

In conclusion, crime prevention is a team effort that includes laws, education, police, and community involvement. By working together, we can create a safer and happier place for everyone.

500 Words Essay on Crime Prevention

Crime prevention is all about stopping crime before it happens. It is a way to keep people safe and maintain peace in our communities.

There are two main types of crime prevention: primary and secondary.

Primary prevention stops crime before it starts. It includes things like better lighting in dark areas, security cameras, and community programs to teach people about safety.

Secondary prevention is about stopping crime that has already started. This could be through police work or community efforts to help people who might be at risk of committing crimes.

The Role of the Community

The community plays a big part in crime prevention. Community members can work together to watch out for each other and report suspicious activity. They can also create programs to help people who might be at risk of committing crimes. This could include things like after-school programs for kids or job training for adults.

Role of Law Enforcement Agencies

Law enforcement agencies are also vital in crime prevention. They can patrol neighborhoods to deter criminals, investigate crimes, and arrest people who break the law. They also work with communities to develop strategies to prevent crime.

Importance of Education

Education is a powerful tool for crime prevention. By teaching people about the law and the consequences of breaking it, we can help them make better choices. Schools can play a big part in this by teaching students about the risks and consequences of crime.

Effectiveness of Crime Prevention

Crime prevention can be very effective. It can reduce crime rates and make communities safer places to live. It can also save money by reducing the costs associated with crime, like police work and court costs.

In conclusion, crime prevention is a crucial part of maintaining peace and safety in our communities. It involves everyone, from law enforcement to community members to educators. By working together, we can prevent crime and create safer, happier places to live.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Essay on Crime On Society
Essay on College Diversity
Essay on College Depression

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

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News & Events

Your Role in Preventing Crime

Voice concerns about crime and disorder problems. Don’t wait until crimes occur or problems get out of control. Raise your concerns to an officer.

Report and provide information about crimes and suspicious activities. We need you to serve as our eyes and ears. You are in a better position to identify behavior and activities that are out of the ordinary in your residence or workplace. A quick and effective response by HUPD officers is greatly assisted by accurate and timely reports of emergency or suspicious incidents. Crime prevention includes calling the HUPD when you observe suspicious activity, calling if you are the victim of or become aware of a criminal incident, and informing the Department of potential public safety issues. If the HUPD is not made aware of an incident we cannot provide assistance to those in need or work to prevent it from occurring again.

Community members can report criminal or suspicious activity anonymously either by calling a twenty-four hour automated voice mail system at 617-496-2700 or by reporting online .

Report other problems and incidents. The HUPD is not responsible for dealing with all problems brought to its attention but can address the problem with the appropriate University department or government agency.

Get help with personal problems. If you have a personal problem or are aware of someone with a personal problem that you cannot handle by yourself, you should seek help before the problem gets out of hand and causes further difficulties.

Employ crime prevention measures for personal and property safety. It is important for students, faculty, staff, and visitors to remember that we are located in an open and densely populated setting. Therefore, we share many of the crime and safety issues that exist in any city. You should take precautions to protect your property by never leaving it unattended in public and by locking your room or office when you leave it even for a moment. While traveling throughout campus, you should be aware of your surroundings, walk with others on well-lit streets, and use the shuttle bus, escort van, or HUCEP.

Please visit Your Role in Staying Safe . Know about crime and disorder on and near campus. A first step in addressing and solving crime and disorder problems is to become informed about the kind, frequencies, and locations of such incidents. On average, the HUPD reports approximately 700 serious crimes to the FBI each year. Of those crimes, 95% are property crimes. Violent crimes do occur, but they are relatively rare. Most of our thefts are of unattended property or from unlocked rooms or offices.

Please review our crime statistics and read our daily log . Work with the HUPD to address and solve problems. We are only as effective as the relationships and partnerships we form with the community. When we work together with the community we are in a better position to develop long-term solutions to problems by addressing the root causes of a problem rather than just responding to it as an isolated incident. Comment on HUPD personnel performance. You can provide a useful service by providing comments, favorable as well as unfavorable, on the performance of HUPD personnel. The HUPD’s relationship with the community is vital to achieve our mission. All community members should expect to be treated in a courteous and professional manner by members of the Department. Occasionally questions arise regarding professional conduct. The HUPD does not tolerate employees who act unprofessionally or rudely, or who do not seek to provide an appropriate level of service.

The quality of our service is enhanced by feedback from the community, and the Department has an extensive process in place to respond to citizen complaints. We also wish to recognize instances where our employees have been especially helpful or have exceeded your expectations in the service that they have provided.

For more information or to commend or complain against an officer please visit Professional Conduct.

Your Role in Staying Safe
Theft Prevention
Laptop Theft Prevention
Bicycle Registration
Access to and Security of Facilities
Personal and Violent Crime
Threat Assessment and Management
Active Shooter Safety Guidelines
Crime Prevention Education and Security Awareness

Help for Personal and Violent Crime

Information and resources for personal and violent crime:

Rape and Indecent Assault and Battery
Safety and Self-Defense Classes
Domestic violence
Hate crimes
Identity theft

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Five Things About Deterrence

Does punishment prevent crime? If so, how, and to what extent? Deterrence — the crime prevention effects of the threat of punishment — is a theory of choice in which individuals balance the benefits and costs of crime.

In his 2013 essay, “Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century,” Daniel S. Nagin succinctly summarized the current state of theory and empirical knowledge about deterrence. [1] The information in this publication is drawn from Nagin’s essay with additional context provided by NIJ and is presented here to help those who make policies and laws that are based on science. [2]

NIJ’s “Five Things About Deterrence” summarizes a large body of research related to deterrence of crime into five points.

1. The certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent than the punishment.

Research shows clearly that the chance of being caught is a vastly more effective deterrent than even draconian punishment.

2. Sending an individual convicted of a crime to prison isn’t a very effective way to deter crime.

Prisons are good for punishing criminals and keeping them off the street, but prison sentences (particularly long sentences) are unlikely to deter future crime. Prisons actually may have the opposite effect: Persons who are incarcerated learn more effective crime strategies from each other, and time spent in prison may desensitize many to the threat of future imprisonment.

See Understanding the Relationship Between Sentencing and Deterrence for additional discussion on prison as an ineffective deterrent.

3. Police deter crime by increasing the perception that criminals will be caught and punished.

The police deter crime when they do things that strengthen a criminal’s perception of the certainty of being caught. Strategies that use the police as “sentinels,” such as hot spots policing, are particularly effective. A criminal’s behavior is more likely to be influenced by seeing a police officer with handcuffs and a radio than by a new law increasing penalties.

4. Increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime.

Laws and policies designed to deter crime by focusing mainly on increasing the severity of punishment are ineffective partly because criminals know little about the sanctions for specific crimes.

More severe punishments do not “chasten” individuals convicted of crimes, and prisons may exacerbate recidivism.

5. There is no proof that the death penalty deters criminals.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, "Research on the deterrent effect of capital punishment is uninformative about whether capital punishment increases, decreases, or has no effect on homicide rates."

Understanding the Relationship Between Sentencing and Deterrence

In his 2013 essay, “Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century,” Daniel S. Nagin succinctly summarized the current state of theory and empirical knowledge about deterrence. The information in this publication is drawn from Nagin’s essay with additional context provided by NIJ and is presented here to help those who make policies and laws that are based on science.

