Crime Rates Essays (Examples)

Crime ates and Abandoned Buildings

Is there a relationship between crime rates and abandoned buildings?

Theoretical background

A vast portion of research on crime and its relation with location is centered at either validating or refuting 'broken window theory'. The theory states that disorders such as graffiti, litter, and broken windows may encourage or cause increase in other disorders and petty crime. The theory by virtue of its title, research objectives, and conclusions does not merit our research question regarding relationship of abandoned building and crime rate. Most policing and preventive efforts for curtailing crime in the U.S. And elsewhere have also been based on broken window theory. Disorder does not imply that any serious crime will take place at a place and serious crimes are neither taking place at littered or disordered places. Policing activities are focused on securing the abandoned buildings and how far is that helped by…

Virginia Beach, VA: Crime ates and Trends

eviewing the rape, robbery and murder trends for Virginia Beach, VA is incredibly revelatory. According to the website city-data.com, Virginia Beach has a crime rate of 184.9 which is significantly lower than the entire U.S. average, which is at 301. In 2012, the number of murders which were committed in this city was at 21, which is the equivalent to 4.7 per 100,000 people. The total number of rapes was at 58, which was at 13 per 100,000 people. The total number of robberies was 326, which functioned at 72.8 per 100,000 people. The number of assaults was at 353, which functioned at 78.9 per 100,000 people. The number of burglaries was 1573, which functioned at 351.4 per 100,000 people. The number of thefts which occurred was 9,662 which totaled at 2,158 per thousand people. The number of auto thefts which occurred was…

In fact, and quite surprisingly, one of the key findings of the Rand Report was that 50% of the nation's detectives could be eliminated without having a significant effect on clearance rates in the country (O'Connor). This conclusion flies in the face of conventional wisdom on police work, yet was fully supported by the exhaustive study. The study was funded by the National Institute of Justice and was designed to monitor the effectiveness of detectives in clearing cases in a variety of situations. Surveys were designed and then sent to local and county police departments throughout the country with at least 150 fulltime personnel or a municipal jurisdiction of more than 100,000 people. In total, three hundred agencies were solicited, of which 153 responded with answers to the survey. hile all of the data from those 153 agencies was used in the compilation of the study, twenty-five of the respondents…

The increased expectation of lawful income will reduce the temptation of illegitimate activity.

This is referred to as the 'motivation effect. The opportunity effect is a long- term influence that is positively correlated with crime, while the motivation effect is more short-term and has a negative correlation with crime. Thus, in years when people increase their spending by very small amounts or reduces it altogether, notably quickly. In contrast, during year when people rapidly increase their expenditure, property crime tends to grow less rapidly or even fall.

In relation to San ernardino, Miguel (2006) argues that with the recent renewal of the city by industries, the unemployment rate has been reduced to a large extent. The number and value of goods available as a result of this growth in income can be linked to the upsurge in robbery cases in homes and public places such as banks.

Economic growth, unemployment…

International Crime Rates

Crime rates

International Crime Rates: Germany, France, and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia & the United States of America

Comparative Essay

The legal systems in the United States, Germany, France, and Saudi Arabia are different due to the differences in the U.S. crime rate and due as well to the differences in the Criminal Justice systems of Germany, France and Saudi Arabia. What factors can be said to cause the difference in crime rates? Does the integration of culture and religion in Saudi Arabia really result in reduced crime rates?

The basic of structure in court systems throughout the world or the universal structure is characterized by courts being divided by lower, mid, and higher levels of courts. There are evident and not so evident differences and variations with this basic structure of organization. There are four types of criminal justice structures of organization. Those are:

Common law…

Immigration on U.S. Crime Rates

Immigration in the United States of America

Structure of Immigration

Impact of Immigration on the Crime rates of the United States of America

Conclusion and Policy Implications

Immigration Structure in 1970

Immigration Structure in 2010

Foreign Born Population in the United States of America

Immigrant Share in the Total Population and Across Counties, 1950-2000

Immigrant Flows and Rate of Homicide

Rate of Growth of Incarceration and Immigration

Reasons for the Removal of Criminal Immigrants

This paper aims at identifying the relationship that exists between immigration and crime rates. It aims at highlighting the impact of immigration on the rate of crimes. In addition to that, this paper also makes recommendation, in relation to the alteration of immigrant policies so as to make immigration more secure and safe.

There has been an evident increase in the number of crimes along with the increase in the rate…

American Corrections System

Prisons are so overcrowded within the states that typically "only one criminal is jailed for every one hundred violent crimes committed" (Economist, 1996). Many violent criminal offenders do not even serve out their entire terms; many serve half of their term and are released on an appeal or probation (Economist, 1996). These prisoners are often released to society only to commit another crime at a later date.

Statistics validate the fact the American Correctional System is currently overburdened. According to one report, "More than one million inmates were confined in American prisons in 1995 alone and the number has been steadily increasing over the last few years (Albion, 2003)." The ability of state and local correctional facilities to manage and keep pace with the upward spiral of people incarcerated and imprisoned within the U.S. also continues to decrease, as most prisons within America currently continue to operate…

Just from looking at the way these crime statistics compare to those of other similar-sized cities, it would be reasonable to assume that eaverton is slightly more affluent than average. The rate and type of crime is skewed more towards the profit-driven types of crime and less to those that are generally associated with "fits of passion," gang behavior, and drug use (especially murder and robbery).

