1. The Michigan Community Child Watch Program is a program dedicated to helping deter crimes against children. Being a Michigan based program, it helps spread education and awareness of child victims. However, the program has it weaknesses.2. Established in 1979, the Michigan Community Child Watch Program offers the community a chance to minimize the risk of children becoming victims of crime. Administered as a joint effort by school districts and local law enforcement agencies, the Community Child Watch Program owes its long-running success to volunteers that are trained to recognize, observe, report, and record any suspicious persons and activities. Every trained volunteer gains a handbook for reference and a poster to display on their door or window to show he or she has completed the program and is informed on what steps are needed to prevent crime regarding minors. Window posters have acted to deter would-be criminals like child molesters, but has also deterred overall crime. The more posters are in the neighborhood, the higher the level of deterrence observed. Anyone who is 18 years and over can participate in the program. The program runners have noted senior citizens and grandparents as active volunteers.

There are requirements to be a Community Child Volunteer. The first step is authorizing the local law enforcement agency to assess if the volunteer has been involved in any assaultive/child related activity. The second is attending a one-hour training session. After this brief training session, the person receives reference material and a poster and then dedicates some of their leisure time to observing and watching in order to help the community become free of crime. The program itself appears simple and lacking any real effort in combating...

The program attempts to achieve a determent of crime against children. The program itself offers adult and training sessions to help adults and children be aware of what can happen when some criminal wishes to harm a child. These training sessions short in nature, provide a basis from which people (both children and adults) can understand warning signs of when a crime may be committed against a child. After completion of the program, adult participants receive a poster that they can put on a door or window. The posters serve as a means of deterrence. However, the program does not show follow-up or management of program participants after they finish the training sessions. Because the training sessions are just an hour long and only one are given to complete the program, the question remains on its effectiveness.
4. The main strength of the program is that anyone over the age of 18 can participate and become informed on what to look for to protect children. Education and awareness are integral parts of crime prevention. Knowing what to look for can make a difference regarding the safety of a child. Being aware of the signs and then acting can lead to the prevention of crimes.

However, there is an inherent weakness to the program. The main weakness is little regulation and management of program participants after the training is complete. People that complete the program receive a reference book that can only help so much during crime prevention efforts. Therefore, more management or reference options are needed to improve the efficacy of the program.

5. The program is an ethical one in that it allows people to empower themselves and become knowledgeable on what can be done to deter…