NIJ’s “Five Things About Deterrence” summarizes a large body of research related to deterrence of crime into five points. Two of the five things relate to the impact of sentencing on deterrence — “Sending an individual convicted of a crime to prison isn’t a very effective way to deter crime” and “Increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime.” Those are simple assertions, but the issues of punishment and deterrence are far more complex. This addendum to the original “Five Things” provides additional context and evidence regarding those two statements.

It is important to note that while the assertion in the original “Five Things” focused only on the impact of sentencing on deterring the commission of future crimes, a prison sentence serves two primary purposes: punishment and incapacitation. Those two purposes combined are a linchpin of United States sentencing policy, and those who oversee sentencing or are involved in the development of sentencing policy should always keep that in mind.

“Sending an individual convicted of a crime to prison isn’t a very effective way to deter crime.”

Prison is an important option for incapacitating and punishing those who commit crimes, but the data show long prison sentences do little to deter people from committing future crimes.

Viewing the findings of research on severity effects in their totality, there is evidence suggesting that short sentences may be a deterrent. However, a consistent finding is that increases in already lengthy sentences produce at best a very modest deterrent effect.

A very small fraction of individuals who commit crimes — about 2 to 5 percent — are responsible for 50 percent or more of crimes. [3] Locking up these individuals when they are young and early in their criminal careers could be an effective strategy to preventing crime if we could identify who they are. The problem is: we can’t. We have tried to identify the young people most likely to commit crimes in the future, but the science shows we can’t do it effectively.

It is important to recognize that many of these individuals who offend at higher rates may already be incarcerated because they put themselves at risk of apprehension so much more frequently than individuals who offend at lower rates.

“Increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime.”

To clarify the relationship between the severity of punishment and the deterrence of future crimes, you need to understand:

The lack of any “chastening” effect from prison sentences,
That prisons may exacerbate recidivism,
The different impacts of the certainty versus the severity of punishment on deterrence, and
That individuals grow out of criminal activity as they age.

More severe punishments do not “chasten” individuals convicted of crimes.

Some policymakers and practitioners believe that increasing the severity of the prison experience enhances the “chastening” effect, thereby making individuals convicted of an offense less likely to commit crimes in the future. In fact, scientists have found no evidence for the chastening effect. Prisons may exacerbate recidivism. Research has found evidence that prison can exacerbate, not reduce, recidivism. Prisons themselves may be schools for learning to commit crimes. In 2009, Nagin, Cullen and Jonson published a review of evidence on the effect of imprisonment on reoffending. [4] The review included a sizable number of studies, including data from outside the U.S. The researchers concluded:

“… compared to non-custodial sanctions, incarceration has a null or mildly criminogenic impact on future criminal involvement. We caution that this assessment is not sufficiently firm to guide policy, with the exception that it calls into question wild claims that imprisonment has strong specific deterrent effects.”

Certainty has a greater impact on deterrence than severity of punishment.

Severity refers to the length of a sentence. Studies show that for most individuals convicted of a crime, short to moderate prison sentences may be a deterrent but longer prison terms produce only a limited deterrent effect. In addition, the crime prevention benefit falls far short of the social and economic costs.

Certainty refers to the likelihood of being caught and punished for the commission of a crime. Research underscores the more significant role that certainty plays in deterrence than severity — it is the certainty of being caught that deters a person from committing crime, not the fear of being punished or the severity of the punishment. Effective policing that leads to swift and certain (but not necessarily severe) sanctions is a better deterrent than the threat of incarceration. In addition, there is no evidence that the deterrent effect increases when the likelihood of conviction increases. Nor is there any evidence that the deterrent effect increases when the likelihood of imprisonment increases.

A person’s age is a powerful factor in deterring crime.

Even those individuals who commit crimes at the highest rates begin to change their criminal behavior as they age. The data show a steep decline at about age 35. [5] A more severe (i.e., lengthy) prison sentence for convicted individuals who are naturally aging out of crime does achieve the goal of punishment and incapacitation. But that incapacitation is a costly way to deter future crimes by aging individuals who already are less likely to commit those crimes by virtue of age.

[note 1] Nagin, Daniel S., "Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century," in Crime and Justice in America: 1975-2025, ed. M. Tonry, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 2013: 199-264. View an abstract .

Opinions or points of view expressed on this site represent a consensus of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The content on this page is not intended to create, does not create, and may not be relied upon to create any rights, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by any party in any matter civil or criminal.

[note 3] Mulvey, Edward P., Highlights from Pathways to Desistance: A Longitudinal Study of Serious Adolescent Offenders (pdf, 4 pages) , Juvenile Justice Fact Sheet, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, March 2011, NCJ 230971.

[note 4] Nagin, Daniel S., Francis T. Cullen and Cheryl Lero Johnson, “Imprisonment and Reoffending,” Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 38, ed. Michael Tonry, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009: 115-200.

[note 5] Sampson, Robert. J., John H. Laub and E.P. Eggleston, “On the Robustness and Validity of Groups,” Journal of Quantitative Criminology 20 (1) (2004): 37-42.

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20 Strategies for Reducing Crime in Cities

John k. roman, october 10, 2023.

Complements, not substitutes, to policing

It is easy to despair of crime in cities. But there is much to be learned from recent history. Two decades of research on the almost everywhere, almost all-at-once, Great American Crime Decline of the 1990s — when violence in America dropped by half in a single decade — finds dozens of evidence-based reasons why crime declined . And overwhelmingly, that research finds that the most effective crime-fighting tools were not explicitly about fighting crime.

In the 1990s, crime declined, among other reasons , because more people had access to Medicaid , better medicines for behavioral health became available, less cash was in circulation and fewer people were poisoned by environmental toxins . And, more evidence-based programs and practices were used in schools , workforce development and public health . Yes, mass incarceration and new policing strategies played a role, but the strongest evidence suggests they explain perhaps one-quarter of the crime decline .

What these explanations have in common is strong empirical evidence and a focus on classical prevention based on the idea that supporting people and strengthening communities is the surest path to widespread safety. There are hundreds of solutions — market-based solutions, medical solutions, structural solutions and behavioral nudges — that can meaningfully reduce the risk of crime and violence without expanding the criminal justice system. Instead of responding to problems, these solutions reduce risk factors and risk conditions and promote resiliency, stopping crime and violence before they happen.

But prevention does not work a la carte and there is no silver bullet, only the hard work of gradual improvements and the challenge of waiting for the longer-term positive outcomes to emerge. Quantity has a quality all its own, and the more of these strategies that are employed, the better the outcomes.

In that spirit, here are 20 crime-reducing strategies that strengthen people and communities and are supported by solid social-science research to reduce crime. The list is here to draw you in.: There are more evidence-based approaches than even this, and even more promising programs being tested. We do not have to settle for 20th-century criminal justice. The vast breadth of available prevention policies and programs should vanquish any one-dimensional view of crime reduction.

A call for non-criminal justice solutions is not a call to defund the police in disguise. These are complements to, not substitutes for, law-enforcement-led strategies. There are numerous evidence-based law enforcement-focused mechanisms that should be a critical part of any public safety proposal. But, if the arc from Michael Brown to George Floyd taught America anything, it is that we must move beyond law enforcement working in isolation to find justice and safety.