The fact that eaverton keeps it crime rates so low with only one hundred and twenty officers (and twenty-nine civilians) is also a testament to the area's probable affluence. A comparison of this number to the number of officers in other cities makes it clear why crime is kept so low -- they have one of the highest number of officers per capita of any city in Oregon. For this reason, it seems reasonable to surmise that an adequate number of law enforcement officers…

ising U.S. Crime ate

Crime in the United States

Crime in the United States took a sharp uptick starting in the middle of the 20th century but has actually leveled off since then, at least for the most part. However, even with the moderation in crime, especially in larger cities that have traditionally been problematic, crime in some cities is still alarmingly high and there are some cultural and social trends that are becoming more and more prevalent and, by extension, more commonly talked about as well. This essay will explore a couple of the more notorious examples of this in motion.

Crime Falling

One study conducted for this research noted that predicting the crime rate at any given point in time can be exceedingly maddening to predict because of how a single happenstance or course of events can have a massive effect on the overall rates. The study uses…

Crime eporting

What Do You Think?

Crime eporting: UC and NCVS

The Uniform Crime eport is a compilation of offensives collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from all police stations in the United States. Data collected is divided into two groups, Part I and Part II. Part I data includes violent and property crimes such as aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, robbery, arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Part II offenses include simple assault, curfew offenses and loitering, embezzlement, forgery and counterfeiting, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, drug offenses, fraud, gambling, liquor offenses, offenses against the family, prostitution, public drunkenness, runaways, sex offenses, stolen property, vandalism, vagrancy, and weapons offenses ("Uniform Crime eports.," 2012).

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is conducted by telephone and collects information on nonfatal crimes reported and not reported to the police against persons age twelve and older from a nationally…

Crime

On March 9th, 2013, two New York City police officers shot and killed a sixteen-year-old Kimani Gray, and claimed afterward that he had brandished a handgun at them after being told to show his hands (Goodman, 2013). More remarkable than the New York Police Department's killing of a young black male, however, was the outpouring of community grief and anger that followed the shooting. The following Monday, March 11th, saw what started as a nighttime vigil turn into a mob, parts of which ended up looting a ite Aid chain store and a local bodega, and by Wednesday night of that week, forty-six people had been arrested, a bricks had been thrown at both a police officer and a police van (Goodman, 2013). The explosion of disorder and discontentment took some in the media and policing community by surprise, but these evens could only be surprising to someone lacking…

Crime

In the beginning the main focus of the drug addiction theory was on the habituated pleasure reinforcement as well as the potential of the drug for the reward. Drug affects the dopamine receptors that are present in the brain and the individual is flooded with the desirable emotions by using dopamine, these desirable emotions are considered to be the reward for using the substance (Pinel, 2009). When the relationship of dopamine to the reward was recognized it was thought to be the major cause of addiction but when further researches were carried out, they showed that there were some other factors involved in the addiction as well.

When initially the psychotropic substance like cocaine or amphetamine is used, some changes take place in the brain and these changes then influence a cycle of addiction. Although different drugs have different probability of addiction but the individual characteristics like cognition, mental…

Crime maps offer a visual component to crime data and statistics. It allows criminologists, law enforcement analysts, and sociologists to understand the connections between demographic data and criminal incidents. However, sociologists and criminologists must be careful to refrain from drawing illogical conclusions or inferring a false causal relationship. In some cases, crime maps are more useful in terms of helping law enforcement officials allocate resources than they are in making assumptions about demographic components in crime. Crime maps can also be used to help public policy officials create more effective programs for a target demographic. In the case of iverside, there is no clear relationship between race and crime. Criminal incidents are scattered throughout the county. However, there are a few core regions of concern and both contain high numbers of non-blacks. This information suggests that African-American neighborhoods in iverside have lower rates of crime than non-black neighborhoods. Law enforcement…

Crime Punishment Philosophy

Since the beginning of the 70s, the number of people inducted in jails and state facilities has increased to an astonishing level. In the present, more than two million individuals are serving jail time in either jails or state prisons. The growth of crime rate and imprisonment can be greatly attributed to the African-American and Hispanic communities residing in the U.S., who still categorize as the poor communities in the urban areas of the country. Even though, the increasing number of arrests and incarceration should in theory have reduced the crime rate, considering that the incarcerated offenders are no longer free to rob, mug or assault (Ezorsky, 1972).

Historical Context of Crime elated Policies and Punishment

However, no large scale crime reduction was recorded till the 1990's, that's when an actual decrease in crime was observed throughout the country. The most important point to be noted here…

Crime Theory

In the world of criminology, several theories have been constructed to help legal professionals understand the nature of and motive behind criminal activity. Studying these more closely can help with the rehabilitation of criminals and curb criminal activity. Criminal theory, therefore, is constructed to determine ways in which to prevent crime and mitigate the crime being committed. Theories such as the social control theory, strain theory, differential association theory, and neutralization theory can therefore be used for the purposes mentioned above. Each theory has its strenghts and weaknesses; to determine the theory to use could be determined on a case by case basis, hence enhancing the strengths and minimizing the weaknesses of the theory in question.

