The Dilemmas of Crime; Everyone Can Participate in Reducing or Eradicating the Crime Rate

The Dilemmas of Crime; Everyone Can Participate

In Reducing or Eradicating the Crime Rate

Linda K S Addison

Liberty Online University

Abstract

Crime is it increasing or decreasing? Are there factors that affect crime rate, making go up or down? The amount of coverage on the news one could easily believe crime is on the rise. It could be asked, are they brain washing the public? Ah, corralling individuals right into a pin, but no one would do that. A new rapidly growing category is cyber-crimes, which entails anything related to a compute. Another crime on the for front of everyone’s mind, terrorism. Yes, there are factors that affect crime rate. Family structure, involvement in church and the condition of their community. The family, church and community components should lean on one another, working together and bring law enforcement onboard.  Each component intertwines with the others to fight crime which is not an easy task and will not happen over nigh. An individual may want to give up multiple times before receiving results. The one investment that always gives a return, sow into a child. Blessings will be bountiful.      

Introduction

        Crime is it increasing or decreasing? Are there factors that affect crime rate, making go up or down? The amount of coverage on the news one could easily believe crime is on the rise.  Yes, there are factors that affect crime rate. In this paper there will be discussion on crime and brief information reference law enforcement. Main focus will be directed to the family, church, community effects on crime and reducing the crime rate. According to Salas-Wright, Vaughn and Maynard, “From this vantage point, religion many be conceptualized as exerting a “treatment effect” on criminal behavior by means of enhancing the self-regulatory capacity of individuals.” (2014, p. 677). Will briefly explain solutions to the crime rate.

Crime

Crime, is it on the rise or is it just perceived that way.  The media of today can be held accountable to a high degree as to the explanation of why crime is perceived to be on the rise. It could once be said, criminals are looking for their 15 minutes of fame. Criminals of the present far exceed 15 minutes of fame; they are given hours more like days of coverage. It is questionable of who receives more media coverage, the criminal or Hollywood high profile individuals. It is interesting that more is known about criminals than Medal of Honor recipients or soldiers killed defending this country. When the bulk of the media contains crime and evil, the perception of crime on the rise can be expected.

It has been reported both violent and property crimes have declined. Violent crimes include murder, non-negligent homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults. Property crimes are burglaries, larceny-thefts, and motor vehicle thefts. Then there is the illegal drug offence. Drug related charges are commonly associated with violent crimes or property; resorting to this attempting to support the habit. Interesting fact, until two years ago many states did not have laws regarding human trafficking, amazingly criminals were slipping through the cracks. One interesting point according to Mares (2013), research showed a correlation between rise in temperature and crime.  

New and old crime categories have been brought to the forefront in the past decade or two. A new rapidly growing category is cyber-crimes; which can branch out connecting other categories.  Cyber-crime or computer crime pertains to any crime that a computer is used in or a target of. Hate crime stills seems to be a sensitive topic. Hate crime is any doing wrong against a group based on any defining characteristic. Hate crime origin can be traced back to ancient Roman civilization. Religious groups, primarily Christianity was the focus in this period. Hate crime like any violent crime is baffling and puzzling in general. The Holocaust; Jewish being persecuted by the Nazis under the leadership of Hitler. His goal was total annihilation of the Jewish population. United States still has occurrence of hate crime not to the extremes of the past; current day they include acts of intimidation, assault and vandalism, also are more racially fueled. A couple crimes are mentioned here, there are still other areas where increases have been noted i.e. pornography or most talked about – terrorism.  

Law Enforcement

        Law Enforcement officers have a demanding, stressful, tough job. This brings about the unsettling controversial issues that lead quickly to a heated debate of the negativity that some officers have brought to their agencies and the law enforcement community as a whole. The officers, once determined they have comment a criminal act should be charged accordingly. It must be remembered all officers are not bad, should not be judged by one.  If this type of behavior was directed at other organization, there would be back lash.  Relationships between the officers, community, organizations and church is needed to fight crime. Trust is necessary even in small amounts and it must start somewhere. An individual accepts the job, taking the oath of as an officer they agree to fight crime attempting to reduce crime. All officers fight crime by making arrest, there are some who give personal time to reduce crime by building relationships with area residents. They spend this time with children and families in areas they work; also who swore to protect.

Family

        Family much like marriage does not appear to of importance in America today. The Bible makes reference to the family many times though out. America, unlike the Bible, presents an individualized view which ultimately spills over into other areas of life. The first chapter of the Bible, Genesis talks about family; God blessed the family; He describes the family as the fundamental building component of human society; God explains that families are to look after one another, this is portrayed when God asked Cain were Abel was. The importance of family continues throughout the Bible.  Frankly this is not a common view with society today.  

        Families determine the foundational strength of this nation. Families have flaws, these maybe forced on them others maybe by choice. Researchers have showed children raised in an affectionate, accepting and supportive family have a better chance of not becoming a delinquent. The focus on families or more appropriately, lack of is more of a normal than in the past.   Factors that increase a child of becoming a child with behavior issues are; rejected by parents, marital discord, child abuse, criminal parents, wealthy parents, single parent; this is not an exhaustive list. Researchers and professional express results are not conclusive; they are on average. Thus a child in an ideal family with ideal parents can still have behavioral issues ultimately becoming a delinquent. Schools though out feel they need to turn them into a fortress for safety. Some schools not sure if being safe is inside or outside. According to Tillyer, Fisher, and Wilcox (2011), metal detector received the highest level of feeling safe in their study.

        Family does not have be of blood relation, it can take many forms. Granted adults, parents are incarcerated, which they are very capable of changing. Focusing on the younger generation would have a larger impacted. Family can do everything possible and still be in need of extra help with their child. This is the time when that parent should feel comfortable reaching out to church or organization with youth focus. Now everyone has heard; ‘It Takes a Church to Raise a Child’, this is absolutely true. The church family being an extension, a family of God, can give wisdom on parenting advice or even spend time with the child.