The 20 Strategies 1. Help Victims of Crime There is far too little support for victims of crime, even though it is the most obvious place to start. Prior victimization — of a person or a place — is the top predictor of future victimization . Supporting people who have been victimized from being victimized again — through social supports and target - hardening — has enormous potential for positive change. 2. Reduce Demand for Law Enforcement A central reason why law enforcement does not prevent more crime or solve more crimes is that they are too busy doing things that accomplish neither objective. If the police were called less often for unproductive reasons, there would be less under-policing — and less over-policing as well. If cities and towns set the explicit goal of having people call the police less often, law enforcement would be more efficient at taking on the tasks that remain. 3. Fixing Distressed Spaces There is a wide body of evidence that shows that places poison people more routinely than people poison places. Crime does not result from “areas” of the “inner city” being high risk, but rather from a few very small, very bad places . Concentrated efforts to improve contagious places can build resiliency across neighborhoods. 4. Making Crime Attractors Less Appealing Certain places attract and generate crime — schools , the built environment and bars being at the top of the list. More often than not, careful planning and implementation of best practices in situational crime prevention can reduce the harms they unintentionally generate and, in the case of schools and transit, unlock their potential for guardianship. 5. Scientific Supports for Law Enforcement Police in the United States would benefit from increased reliance on civilians in two realms: translating scientific evidence into practice , and increasing their reliance on civilian analysts to study local policing practices . In particular, if law enforcement was aided by more civilian analysts who were better trained , crime would be reduced while the footprint of policing was reduced. 6. Improving the Job Market and Job Training The relationship between jobs and crime is far more complex than in the popular imagination — higher national-level unemployment rates, for example, do not seem to increase violence . But targeted programs can have large effects. Integrating social and emotional skills training into employment training for young people has solid evidence of effectiveness as does employment planning for people returning from prison and transitional jobs for high risk people . 7. Facilitate Neighborhood Non-Profits In his excellent book ”Uneasy Peace,” Professor Patrick Sharkey reports on a study that found that for each 10 additional nonprofits in a given city, the violent crime rate is reduced by 14% (in the study period between 1990 and 2013). It should come as no surprise that access to more and better services has positive effects. Local government can aid the development of these local assets by providing funding for hyper-local community projects. 8. Make Jails and Prison Less Criminogenic We have overwhelmingly designed our jails and prisons to prevent people from gaining the skills to work and maintain their sobriety when they go home , and cut them off from their most crime-reducing assets, their family and friends. Small investments in humanity yield large returns when jails and prisons are not designed to produce more crime. 9. Better Prepare People to Return Home from Prison People returning from prison need specific supports to facilitate a successful transition – 82% of people released from prison are rearrested within 10 years. And the solutions are simple — leaving facilities with an ID , prescriptions , a place to stay , a way to get started . A goal without a plan is a wish — people should leave prison with a plan and the supports to implement that plan. 10. Fund Community-Based Violence Interruption A growing body of evidence finds that credible messengers — individuals with lived experience — coupled with psychosocial services can prevent retaliatory violence and repeat victimization. But this is a new sector and will need time and space to learn and grow. 11. Use Technology to Reduce Violence Professor Graham Farrell argues convincingly that increases in security technology (such as engine immobilizers and cameras) in the 1990s were the only universal explanation for the universal decline in crime. There is much more that can be done using technology without imposing on civil liberties: text message reminders for court and probation appearances , databases to maintain records on police officers with histories of abuse and anti-crime features on ordinary consumer products are just the start. 12. Tackle the Causes and Consequences of Poverty Poverty drives crime and violence in numerous ways beyond a simple lack of income, through weakened social bonds . A number of important policies have been successfully piloted but not fully implemented by state and local government. These are the big-ticket items — child poverty tax credits , whole-school anti-bullying programs , expanding Medicaid — that have the biggest crime reduction benefits. But the benefits outweigh the costs for dozens of policies and programs . 13. Fix Long-Standing Problems Problems often persist because they have high costs, a lack of immediacy and declining political constituency — but these perpetual problems are often the key risk condition causing crime in a place to persist. Unhealthy homes , lead paint and pipes , and under-resourced foster care all promote crime. 14. Shorten the Reach of the Criminal Justice System Too many financial burdens are imposed on people with low risk to public safety, creating a cycle of debt and incarceration , the latter which increases violence through stigma , criminal capital accumulation and a disruption of social bonds . Removing those conditions by clearing old warrants and convictions , reducing toxic fines and fees and ending poverty traps would prevent crime. 15. Help Those with Substance-Use Disorders In the 1990s and 2000s, with trepidation, the justice system began treating substance-use disorders as a disease rather than a crime. Expansion in the broadest of these interventions – problem-solving courts and in-prison substance use treatment — largely ended more than a decade ago. Many extremely useful ideas have been piloted — trauma-informed care , motivational interviewing , treating withdrawal in prison — but few were ever taken fully to scale. Those foundations are ready-made to build upon. 16. Support Programs for High-Risk Young People and Families A lot of criminology is concerned with bending the criminal trajectory curve — to keep adolescents from accelerating their delinquency or failing to desist as they age — and a huge body of scholarship has contributed to numerous model programs. From prenatal programs , to social and emotional learning , to programs for high-risk adolescents , there is a tremendous base of knowledge. 17. Education Improving education is its own crime-reducing category, but schools can facilitate crime reduction outside of schools. Reducing food insecurity , humanizing discipline and improving the safety of the school commute benefit everyone. 18. Housing Like education, housing is its own category beyond the scope of this essay. But there are housing solutions with specific crime-reducing benefits: permanent, supportive housing ; transitional housing for young people leaving homelessness; and housing programs specifically for people who cycle through emergency services . 19. Policy and Law There are any number of laws and regulations that could be tweaked to meaningfully reduce crime and victimization. For example, higher taxes that specifically target the overuse of criminogenic products like guns and alcohol have been shown to reduce excess demand. 20. Stop the Proliferation of Firearms The link between firearms and violence is ironclad — the more guns, the more crime. More guns explain much of the difference in rates of violence between the U.S and peer nations. Fixing violence in the U.S. without addressing the gun problem, which is to say ensuring fewer potentially dangerous people have easy access to weapons, is embracing half-measures. Next steps The next step in strengthening people and communities is for the evidence-making industry to think beyond one intervention at a time. What we need is classical policy analysis that considers the choices faced by lawmakers in the presence of budget constraints. That means embracing cost-effective evidence-based prevention over expensive remediation, and programs that lift as many people as possible and leave behind far fewer than we do today. We need to embrace science and evidence, to think holistically and comprehensively and to stop thinking of crime and violence as a problem that can only be addressed through police and prisons. In medicine, we learn that our first line of defense is a catchall triage — some exercise, a better diet and more sleep are the cure for a vast array of simple problems before they become serious. In economics, we learn that simple nudges can motivate better choices. In public health, we can learn that a small early change in trend and trajectory today has enormous long-term benefits. All of these lessons await discovery in the public safety sector. John K. Roman is a senior fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago. He also serves as the co-Director of the National Prevention Science Coalition. Up next...