According to Welch (1998), Hirschi wrote his Causes of Delinquency, in which he developed the social control theory, during the 1960s. This was a troubled time in social terms, and American society…

By contrast, other studies have revealed that 69% of those committing violent crimes against whites are also white, and that 81% of those committing violent crimes against African-Americans are also African-Americans (Violent pp).

In 2004, Thomas B. Heffelfinger, the United States Attorney for the state of Minnesota, called for a major overhaul of the criminal law enforcement system in Indian Country, calling it a "national shame" (Federal pp). Heffelfinger said statistics reveal that Native American Indians and Alaska Natives are the victims of violent crime more than the any other group in the country, and that includes every crime, child abuse, sexual assault, homicide, assault, etc. (Federal pp).

Heffelfinger complained that the current system of law enforcement "is taking the leaders of our national tribes, making them victims of crime and sending them to prison" (Federal pp). Heffelfinger, who chairs the Native American Issues sub-committee for the Department of Justice,…

Once inmates were encouraged to complete an education while in prison and gain skills to get a paying job so they could be self-supporting once they got out, but that is no longer so. The public attitude was, "Why should criminals get a free education? Law abiding citizens have to pay for college." The overcrowded conditions, caused by long mandated sentences for non-violent drug offenses put an end to social programs in the prisons aimed at preparing prisoners to live as law-abiding citizens when they got out.

Privatization of prisons, which makes them cheaper to run, has had negative effects. Some researchers contend that by putting private companies in charge of prisons, we have created a market economy for crime with a market demand for prisoners. More people in prison provide more business for these companies. These companies have strong lobbies that pressure for harsher and longer sentences. For example,…

Crime Trends in Indiana, 1981-2011

With an economy founded on agriculture and industry, and few blighted urban centers, Indiana's crime rates in all indexed categories have historically been lower than the national average. However, data collected between 1995 and 2005 shows a disturbing trend: the crime rate for many categories is declining in the rest of the country faster than in the state of Indiana. This data is shown in Figure 1, below.

Indiana Crime Index ate per 100,000 esidents Compared to National. From Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.

Currently, Indiana's cities are suffering from the loss of jobs in the state and the region, especially the northern cities like Gary and Hammond. Trends in urban crime are different from trends in rural crime, and it is also helpful for business owners and community leaders to understand the answer to the question "who commits crimes?" Community members and prospective Indiana homebuyers…

Crime in urban cities is at least 1.5 times higher than suburban or rural areas. Many factors account for this difference including higher poverty, more densely populated centers, presence of poor minorities, low education, limited resources etc. The paper studies crime in urban cities from the perspective of causes and impact so explain why higher urbanization translates into higher crime rate.

Crime in urban cities

Crime in urban cities of the United States continues to be a major problem for the society. The effect of violent crime against persons and property on general welfare is unmistakable since it takes a serious toll on mental, physical and emotional health of people while it places a huge burden on society's resources and finances. It is important to mention that while crime has a profound impact on welfare of people; it also costs the country almost 0.7% of GDP in variety of ways…

Crime and Violence: Cultural eliefs and iases

Religion and Stereotyping

Diverse sociocultural customs promote diverse forms of aggression; e.g., the conventional idea that males are authorized, by nature, to discipline or control females renders the latter susceptible to sexual abuse and spousal violence. Societal tolerance towards such hampers external intervention, preventing victims from protesting and seeking support. Sexual abuse reporting is also hampered by the stigma certain cultures attach to victims. Further, the powerful link between violence and drunkenness implies societies' and cultures' alcohol utilization trends and the related impacts also promote and warrant violence. Several nations report alcoholism accounting for sixteen percent of female and twenty-six percent of male DALYs (disability-adjusted life-years) loss due to murders. Initiatives challenging socio-cultural customs supporting aggression are normally combined with other strategies (WHO, 2009).

Prior studies have revealed a consistent association between religious participation and positive conduct in society among youngsters. Religious organizations…

Many people using illicit and illegal drugs often have no impulse control and may turn violent or to another form of crime. Once an individual's mind is altered from the constant use of drugs, he or she will often steal, lie, and cheat to make the next dollar to obtain more drugs.

Many people could share family related drug stories that have led to criminal activities. About 10 years ago, several acquaintances under the influence of cocaine robbed a pharmacy and stole thousands of narcotics. The man and women then stole a car and cocaine from a dealer and drove across the country; several days later they were both apprehended and sent to jail for a long time. This example illustrates that one impulsive behavior after another can lead to a series of crimes committed. Freud's Psychoanalytical Theory offers a rationale to why individuals would use illegal drugs -- impulse…

Crime Delinquency Teenagers

Adolescent Terror

Virtually no one can deny that there is a definite, tangible link between adolescence and crime. Anyone not familiar with this subject would be hard pressed to dispute the eminent statistical data that alludes to that dangerous link. In 1990, teenagers were more than 3.5 times likely to commit an indexed crime than were adults in the United States. Index crimes are both violent criminal activity such as "murder & non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault" as well as serious property crime such as "burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson" (No author 1990). This point is underscored by the fact that in 2005, approximately 10,000 prisoners in the United States were serving life sentences for actions that were committed before they turned 18 (Liptak 2005). This proclivity of teenage criminal offenders is evinced overseas in other countries as well, such as in…

Crime and Deviance

Crimes and increasing criminal activities have become a major concern for the security enforcement agencies. They seek help from technology as well as social and psychological theories to prevent crimes and deal with them. The first priority of security agencies is to prevent crimes and the second priority is to control them by punishing the criminals so that they become an example for the society. This paper offers an insight to how the crime prevention activities can be implemented. This includes understanding few biological, psychological and sociological theories pertaining to crimes and criminology. Human being's generally and criminals specifically act under the influence of some physical, environmental, cultural and individual factors that will be discussed in this paper.