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Essay: WHAT IS CRIME? Crime prevention and crime reduction

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Crime is any action or offence that defies a state or country and is punishable by law. Crime has many definitions. In fact the most common thing about these definitions is that crime is punishable. Crime cuts across many disciplines such as sociology, psychology and criminology. Each of these disciplines try to explain why crime is committed and how people are compelled to commit crime, a good example is sociology. Sociology attributes crime due to poor socialization in society, while psychology attributes crime mainly due to biological and Pathological criminogenic behaviors. Many scholars have tried to define crime and each has given many reasons why crime is committed. Scholars such Cesare Lombroso attribute crime to biological anomalies while scholars like Edwin Sutherland claim that criminal behavior is learned. Generally all these come, to the same conclusions that crime is an offence punishable by law. There are two main types of crime, these include violent crimes and property crime. Violent crime constitutes when someone decides to harm, threaten and conspire against someone else while property crime constitute someone who damages, destroys or steals someone’s property. Both violent and property crimes are offences which involve force and damage to society. There are different types of punishing crime, the most common typologies are retribution, restorative justice, general and specific deterrence, rehabilitation and just deserts. Crime punishment has been there since the beginning of time, theoldesttype of punishment was retribution. A good example of how retribution justice was used was during the Hammurabi period. In those days if crime was committed it constituted an eye for an eye. If I killed someone my punishment would be death. No one was spared. Justice was viewed differently. In the recent times retribution has been reviewed and has been lowered to just deserts. The punishment is still harsh but considers many factors at hand, such as the state of mindof the offender. Crime has been there for a long time and has been defined and been punished in different ways. What constitutes a crime has also been reviewed .what was viewed a crime in the previous times is not a crime now. A good example is freedom of worship. Many people were not allowed to worship any other gods and did it secrecy due to fear of prosecution and being labeled a heretic. In present times one is allowed to worship any god and believe in whoever they please. Generallycrime is a wide topic and has been vigorously studied in different aspects butin this essay I am going to focus mainly on the major objectives of crime prevention, typologies of crime reduction, law enforcement and crime, recidivism of crime and interventions on reduction of crime. 2.0 OBJECTIVES OF CRIME PREVENTIONAND CRIME REDUCTION Crime prevention includes reducing and deterring crime and criminals from committing crimes. Crime reduction is quite similar to crime prevention, for crime reduction to occur we need to prevent it at first. Crime prevention strategies are usually implemented by criminal justice agencies, individuals, businesses and non-governmental agencies in order to maintain order and enforce the law. Crime prevention strategies not only deter crime but also reduce the risk of increasing victimization in the society.Crime prevention has many objectives but the most main objective is to reduce and deter crime. Many criminal justice agencies have developed strategies through public policy in order to prevent crime. Various models have been adopted by countries in order to combat crime. Kenya for example has enforced the Nyumbakumi initiative (community policing) spear headed by Kaguthi in order to combat crime. By this strategy neighbors are supposed to be readily aw e and watchful of what happens in the neighborhood in order to deter criminals from committing crimes. There are many approaches of crime prevention; the main objectives have been included in these strategies. These strategies are situational crime prevention strategy, environmental crime prevention, social crime prevention, developmental crime prevention, policing strategies, and community crime prevention strategies. The environmental prevention strategy was first introduced by C. Ray Jeffery a criminologist. Environmental crime prevention strategy main objective is to protect the environment which entails wildlife, Nature and the atmosphere. Environmental crime entails an illegal act that harms the environment. Many international bodies such as Interpol and the UN have recognized environmental crime due to the havoc it has causedthe environment, Types of environmental crime may include dumping hazardous waste in the ocean, illegal wild life trade of endangered species, smuggling, emitting chemicals those ozone layer and illegal logging of trees. There many crimes associated with environmental crime but I am going to focus on the two main which affect many countries which is illegal trade of wildlife and logging of tress. Many counties have been trying to fight this crime. Many influential people have actually fought against environmental crime and have actually received Nobel prizes for it. The late Wangari Maathai who was an activist for the environment was highly against illegal logging of trees. In fact she proposed that for every tree that was cut down, three should beplanted. Prevention strategies have been implemented in order to combat crime. In Ireland under the department of agriculture section 37 of the forestry act. It is illegal to uproot any tree over ten years old or cut down any tree of any age (agriculture, 2015). Illegal wildlife trade is also a major problem. Kenya has had this problem for years, being one of the countries that harbors endangered species such as the white rhino and elephants. It has faced a lot of problems in trying to combat this problem. Many poachers are killing these animals and selling the tusks of these animals for high prices. Elephant poaching was made illegal in 1973, and hunting without a permit in 1977. Kenya has roughened sentencing through increasing fines.Poachers caught with illegal wildlife such as tusks face fines up to 10 million Kenya shillings and jail time of 5 years(Kahumbu. 2013).Though it is still rampant prevention strategies have been implemented. Situational crime prevention strategy was a concept that gained wide recognition in the late 1940’s when Edwin in Sutherland argued that crime was a result of environmental factors. Hebelieved that crime was learned. Situational crime prevention strategy is deeply rooted in theories such as routine activity theory, crime pattern theory and rational choice theory. Situational crime prevention strategy focuses on mainly reducing crime by providing settings in which it is less conducive for criminals to attack. Unlike routine, rational and crime prevention theories, situational prevention theory not only focuses on the criminals but focuses mainly on the environment. A good example of how criminal justice agencies have applied this strategy is by ensuring that their heavy surveillance in the cities in order to deter criminals from committing crimes. In Kenya the Government has installed cameras on the traffic lights in order to record criminal activity and find corrupt road traffic users (Okere, 2012). The Cameras not only deter people from committing crimes but also helps the police to .find culprits who may commit a crime and get away with it. A study done in Nairobi by Stephen Okere found out that 85.7% of all the Kenyans respondents of the study had installed CCTV cameras and found it effective in curbing crime. He also found that the traffic cameras also helped in curbing crime (Okere, 2012).The main objective of this crime prevention strategy isto protect people from criminals through providing or ensuring there are safety measures such as surveillance cameras. Social crime prevention is a strategy that addresses the direct root causes of crime. The main objective of social crime prevention is on the social elements that have lead people to commit this crimes, these elements may include breakdown in familyvalues and ignorance. Lack of cohesion and environmental conditions. Social crime prevention is not an easy task to achieve because it deals with peoples ideals bad believes. The only way to create a society that is peaceful is to start from the beginning. This means ensuring that schooling from young age is given much importance. A good example of how governments have done this is by ensuring that the curriculum in nursery schools teaches children values of what wrong and what is right. There are many ways of how social crime prevention can be achieved, through changing values at home through public education and encouraging the community to be the agent of social change in their own communities. Developmental crime prevention focuses on how crime occurs; the mainobjective of this strategy is show how crime develops and causes victimization in society. Developmental crime prevention strategy is used by many countries. Public education is one of the approaches that have been used. By using public education many people are taught and developed in to young abiding citizens rather than criminals. Communities may also focus on helping teachers to be an integral part in developing self-control in young people. In the USA most stateshave developed programs which develop ex offender or drug addicts in to better people. They engage in social programs and help them achieve GEDS in order to get a better life. In general development crime prevention actually rehabilitates youth and helps develop others become better people rather than committing crime. Policing strategies are also crucial in crime prevention. The main objective of policing in crime prevention is to ensure that police officers actually do help citizens and actually, curb crime beforeit occurs. Policing should be proactive. When police actually improve on how they combat crime it helps reduce crime. Though police officers may be reluctant to change their ways, but with additional training they can change. In order to reduce crime policing should be an important aspect. Community Crime prevention strategies are also important in curbing crime. The main objective of this strategy is to ensure that the community and police actually work together in order to prevent crime. By the community being involved in everything it helps reduce crime. Most countries have actually adopted this model. Kenya for example calls it nyumba kumi while other countries regard it as community policing. By the community and the police being involved it helps curb crime because the police are not working alone but are working hand in hand to ensure safety. Community crime prevention strategy can be very effective if the relationship between the citizen and the police is cordial. If it is not, this approach can be very hard to achieve. By societies using all these models of crime prevention, reduction of crime actually occurs. Crime reduction cannot occur if the government and criminal justice agencies are not doing anything about it. If you look at countries that have high crime, the criminal justice agency and government are weak, and corruption is common. Such countries are run by cartels who engage in organized crime. Organized crime also tends to be present in countries that have strong criminal justice systems, but the difference between the two is that they are not strong as they are in failed states or weak countries. Guinea-Bissau for example which faces a lot corruption has made it easier for organized crime flourish. In April 2007 the authorizes of Guinea-Bissau managed to seize 635 kilograms of cocaine , unfortunately the drug traffickers managed to escape with 2.5 tons of drugs because the police could not catch up with them (Mutume, 2007). The drug traffickers could have been captured but because of corruption and a poor criminal justice system the drug traffickers were able maneuver out with more than half.

Crime prevention and limitations Crime analysis is understood as the systematic study of crime and disorder problems as well as other police-related issues (Santos). It is important to include sociodemographic, spatial, and mundane factors to assist in criminal apprehension, crime reduction, and crime prevention. It is used primarily as information so that personnel, from patrol officers to police chiefs, have an idea of when and where crime is occurring and how much it has overall occurred. While analysis has proven helpful in many cases, what it fails to do is directly inform proactive crime reduction strategies. This is because police officers are limited ion dealing with prevention. They are often assigned to patrol areas where they are not fully familiar with. They may not fully understand the social structure and norms that fuel the neighborhood and the actions of its residents. While crime analysis was once focused primarily on tactical issues of identifying offenders, discrimination and stereotyping led to social unrest and led to other tactics of crime prevention. With the stop and frisk campaign in new York, where the police had the right to stop an individual and frisk them for any sort of weapons, drugs or paraphernalia, it became apparent hat innocent young blacks were not being targeted, but were having their rights infringed upon. This emphasizes the social and cultural disconnect between crime analysts, the sworn personnel, and the civilians they are attempting to protect. These became a blurred line between the officers’ role of protecting and harassing innocent civilians. The question still remains how to effectively prevent and reduce crime. Crime analysis and crime mapping are becoming more common, but they are primarily implemented in larger police agencies. Areas that have statistically needed more protection have been given more policing depending on the capacity of the police in the district. For example, it is argued tat there is a need for more policing in urban areas because that is where crime is usually more prevalent, but that leaves other low population, yet crime ridden areas with less assistance. Despite this all, policing is occasionally being shifted to focus more on ‘hot spots,’ areas where crime is more prevalent. The close monitoring has o an extent been able to deter crime, but that again depends on the stance of the offender and what they have to lose from their potential criminal transaction. Do they work? While in an ideal world all crime prevention efforts would work, that is not the case in the society that we live in today. Crime and its prevention vary depending on the environment of where the crime is happening. The demographics, the socioeconomic status of the people, and the relationships within the community all factor into crime and its prevention. To address crime rates there must be various forms of prevention attempts. From the research conducted, it is evident that incarceration is limited in its effectiveness of crime prevention and reduction. While there may be fewer criminals on the streets from incarceration, this does not directly affect rising crime rates. Given that about two thirds of criminals in the U.S. return to prison, incarceration only proves to be a temporary fix. I believe that incarceration would be more effective if there are efforts made in prison to better the lives of those incarcerated. Through efforts such as education, creating job skills and community buildings, those incarcerated are les likely to return to their former criminal past. This has the ability to create crime prevention and reduction in the long run. I also believe that random patrol and reactive arrests used responses to a community’s demand are generally effective, policing in areas where crime is more prevalent makes it easier to identify problems within a community. It develops tailored responses in a timely manner so that crime can be controlled, reduced, and prevented. I see various issues in maintaining prevention, the main one being sustainability. Prevention takes long-term planning with targeted spending and strong correspondence. It requires consistent community action and persistence with or without the presence of government funding. Without flexibility crime cannot be prevented or reduced. Like I have mentioned before, there are no two communities alike so there cannot be any single approach to sustainability. It is up to the individual communities and organizations to determine appropriate strategies and implement them. I agree with the World Health Organization and the understanding that creating and implementing and monitoring a national action plan for violence prevention would be effective. In order to do so, the issues of funding must be addressed. I believe that the federal and local government should invent in testing method of policing in order to raise awareness and reduce crime. To keep time rates low, there is a need to enhance the capacity of data collection on violence. That way, the issues that need to be addressed are apparent. When looking at issues and crimes within a community, it is important to examine the causes. Consequences and costs for prevention as well as reduction. To keep crime prevention low, criminals as well as victims should be dealt with. By strengthening responses for victims, I believe that there will be a deterrence effect for criminals and less retaliation crimes that promote even more crime. I also believe that integrating crime prevention into social and educational policies has the ability to reduce crime by promoting social equality.

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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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Crime As A Social Problem: How To Write An Essay?

Table of Contents

Nevertheless, the key to solving the problem lays deeply in it and only through research of every aspect of the problem it can be found. That is exactly why this topic is so popular! You have endless scopes to discover, various information to collect, numerous questions to find answers to, and freedom to compose any personal topic dealing with crime.

But still, all essays on crime are similar to their aim – to discover and to help. You need to realize that any cause-effect connections you may find can indeed help to understand the problem better, develop new methods of preventing, reducing or dealing with crimes and criminals and reveal many other useful things.

How to write crime essay?

Writing an essay on crime is almost the same as writing any other essay. However, remember that you need to be extremely precise with the information you include in your essay – it’s better to check the trustworthiness and accuracy of everything you decided to take on the Internet. What’s more, it is a good idea to rely on statistics and numbers.

Moreover, it is better to choose a specific topic for your essay – that’s how you make it informative and newsworthy. Picking too broad topic will result in writing about everything and nothing. At the same time, choosing a narrow topic may be difficult to write due to the lack of available information.

So, analyze your topic and find the golden middle. These are the main differences in a crime essay.

Here are some basic recommendations:

Come up with the topic – not too narrow, not too broad, most importantly – interesting for you.
Write an outline and stick to it – any essay needs to be structured both for easier writing and for better perception.
Be interested in what you write about.