Theories of Crime and Deviance

Crimes as well as deviance are behaviors that show violation from the settled and accepted norms of a society. Crime is something that is…

crime has been taking place. Although the forms of crime have evolved, so too has the strategies used to prevent crime. This essay will compare and contrast three of most common Crime Prevention strategies, which are, environmental design, social intervention and situational intervention. Crime prevention generally refers to preventing crime and anti-social behavior before it occurs. Crime Prevention Victoria, defines crime prevention as "any public or privately based initiative or policy aimed at reducing or eliminating criminal behavior, violence and fear of crime or violence in the community" (Armstrong, 2002). This essay aims to demonstrate not only the strengths and weaknesses of these three strategies but also to identify the individual crime causation theory that each strategy is based around. These being

ne of the main crime prevention strategies used around the world is environmental design. This strategy is based on the relationship that is created between people and the…

Race, Class & Crime

The confluence of race, class and crime is a hot topic nowadays. This is especially true when discussing events or topics of various types. Very or fairly specific examples of this would include the recent shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO and the subsequent non-indictment of the officer who shot him despite the fact that Brown was not armed and the ongoing discussion about how paying a "wage" should be a moral imperative of all employers and how people in poverty are much more apt to commit crimes. Throw in the fact that people that exist in racial minorities are much more likely to be in poverty, it seems to make sense to some that minorities are also more commonly incarcerated and committing crimes in general. However, this is not entirely true as white people commit plenty of crimes themselves. However, blacks and Hispanics are…

crime rate data of burglaries in two U.S. metropolitan localities.

The UC (Uniform Crime eporting) Program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation describes the act of burglary as illegal entry into a structure for committing theft or a felony. For labeling a crime as burglary, it is not necessary for the element of 'forced entry'. UC provides three sub-categories of burglary: forced entry; non-forced, illegal entry; and attempted forced entry. It defines the term "structure" as any apartment, houseboat or house trailer (utilized as permanent lodgings), office, barn, stable, vessel or ship, and railroad car (however, automobiles are not included). In the year 2012, approximately 2,103,787 burglaries were reported -- a 3.7% decline from the previous year (FBI -- Burglary). Compared to the figures for 2003 and 2008, burglaries declined in 2012 by 2.4% and 5.6%, respectively. The approximate burglary rate constituted 23.4% of the approximate property crime rate. Subcategory-wise,…

Crime

"Getting tough" on crime became a popular notion in 1970's America. Since that time, America has increasingly jailed/imprisoned offenders at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars. Though some people strongly believe in "getting tough," there are now serious questions about the cost effectiveness and wisdom of that harsh approach. Several experts believe that "getting tough" is not the answer and that a more scientific, comprehensive approach is needed to effectively deal with our high crime rate.

The "get tough" approach to crime is sometimes thought to mean a more severe approach to crime, including more arrests and more jail sentences (Barkan, 2011, p. 5.4). This approach has been a popular approach in America since the 1970's and the United States has increased its jail population to 5 times the jail population we had in the 1970's (Barkan, 2011, p. 5.4). ith more than 2.3 million incarcerated people…

Criminal Minds

The constant battle with violent crime is a perplexing problem for those designated to solve these types of problems. This frustrating cycle of failure and success seems to adopt the mantra, "one step forward, two steps back" in its purest sense. As gains are made it is important to understand the root causes of these results in order to better adapt the ever changing environment that creates new problems in this type of battle.

Zimmerman's (2007) case study investigated this struggle within the city of Boston, MA. In this research he described a story of great success through the help of community involvement as violent crime rates and homicides drastically reduced when this method was applied. Unfortunately, the gains were soon lost after a distorted strategy led the leadership awry.

The purpose of this essay is to explore this case study, and apply the research to the current…

Crime Statistics

The author of this report is to compare and contrast two different areas from a crime rate standpoint. The current rates of crime for different crime types will be assessed as well as the change in those rates from year to year. The two cities that will be compared are New York and Detroit. While there is good and bad news for both of those jurisdictions vis-a-vis their crime rates, the trends for both are noticeably different and the underlying reasons for these variations and trends are not hard to surmise about, although it is hard to be definitive due to the complexity of the cities' respective situations and dynamics. While it is hard to be exhaustive and to make conclusions with certitude, it is clear that the towns are moving in different directions but there are opportunity costs for the good things and downsides to any solution…

Crime ates by egions

The FBI document the crimes that are experienced across the U.S.A. By recording and tabulating the crimes bot only by the number of people arrested but more significantly by the number of arrests that are made and the type of crime that prompted the arrest. This is a more accurate procedure since it helps in cases of multiple arrests of the same person within a year that may also be prompted by different crimes each time of subsequent arrest.

The paper is predominantly on the crime rates within four states; Northeast, Midwest, South and West within the year 2009 according to the data found in the FBI official website. An analysis of the crime rates and the reasons behind the variance in crime rates is also of essence here.

In 2009, Northeast experienced 1,624,285 crimes that were charged in the courts and this represented 3,625.2 crime…

Crime Data Sources in the United States

The collection of crime data in the United States is carried out through different approaches including Uniform Crime eports and the National Incident-Based eporting System, which also act as the two primary sources of crime data for crime reporting. The data obtained from these sources are used for research and documentation of crime status at the county, state, and national levels. Notably, the National Incident-Based eporting System emerged as an advancement of the conventional summary of Uniform Crime eports that were used to track crime in the country. In addition, the Congress uses data from these sources together with those from the National Crime Victimization Survey to guide policy decisions and create suitable responses to crime. While the use of these sources helps in dealing with crime in the United States, they have some similarities and differences between them with regards to methodological…

Crime:

Over the past 3 decades, crime has continued to be a major issue that has attracted huge public concern characterized with discussion and action that are usually unbalanced and not likely to lessen crime rates. The public concern has also been accompanied by political action and major public expenditure to reduce such incidents. Political discussion and actions as well as public expenditure have played a major role in the reduction of crime rates in the recent past. ecent reports have indicated that crime rates have sharply declined despite the lack of consensus on how to deal with criminal activity. Actually, by the beginning of the 20th Century, crime rates had declined to their lowest possible levels in a generation.

The recent declines in crime rates indicate that law enforcement organizations are at important junctures in their initiatives to deal with criminal activity and further reduce crime rates. Despite the…

Crime

There is a big difference between perception of crime and actual crime statistics, a gulf that has become quite clear in recent years. The statistics show that crime of all types is decreasing, but it is still widely reported that the public has a perception that crime is increasing. There are a number of factors for this, but the reality is that crime is decreasing in the United States.

Crime Statistics

The FBI tracks hard numbers with respect to crime in the U.S. Violent crime in the U.S. has been trending down for a long time, and the statistics bear this out:

FBI (2015)

The decrease in property crime has been even more dramatic:

FBI (2015)

Perceptions of crime, however, can be influenced by the type of crime, with more severe crimes standing out more in people's minds. That said, murder rates have been steadily decreasing for several years,…

Crime Detection and Prevention

It is an unfortunate fact of modern society that crime and criminal activity are part of our world today. This is particularly the case in situations that make an easy target for criminals. ape and robbery, for example, tend to be encouraged in environments that appear to be easy targets. All-night convenience stores, for example, may appear to be easy targets because they have low security features and often have only one employee per shift. The specific crime under discussion in this case is therefore the night-time robbery of all-night convenience stores.

When considering the factors in the Problem Analysis Chart offered by Clarke and Eck (p. 29), the environment provides a significant incentive for criminal activity. A convenience store at a remote location, for example, might appear to be an "easy" target for robbery. The problem analysis triangle, or crime trianble, may therefore offer valuable…

Crime and Corrections

Historically crime has been a concern for the public, and by extension policy makers because of the ways in which it can change and shape society. Criminal activity has the potential to influence social and economic environments within a society thus it is critical to identify measures that reduce outcomes of crime and support the reintegration of offenders into society. Consequently, crime and corrections have become big business in the United States (Smith). The money from the public purse that is expended to deal with crime is increasing in all of the states. More money is being moved from other areas of the budget to address the challenge of crime and criminal behavior. This increase in expenditure occurs in multiple areas of the criminal justice system and in spite of cost control measures. Additionally, there are fewer prisoners in within the system. This reduction in prisoners has…

This gap suggests that men commit the majority of crimes. While the gap exists for all crimes, it is the largest for violent crime, such as homicide, rape, and robberies, and the smallest for property crime. Unlike self-report data, official statistics and victimization reports generally describe the gender-gap as most apparent, as these types of crime reporting suggest large gaps in the number of crimes committed by men and women. Official statistics and victimization reports probably show the largest gender gaps both because they deal more with violent crimes, whose perpetrators tend to be men and because self-report data allows researchers to choose samples that have equal amounts of men and women to study similarities and differences across gender. In other words, self-report data generally has a lower sex-gap because researchers can have a great deal influence in manipulating the data set.

Many crimes are not reported to the police…

Crime a Socially Constructed

One's conduct or deeds turn into a crime or an offence via a progression of societal or communal conditioning. The same deed can be regarded as wrong in one community and act of valor in another or in the same community at a different point in time. The lawful status of a deed-whether it is an offense-does not depend on its substance, but on the communal reaction to that deed or to the individual who does it (osenfeld, 2009). Shifts in the lawful status of a particular deed can be due to communal changes or may be part of serious communal differences. The latest debates and confrontations over assisted suicide and abortion policy are two fine examples in the U.S. Lastly, the communal reaction to crime, social science theories on illegal behavior included, is founded on the significance of the deed and also the communal and…

"Greater freedom has increased female participation in the public sphere," which would expose greater numbers of women to criminal behaviors and the opportunities to commit crimes (Steffensmeier & Allan1996, p. 469). Combined with social control theory, opportunity theory offers a plausible explanation for the gender gap in criminal behavior. Social control theory and opportunity theory share in common the basic assumption that deviance is a natural human instinct; that left to their own devices both men and women are predisposed to crime. Criminal behavior is always an option, according to social control theory and opportunity theory. The two sociological theories suggest that deterrents to committing crime, such as a lack of opportunity or strong social bonds, determine patterns of criminal behavior. Moreover, social control theory and opportunity theory emphasize sociological variables at the expense of psychological or personality-based ones.