The best structure for the essay on crime

Any essay should contain three parts – introduction, main body, and conclusion. They may also consist of paragraphs for better understanding while reading. So when you have finally decided on your topic, it is nice to make an outline – it is where all parts of your essay will be highlighted.

Here is a free example of an outline for the essay “Correlations of criminal behavior”:

1. Introduction – here you present all the background information needed to understand your ideas, it is the basis of your research. You may also give some definitions if needed.

2. The main body – to state all your ideas.

Gender – discover who does more crimes, men or women. Try to explain or find explanations for the question “why”.
Race and immigration – examine people of which race is more likely than others committing crimes. Also, explore how can the status of immigrant influence criminality.
Early life – enumerate which factors in early life may be associated with committing crimes later. These may include trauma, family size and relations, alcohol and drug addiction in the family, bullying, low school performance, and many others.
Religion – there are a few studies about how religiosity may influence criminality. Discover whether religion increase or decrease crime, how and why. Maybe, different religions have different effects.
Political ideology – explore various political ideologies and how they encourage people to behave themselves. Are there any which obviously push people into committing a crime?
Psychological traits – explain how psychological background may influence a person. Describe some mental illnesses which may make people aggressive and destructive. Find some statistics to prove your statements.
Socioeconomic factors – examine people of which social or economic status are more prone to commit a crime, why? Explain also how the economic situation in family, city, and country may influence criminality. You may even write a poverty and crime essay.

3. Conclusion – make a derivation of everything you have stated. Keep in mind that no new ideas or statements are needed here.

4. References – add a list of the sources you have used in your essay (if needed).

Causes of crime essay

It is doubtless that the government and authorities try to prevent crimes (which is a great idea, by the way!).

Nevertheless, it is still occurring.

The problem with this is that the majority of people can’t understand where it all comes from. To cope with the problem we need to spread the awareness of why crime is done because “just insanity” isn’t usually the answer.

If you decided to write such an essay, here are some ideas for you to consider in your essay:

Physical abnormalities – it is still believed that people who encounter some features of appearance are more likely to commit a crime. It is stated that these people have smaller heads, bigger jaws, and ears and are of a certain weight and height. Another determining factor is race.
Mental illnesses and psychological disorders – there are some illnesses which make people generally more aggressive.
Social and economic factors – it is a well-known fact that people of lower social status commit more crimes. The same is with the economy – the poorer the country is, the more crime is committed.
Income and education – it was revealed that educated people are less likely to commit a crime compared to those who are uneducated. What is more, unemployment is regarded as one of the most widespread reasons for crime.
White-collar crime – it is a prevalent crime among deputies and high officials. They include bribery, abuse of status, bureaucracy, and others.

Hate crime essay: what’s best to cover?

Hate crime is committed against a group of people or someone who belongs to it. As a rule, race and religion are the main factors. Hate crime itself is a violent act towards a person or a group of people due to their affiliation with a group or organization.

Thousands of people all around the world are suffering since they just profess the religion someone doesn’t like, have another color of skin or encounter some even less noticeable differences. Consider writing a does the death penalty deter crime essay in this context.

Thus this type of crime is indeed worth highlighting. Here is a free sample for you to pick some ideas.

Cybercrime essay: several hints

Cybercrime is a relatively new problem which develops with the Internet and technologies. Only fifteen years ago there wasn’t such a problem. However, it is expected that the global cost of cybercrime will surmount $6 trillion!

Most widespread types of cybercrime include fraud, hacking, identity theft, scamming, computer viruses, ransomware, DDoS attack, botnets, spamming, phishing, social engineering, malvertising, cyberstalking, software piracy, cyberbullying and many others.

This is why the topic is really up-to-date. So you may look through this free example to know where to begin this broad topic.

Final thoughts

All in all, crime is a newsworthy scope to explore and write essays on. Unfortunately, crimes are constantly occurring, and there are lots of information and statistics you may need to discover some specific questions.

Don’t hesitate to examine something you’re really interested in, no matter how “important” it is considered! Good luck!

Can’t wait to fight all the crime around the globe? We’ll help! Order your perfect essay on crime and cut yourself free for anything you have on your mind.

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Essay 269 – The best way to reduce crime in society

Gt writing task 2 / essay sample # 269.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Some people think that the best way to reduce crime in society is to give longer prison sentences to offenders. Others think that there are better alternatives to reduce crime.

Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer:

People remain deeply divided when it comes to their opinion on punishing offenders and decreasing crime in society. Many believe that the most useful tool for curbing crime in society is to punish criminals by sentencing them to longer periods, whereas others believe there are more effective instruments for reducing crime. This essay will discuss both views, but I believe a short prison sentence with active community service and education programmes for offenders are the most useful steps to beat crime.

The advocates of longer prison sentences believe that it effectively cuts the crime rate in society. They go on arguing that long term imprisonment is more effective in reducing crime since it keeps criminals away from society while offering convicts enough time to ponder on what they have done wrong and how they can become better citizens once they are out of prison. Moreover, the thought of going back to jail is a motivator to dissuade them from committing further crimes. Interestingly, not only them but people in their circle are also scared of violating laws in the future when longer prison sentences are in place. Thus, the threat of longer prison time will deter crimes in society.

Others, on the contrary, argue that there are far better measures to beat crimes in society. One of the most prominent alternatives would be engaging convicts in community services. It offers an opportunity for the criminals to observe the damage caused by their crime. In addition, community services also provide the offenders with a constructive means of repairing the damage brought forth by their offence. This, in turn, can evoke responsibility for their actions, thereby averting them from committing further offences. According to the Bureau of Crime statistics and research study, for example, community service is more effective than incarcerating criminals.

In my opinion, however, the best approach to reducing crime is short prison sentences and education programmes along with community services. This is because it enhances skills to compete in the labour market; consequently helping previously imprisoned persons lead a decent life. This, in turn, reduces recidivism. For example, a growing body of studies suggests that an education scheme with a short prison sentence reduces the crime rate substantially by decreasing recidivism.

In conclusion, there are far more effective ways to tackle crimes in society than longer prison sentences. However, short prison periods with an education scheme are the most effective instrument for reducing crimes.

One Comment to “Essay 269 – The best way to reduce crime in society”

Also, we can stop crime by creating job opportunities for those with abilities in different fields regadless of their educational qualification.

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Cyber Crime Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on cyber crime.

Cyber Crime Essay – Everybody thinks that only stealing someone’s private data is Cyber Crime. But in defining terms we can say that ‘Cyber Crime refers to the use of an electronic device (computer, laptop, etc.) for stealing someone’s data or trying to harm them using a computer.

Besides, it is an illegal activity that involves a series of issues ranging from theft to using your system or IP address as a tool for committing a crime.

Types of Cyber Crime

Speaking in a broadway we can say that Cyber Crime are categorized into four major types. These are Financial, Privacy, Hacking, and Cyber Terrorism.

The financial crime they steal the money of user or account holders. Likewise, they also stole data of companies which can lead to financial crimes. Also, transactions are heavily risked because of them. Every year hackers stole lakhs and crores of rupees of businessmen and government.

Privacy crime includes stealing your private data which you do not want to share with the world. Moreover, due to it, the people suffer a lot and some even commit suicide because of their data’s misuse.

In, hacking they intentional deface a website to cause damage or loss to the public or owner. Apart from that, they destroy or make changes in the existing websites to diminish its value.