The opportunity theories such as theories of routine activities present deviance…

Most likely, it was secondary data -- that is, analysis -- that led to these houses' placement on the map.

There are several elements that could be useful to this map that are not included. For example, the division of the community into different areas (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) might provide some more clues to the rate/placement of the burglaries. Similarly, median incomes/home prices for each given area might be important elements. There is very little about the map that is not pertinent, however; though there appears to be little relation between the burglaries and the location of suspected drug houses, this is important to know and recognize, and leaving the drug houses off the map would eliminate this knowledge. Other information that could usefully be included in this map includes some basic details about the individual burglaries -- whether cars were broken into or left unlocked (especially important in…

In a recently-conducted survey, the following 10 metropolitan cities had low to very low crime rates: Scottsdale (AZ), Plano (TX), Virginia Beach (VA), Fremont (CA), Honolulu (HI), San Jose (CA), Anaheim (CA), Fort ayne (in), Santa Ana (CA), and Garland (TX). It seems that most cities with scores of 6 and lower (out of 10 on the crime rate scale) were located mostly in the south and the west, with the exception of Fort ayne. (Area Vibes, 2012)

It is interesting to see, then, if weather contributes to these low crime rates. Some experts would agree that weather, indeed, has a lot to do with the low crime rates in these cities. However, most would venture to state that the low crime rate is attributed to the fact that in most of these cities, the average median income is over $60,000. Yet another facet to point out would be that…

Measuring Crime

During the latter half of the twentieth century, evidence-based policing became more commonplace, partly as a means to reduce corruption, but also as a means to make crime fighting more effective. Instruments used to measure crime at the federal level include those that fall under the rubric of the Department of Justice, such as Uniform Crime eporting and National Crime Victimization Service. The FBI also operates legal attache offices, the Combined DNA Index System, and other tools used to measure and empirically track crime (Schmalleger, 2015, p. 147). Likewise, the Department of Justice maintains several major crime reporting programs including the National Incident-Based eporting System. These reporting programs serve several core functions. They boost the effectiveness of criminal justice policy, they ensure policing and other aspects of criminal justice are evidence-based, and they inform the judicious allocation of resources throughout the criminal justice system. As Schmalleger (2015) points…

Community Safety and Crime eduction: An Evaluation of the ole of New Technology

ecent technological advances have effectively changed the way we conduct business, secure our borders, fight our wars, diagnose diseases, etc. Indeed, thanks to advances in technology, the world as we know it today looks very different from the world of yesteryears. The fact that technology continues to have a significant impact on almost every facet of our lives is undeniable. One of the areas in which recent advances in technology remains most visible is security. Today, unlike two or three decades ago, there are a wide range of hi-tech security devices that have been specifically developed to help in fighting crime. From CCTV cameras to alarm systems to GPS tracking and even software designed to examine online chat records, the fight against crime has surely gone high-tech. It is however important to note that the utilization of…

Philadelphia

Crime in the City of Philadelphia

The crime rate in Philadelphia has been a major issue for many years. Philadelphia is known as one of the cities with a highest crime rate in America. Crime is any act committed that breaks the laws, breaking rules that were established by a state or federal authority. New York, Chicago and Los Angeles are cities that are bigger than Philadelphia, with much larger populations, however they have lower crime rates compared to Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Police Department have made many different attempts and tried several strategies in an effort to reduce crime rate in this city. In 2002 the Police Department launched Operation Safe Streets, where police officers were placed on all the known drug infested streets in attempt decrease crime rates (Lawton, Taylor & Luongo, 2005). In this paper I will discuss some of the issues associated with the crime rate…

educing Crime:

From the beginning of the 19th Century, the criminal justice system has basically revolved between two models that are geared towards reducing crime through distinct approaches. As part of their different approach, the crime control and due process models have separated the individuals that work in the criminal justice system. The crime justice structure has used more of crime control model than the due process model which has enabled the Supreme Court to rule on a number of court cases that extends the rights of culprits. These court cases include absolute defense against search and arrest as well as providing attorneys to unlawful defendants at the cost of state. It was noted that after a certain period of time, the rate of crime started to increase, the economy failed and people lost confidence with the government.

The purpose of the due process model was to maximize on powers…

Gender and Crime

How would each of the three critical feminist perspectives -- adical, Marxist, and Socialist -- explain this phenomenon? Do different life experiences by men and women impact the overrepresentation of men in the criminal justice system? How do gender differences impact sentencing? Provide examples to support your answer. How does allowing citizens to carry guns prevent crimes? Give relevant examples.