Modern-day terrorism has grown way beyond what it was 10-20 years ago. But cyber terrorism is not just related to terrorists or terrorist organizations. But to threat some person or property to the level of creating fear is also Cyber Terrorism.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Cyber Crime in India

Web world or cyberspace is a massive community of millions and billions of users and websites. Also, people access it for different uses like shopping, movies, music, video games, transactions, and e-commerce, etc.

In this Age of Technology and easy access to the internet, anyone can easily reach it. Because of this fast pace growth from the previous decade. Besides, the internet has opened a world of information on which anyone can connect.

Due to, this the rate of crime especially the rate of Cyber Crime has increased much fold. Moreover, the rate of circulation of data is also increased much fold due to the higher speed of internet. Above all, due to all these issues, the Cybersecurity has become a major concern for society.

Laws related to Cyber Crimes

To stop the spread of Cyber Crime and to safeguard the interest of people the government has made several laws related to Cyber Crimes. Also, these laws serve as protection against Cyber Crime. Apart from that, the government has also introduced cyber cells in police stations to counter the problem of Cyber Crime as fast as they can.

Ways of stopping Cyber Crime

Cyber Crime is not something which we cannot deal with our self. Likewise, with little use of our common sense and logic, we can stop Cyber Crimes from happening.

To conclude, we can say that Cyber Crime is a dangerous offense to someone’s privacy or any material. Also, we can avoid Cyber Crime by following some basic logical things and using our common sense. Above all, Cyber Crime is a violation of not only law but of human rights too.

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Guest Essay

What Sentencing Could Look Like if Trump Is Found Guilty

A black-and-white photo of Donald Trump, standing behind a metal barricade.

By Norman L. Eisen

Mr. Eisen is the author of “Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial.”

For all the attention to and debate over the unfolding trial of Donald Trump in Manhattan, there has been surprisingly little of it paid to a key element: its possible outcome and, specifically, the prospect that a former and potentially future president could be sentenced to prison time.

The case — brought by Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, against Mr. Trump — represents the first time in our nation’s history that a former president is a defendant in a criminal trial. As such, it has generated lots of debate about the case’s legal strength and integrity, as well as its potential impact on Mr. Trump’s efforts to win back the White House.

A review of thousands of cases in New York that charged the same felony suggests something striking: If Mr. Trump is found guilty, incarceration is an actual possibility. It’s not certain, of course, but it is plausible.

Jury selection has begun, and it’s not too soon to talk about what the possibility of a sentence, including a prison sentence, would look like for Mr. Trump, for the election and for the country — including what would happen if he is re-elected.

The case focuses on alleged interference in the 2016 election, which consisted of a hush-money payment Michael Cohen, the former president’s fixer at the time, made in 2016 to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. Mr. Bragg is arguing that the cover-up cheated voters of the chance to fully assess Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

This may be the first criminal trial of a former president in American history, but if convicted, Mr. Trump’s fate is likely to be determined by the same core factors that guide the sentencing of every criminal defendant in New York State Court.

Comparable cases. The first factor is the base line against which judges measure all sentences: how other defendants have been treated for similar offenses. My research encompassed almost 10,000 cases of felony falsifying business records that have been prosecuted across the state of New York since 2015. Over a similar period, the Manhattan D.A. has charged over 400 of these cases . In roughly the first year of Mr. Bragg’s tenure, his team alone filed 166 felony counts for falsifying business records against 34 people or companies.

Contrary to claims that there will be no sentence of incarceration for falsifying business records, when a felony conviction involves serious misconduct, defendants can be sentenced to some prison time. My analysis of the most recent data indicates that approximately one in 10 cases in which the most serious charge at arraignment is falsifying business records in the first degree and in which the court ultimately imposes a sentence, results in a term of imprisonment.

To be clear, these cases generally differ from Mr. Trump’s case in one important respect: They typically involve additional charges besides just falsifying records. That clearly complicates what we might expect if Mr. Trump is convicted.

Nevertheless, there are many previous cases involving falsifying business records along with other charges where the conduct was less serious than is alleged against Mr. Trump and prison time was imposed. For instance, Richard Luthmann was accused of attempting to deceive voters — in his case, impersonating New York political figures on social media in an attempt to influence campaigns. He pleaded guilty to three counts of falsifying business records in the first degree (as well as to other charges). He received a sentence of incarceration on the felony falsification counts (although the sentence was not solely attributable to the plea).

A defendant in another case was accused of stealing in excess of $50,000 from her employer and, like in this case, falsifying one or more invoices as part of the scheme. She was indicted on a single grand larceny charge and ultimately pleaded guilty to one felony count of business record falsification for a false invoice of just under $10,000. She received 364 days in prison.

To be sure, for a typical first-time offender charged only with run-of-the-mill business record falsification, a prison sentence would be unlikely. On the other hand, Mr. Trump is being prosecuted for 34 counts of conduct that might have changed the course of American history.

Seriousness of the crime. Mr. Bragg alleges that Mr. Trump concealed critical information from voters (paying hush money to suppress an extramarital relationship) that could have harmed his campaign, particularly if it came to light after the revelation of another scandal — the “Access Hollywood” tape . If proved, that could be seen not just as unfortunate personal judgment but also, as Justice Juan Merchan has described it, an attempt “to unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election.”

History and character. To date, Mr. Trump has been unrepentant about the events alleged in this case. There is every reason to believe that will not change even if he is convicted, and lack of remorse is a negative at sentencing. Justice Merchan’s evaluation of Mr. Trump’s history and character may also be informed by the other judgments against him, including Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling that Mr. Trump engaged in repeated and persistent business fraud, a jury finding that he sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll and a related defamation verdict by a second jury.

Justice Merchan may also weigh the fact that Mr. Trump has been repeatedly held in contempt , warned , fined and gagged by state and federal judges. That includes for statements he made that exposed witnesses, individuals in the judicial system and their families to danger. More recently, Mr. Trump made personal attacks on Justice Merchan’s daughter, resulting in an extension of the gag order in the case. He now stands accused of violating it again by commenting on witnesses.

What this all suggests is that a term of imprisonment for Mr. Trump, while far from certain for a former president, is not off the table. If he receives a sentence of incarceration, perhaps the likeliest term is six months, although he could face up to four years, particularly if Mr. Trump chooses to testify, as he said he intends to do , and the judge believes he lied on the stand . Probation is also available, as are more flexible approaches like a sentence of spending every weekend in jail for a year.

We will probably know what the judge will do within 30 to 60 days of the end of the trial, which could run into mid-June. If there is a conviction, that would mean a late summer or early fall sentencing.

Justice Merchan would have to wrestle in the middle of an election year with the potential impact of sentencing a former president and current candidate.

If Mr. Trump is sentenced to a period of incarceration, the reaction of the American public will probably be as polarized as our divided electorate itself. Yet as some polls suggest — with the caveat that we should always be cautious of polls early in the race posing hypothetical questions — many key swing state voters said they would not vote for a felon.

If Mr. Trump is convicted and then loses the presidential election, he will probably be granted bail, pending an appeal, which will take about a year. That means if any appeals are unsuccessful, he will most likely have to serve any sentence starting sometime next year. He will be sequestered with his Secret Service protection; if it is less than a year, probably in Rikers Island. His protective detail will probably be his main company, since Mr. Trump will surely be isolated from other inmates for his safety.

If Mr. Trump wins the presidential election, he can’t pardon himself because it is a state case. He will be likely to order the Justice Department to challenge his sentence, and department opinions have concluded that a sitting president could not be imprisoned, since that would prevent the president from fulfilling the constitutional duties of the office. The courts have never had to address the question, but they could well agree with the Justice Department.

So if Mr. Trump is convicted and sentenced to a period of incarceration, its ultimate significance is probably this: When the American people go to the polls in November, they will be voting on whether Mr. Trump should be held accountable for his original election interference.

What questions do you have about Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial so far?

Please submit them below. Our trial experts will respond to a selection of readers in a future piece.

Norman L. Eisen investigated the 2016 voter deception allegations as counsel for the first impeachment and trial of Donald Trump and is the author of “Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

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The Purpose of Punishment: Deterrence and Incapacitation

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As a student, the way I help in crime prevention: Always know the situation and know the environment. Talk to law enforcement in my area. Use media to focus attention. EXPLANATION: 1. Always know the situation and know the environment. Knowledge is a very powerful tool in the fight against crime. The education of a wide variety of individuals ...
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8.6 Reducing Crime
The intent of these laws, enacted by about half the states and the federal government, is to reduce crime by keeping dangerous offenders behind bars for many years and by deterring potential offenders from committing crime ( general deterrence ). Sufficient time since the first three strikes laws were passed has elapsed to enable criminologists ...
Essay on Crime Prevention
Crime prevention can be very effective. It can reduce crime rates and make communities safer places to live. It can also save money by reducing the costs associated with crime, like police work and court costs. In conclusion, crime prevention is a crucial part of maintaining peace and safety in our communities.
Your Role in Preventing Crime
Your Role in Preventing Crime. We need community members to actively assist us in maintaining a safe and secure campus for all students, faculty, and staff. To do this we suggest the following: Voice concerns about crime and disorder problems. Don't wait until crimes occur or problems get out of control. Raise your concerns to an officer.
Five Things About Deterrence
Deterrence — the crime prevention effects of the threat of punishment — is a theory of choice in which individuals balance the benefits and costs of crime. In his 2013 essay, "Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century," Daniel S. Nagin succinctly summarized the current state of theory and empirical knowledge about deterrence.
Ways to prevent crime
Create and enforce laws such as fines and jail time, that prevent people from committing crimes out of fear of punishment. Localise programs for those struggling with addiction or mental health. Educate school students on the dangers of crime.
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Crime is understood by society as an offence carried out by an individual whom is expected to be then punished by the law. Crime prevention strategies seek to measure the potential impact of crime on an individual and within society, therefore, the importance of effective prevention methods provide a safe and secure environment for society to improve with.
Vital City
It is easy to despair of crime in cities. But there is much to be learned from recent history. Two decades of research on the almost everywhere, almost all-at-once, Great American Crime Decline of the 1990s — when violence in America dropped by half in a single decade — finds dozens of evidence-based reasons why crime declined.And overwhelmingly, that research finds that the most effective ...
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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 ...
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Essay On Crime Prevention. 1102 Words5 Pages. To start off, there are several approaches that are taken to prevent crimes from organizations such as law enforcement, corrections, courts, family and the community. Crimes can be caused by a number of factors such as psychological, environmental or even social. In order to properly reduce the rate ...
Crime As A Social Problem: How To Write An Essay?
Here is a free example of an outline for the essay "Correlations of criminal behavior": 1. Introduction - here you present all the background information needed to understand your ideas, it is the basis of your research. You may also give some definitions if needed. 2. The main body - to state all your ideas.
Descriptive Essay on education is the key to reduce crime
Education prevents crime by first, keeping teenagers and the youth busy as they engage with school work. Education is also able to instil a new thinking in the mindset of an individual. Individuals are able to analyse and correlate the impact of their current decisions-actions-and the future.
To prevent Crime, it's each individual's responsibility to
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You might add a counterpoint here. 1. However, crime still exists and can be countered by addressing the deeper, societal roots. 2. The main cause of all crime is poverty. 3. When individuals earn a wage sufficient to maintain a decent standard of living, the entire motive for most crimes disappears. 4.
Essay 269
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic: Some people think that the best way to reduce crime in society is to give longer prison sentences to offenders. Others think that there are better alternatives to reduce crime. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
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Critics would argue that crime is a natural human instinct. 2. Crime has existed in all human society for thousands of years and improvements in law enforcement can only hope to limit, not extinguish, a basic element of human nature. 3. The reason for this is the natural conflict between the desires of individuals and the expectations of society.
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Crime Prevention Essay. Crime is an ever-lasting present like death. Crime rate rising is a very serious problem in the country. The role of a police officer is simply to protect the citizens. Police cannot prevent crime from happening they enforce law they cannot predict when or where a crime is about to happen but help reduce crime.
how to prevent and control crime
Develop and share a phone list of local organizations that can provide counseling, job training, guidance, and other services that neighbors might need. Report a crime if you witness it or something you suspect might be a crime. Agree to testify if needed. Build a partnership with police, focused on solving problems instead of reacting to crises.
Cyber Crime Essay for Students and Children
500+ Words Essay on Cyber Crime. Cyber Crime Essay- Everybody thinks that only stealing someone's private data is Cyber Crime. But in defining terms we can say that 'Cyber Crime refers to the use of an electronic device (computer, laptop, etc.) for stealing someone's data or trying to harm them using a computer.
what is the solution to prevent a crime?
Crimes are mainly caused by drugs entaken by the person who commits a crime to avoid getting guilty, or to not feel any conscience at all. So in order to prevent it, we must first get rid of drugs. Tho it is not 100% sure that crime would ceased, it's a way that at least crimes can be reduced at any way possible. Advertisement.
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Five Things About Deterrence

1. The certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent than the punishment.

2. Sending an individual convicted of a crime to prison isn’t a very effective way to deter crime.

3. Police deter crime by increasing the perception that criminals will be caught and punished.

4. Increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime.

5. There is no proof that the death penalty deters criminals.

Understanding the Relationship Between Sentencing and Deterrence

“Sending an individual convicted of a crime to prison isn’t a very effective way to deter crime.”

“Increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime.”

More severe punishments do not “chasten” individuals convicted of crimes.

Certainty has a greater impact on deterrence than severity of punishment.

A person’s age is a powerful factor in deterring crime.

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20 Strategies for Reducing Crime in Cities

Essay: WHAT IS CRIME? Crime prevention and crime reduction

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Essay on Crime Prevention

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Crime As A Social Problem: How To Write An Essay?

How to write crime essay?

The best structure for the essay on crime

Causes of crime essay

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Essay 269 – The best way to reduce crime in society

Some people think that the best way to reduce crime in society is to give longer prison sentences to offenders. Others think that there are better alternatives to reduce crime.

One Comment to “Essay 269 – The best way to reduce crime in society”

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Types of Cyber Crime

Cyber Crime in India

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What Sentencing Could Look Like if Trump Is Found Guilty

What questions do you have about Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial so far?

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