The radical feminist would look at the attacks on women based upon the fact that they have been ignored throughout history. This makes them an easier target for men to overpower them and conduct these activities. Marxists believe that crime occurs because of social inequalities. This is from them being pushed into the lower classes of society. To lash out, they will directly target and attack women in order to take advantage of those who have the perceptions of power and influence. Socialists believe that the ultimate…

Corruption Within the Criminal Justice System

Although the American system of criminal justice and jurisprudence is widely regarded as a model for democratic nations across the globe to emulate, with its guarantee of due process and protection from illegal search and seizure standing as pillars of liberty, glaring defects still exist which warrant further improvement. From the disturbing trend of disproportionate arrest and sentencing among minorities, to the inability of courts to adequately enforce prohibitions levied against sexual predators, America's criminal justice system is imperfect at best, and inherently broken at worst. Widely publicized court cases such as the recent trial of George Zimmerman, a Florida vigilante charged with, and late acquitted of, murdering a young African-American man named Trayvon Martin, only serve to expose the fundamental flaws which are still far too prevalent within corrupt law enforcement agencies, an aging and outmoded judiciary, legions of overburdened prosecutors and defense…

Doing this ensures early identification of an unknown crime hence, the adoption of proactive approaches against it. Achieving this relies on the establishment of a positive relationship between the police and the truck drivers (U.S., 2001).

Establishing park watch in the community also helps in preventing violent crime since it addresses a wide range of criminal acts. The program aims at enlisting the users of the park and neighbors to take the responsibility of watching over the parks. Significant evidence shows that involving the youth in activities that involve them in building the community reduces the rates of violent crimes in the community. Engaging the youth in different activities such as cleaning the parks and recreational spaces creates a healthy environment that attack a variety of economic activities. Through this, the unemployed youth acquires alternative source of income contributing to the minimization of violent crimes caused by youth unemployment. Other…

Dark Figure of Crime

The amount of crime in society gets known when it is reported to the police, through public response to victim surveys and studies of offenders who admit committing crime, and when transmitted to other agencies, such as hospital accident wards, battered women's refuge centers and similar ones (Young 2001). Other than these, the amount of crime committed is unknown. That unknown volume (of crime) that does not get reported, thus not registered, in criminal statistics, constitutes the dark figure of crime.

Statistician Adolphe Quetelet of the 1830s recognized this problem and modern statisticians do, too. All current methods of collecting crime incidence still have a dark figure. Victimization surveys, like the ritish Crime Survey (CS) and the National Crime Survey (NCS) are more accurate (Young). In 2000, CS estimated that the dark figure, or the actual extent of crime, was 4 1/2 more than what was…

Social Marketing Plan

Stop Crime, Be a Human first

Historically, South Africa was colonized under a brutish Apartheid system where there was a clear distinction in South Africa between the various divisions of the population before 1991. These racial categorizations were the Africans (black), Asians, the Coloreds and the Whites. This law has long been abolished but the majority of the South Africans still view each other along these racial lines (U.S. Department of state, 2011). It is estimated that the population of South Africa is 49.9 million people of whom the black Africans make up the 79.4% of the population and are also divided into various ethnic groups. The whites take up 9.2% while the Indian/Asians make up 2.6% of the total population and 8.8% being the coloreds (SouthAfrica.info, 2011).

According to Beggs et.al, (2001) there is a wide disparity between the blacks and the whites holding white collar…

Social Class And Crime

For this study the researcher chose to explore social class and crime rates, because while there are many studies conducted on race and crime and gender and crime or related factors, social class seems to be something that is relatively little regarded in modern times at least in places like the U.S. Social class is often a large predictor of factors including crime in many countries overseas, but it is sometimes something that is overlooked in the U.S., where people assume democracy guarantees people the right to safety. Studies suggest however that this is very often not the case.

Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy.

In this research study, the authors explore social cohesion and collective efficacy, which they define as the willingness of neighbors to intervene "on behalf of the common good" which they hypothesize is essential to reducing violence. The…

The authors do not state that public perceptions of severity should be discounted, but merely that these should not be over-emphasized, as was the case in previous literature.

Another existing mode of measuring crime severity is that of economic models. Economic measures of costs may seem more objective, but given that they also involve speculative losses (such as lost productivity), they are not universally agreed upon. One widely-used model to estimate crime severity is the Bradley-Terry continuum which posits that stealing something less than $5 is less severe than stealing "something worth $5 -- $50, which itself is less severe than trying to steal something worth more than $50. Additionally, stealing or trying to steal a car is ranked more severe than the other theft items. Selling marijuana is also ranked less severe than selling harder drugs such as heroin, cocaine, or LSD" (amchand et al. 2009: 143). The authors…

Traditional Crime Policy

Over the last several decades, the policy approach that is used in enforcing the law has been increasingly brought to the forefront. This is because there has been a sharp rise in the crime rates around the world since the end of World War II. At first, these increases were believed to be a part of the adverse changes from the war and its impact on society. (Gilling)

However, by the 1950s it was obvious that society was facing tremendous challenges with these rates. In response, a series of studies were conducted to effectively deal with the root causes of criminal activity (by focusing on the pathology of the individual). This created heated debates between traditional and evidence based advocates, who believed that the current approach can address these issues (by serving as a deterrent for everyone). (Gilling)

As a result, tough sentences were handed down to…

Collect analyze newsprint media depictions youth crime a -week period (i.e., check newspaper day weeks articles discussing youth crime justtcej] How media depict youth crime comparison actual picture youth Crime?YOu information actual youth crime picture Study Guide, textbook, Juristat reports relevant: 1.

Youth Crime in the Media

There is much controversy today in regard to youth crime, its effects on society, the way that it operates, and how it is perceived by the masses. The mass media currently has a lot of influence and it is very difficult for people to be able to filter information in order to avoid being manipulated. More and more media devices come to depict youth crime as a significant threat to society's well-being and emphasize the fact that conditions are likely to worsen in the near future if the reform does not occur. The masses have trouble understanding youth crime correctly because people generally…

In this view, the fact that underprivileged subcultures already promoted a different set of social values emphasizing "street smarts" and toughness instead of socially productive attributes and goals combined with the substitution of deviant role models for father figures is a significant source of criminal conduct, particularly in poor communities (Adler, Mueller & Laufer, 2008).

Other modern sociological perspectives began reconsidering crime and other forms of socially deviant behavior as primarily a function of individual psychology.

However, whereas earlier theories of individual responsibility focused on the role of rational choice, the modern approach viewed crime much more as a function of the cumulative psychological effects on the individual of the consequences of social labeling.

Furthermore, it has been suggested that much of the difference in crime rates in underprivileged communities also relates directly to the different types of characterizations and institutional responses to different types of crime in American society.…

Schools are a good place to capitalize on this tendency, helping students to form group ties through shared group activities. These could include sports clubs such as Little League, academic clubs such as Mathletes and extra-curricular activities like a daily or weekly student newspaper.

These activities will help young people form friendships with other dedicated students, instead of potential delinquents.

Fourth, Robert Sampson believed that communities could address rising crime rates through a concept he calls "collective efficacy."

This means that Bowers Park residents, young and old, should feel safe when congregating in public areas, and the first step is establishing safe public areas to begin with. Residents will have to provide resources - monetary or volunteered time - to provide places where young people can congregate. This could include places such as skate parks, community gardens and public libraries.

Fifth, since the programs that work best are fun, the…

The fear of adolescents and young adults is also being driven by the media's choice to sensationalize events that are actually very isolated in their number, and occurrence.

CONCLUSION

As Canada continues to grow and its focus on crime continues to change, it is important to understand the freedom that the media has when it comes to what to cover and how to do it.

Crime is rising in Canada in areas that should be a concern to the general public but part of the seeming significant increase is really only increased media coverage for the purpose of getting ratings.

Across the nation teenagers are performing good deeds, getting good grades, becoming Eagle Scouts and moving on to college and careers, yet the public never hears about those teenagers. The media focuses only on what will bring in ratings and that unfortunately includes violent exciting events.

Fear of crime is…

Measuring Crime Victimization:

As the various kinds of crimes are significant reflections of how and why crime victimization takes place, the various sources of research and data on measuring crime victimization are crucial in the development and establishment of victimization programs. Generally, there are various programs that are administered by the relevant agencies to measure the nature, magnitude, and impact of crime in the country. While the programs are carried out for different purposes, they generate valuable information about the various aspects of the crime problem across the country. Notably, these methods of collecting crime data and crime reporting use distinctive techniques and focus on relatively different aspects of crime, which makes them important in crime reporting.

There are three major crime reporting sources i.e. The Uniform Crime eports (UC), National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), and Self eport Studies. The Uniform Crime eports, developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,…

victimization theories of crime. Victimization theories of crime focus on victim characteristics and behavior patterns, rather than focus exclusively on the perpetrators of crime. These theories help present a broader picture of crime rates and patterns within any given community. Victimization theories also help to identify vulnerable groups, and can therefore be helpful when creating public policy or law enforcement strategies.

Some victimization theories include victim participation theory, victim lifestyle theory, deviant place theory, and routine activity theory. Each of these theories can be useful in helping communities, individuals, and law enforcement officials discover ways of promoting public safety and minimizing crime. For example, a victimization theory revealing that people in a certain neighborhood are more vulnerable can help raise awareness about crime in that community so that the local residents and law enforcement can collectively pool resources.

Data on victimization can be used in a number of different ways.…

Dark figure of crime is a term employed by criminologists and sociologists to describe the amount of unreported or undiscovered crime (Maguire & Reiner, 2007, p. 129). The notion of a dark figure undetected by standard crime reporting system casts doubt on the reliability of these systems. It also raises questions about the true magnitude of criminal activity in the United States.

The main source of crime data in the U.S. is the Uniform Crime Database, which is operated by the Federal ureau of Investigation. The UCR records crimes which are identified through the observation of a law-enforcement officer or reported by a victim or witness to law enforcement authorities. The UCR is not an exhaustive source of crime data because many crimes are neither observed by law enforcement officials nor reported by victims or witnesses.

There are two sources of crime data in the U.S. that try to ascertain…

Punishment as such is viewed as a form of personal engineering, designed to produce better people through a process of re-education. (Curan and enzeth, 1998)

Davey in relation to the theory of rehabilitation argued that during the past twenty years, we have seen an unprecedented move in the direction of massive incarceration of those convicted of crime. Davey reasoned that the approach prevalent at a particular time depends largely on the social and political climate. For example, in the early 1970s, the declared goal of incarceration was rehabilitation but as crime rose, support for this liberal position diminished. (Davey, 2002) as criminologist Kevin Wright has pointed out, "Federal, state and local governments have reacted to public sentiment by passing legislation that provides for longer sentences for violent crimes and legislative, executive and judicial bodies are streamlining due process rights to protect the innocent rather than the guilty" (Wright, 1985: 95)…