Crime-Reduction Strategies
Education levels, poverty rates and lack of social organization
Vehicle crime theft is high in my commercial development city, and after conducting the research to understand the root cause of the problem, the findings show that there are some factors that contribute to the vehicle theft. The main reasons as to why people are engaging in this type of crime are city size and density (Barak, 2009). In the commercial development city, there is a higher population and wealthier victims who develop a second-hand market for stolen vehicles. The research has also shown that the city spends less on law enforcement and there is limited community cooperation. This means that criminals get the opportunity to engage in theft. Generally, factors such as social-economic development, poor civil society controls, poor urban planning, poor environmental design, and young unemployment are the factor that gives criminal opportunities to engage in the crime of theft (Barak, 2009). Burglars in this area target commercial and residential items since these items are associated with a higher market value. There is a need to employ strategic approaches such as private security and gated community to prevent vehicle theft.
In reducing vehicle crime theft, there are important things to consider or target. These include; geographical targeting, offense targeting, and offender targeting (Hoover Larry, 2013). In other words, responding to crime requires great scrutiny and the police agencies need to employ numerous crime enforcement strategies and proactive tactics such as examining the offenses and characteristics of neighborhoods, the offender's psychological profile and, the potential victims.
Geographical targeting- this is a process in which the police agency focus on a particular area of the residential neighborhood especially where there is a cluster of high crime. In addressing the issue of vehicle theft, law enforcement agencies will concentrate on the probable areas where vehicle theft is high. In addition, limited resources and less time spent are additional advantages (Hoover Larry, 2013). In our area, there are many unknown suspects but with the geographical target, the law enforcement agency will conduct research and come up with the exact number of the suspects. Through patrolling, the police will gather information from local areas residents.
The police agency can also employ an alternative intervention tactic to reduce thefts from vehicles. The police should use surveillance and tactical patrol as an alternative tactic for geographical targeting. As the police agencies target the geographical area where the crime of vehicle theft is high, they should employ surveillance techniques such as undercover operations and electronic monitoring to enable them to reduce crime (Hoover Larry, 2013). This is a cost-effective alternative in that the police agencies will see the places where the crime is high. In addition to surveillance, they should also patrol the city to monitor places where there is unusual activity.
Offense targeting – this means the law enforcement agency should target a particular type of crime and in this case, the police in my area will concentrate on vehicle theft. By targeting a particular offense, the police agency should use an intervention tactic to deal with the offenses. In this case, they should employ the problem-oriented approach that aims at finding the offense, implementing solutions and, examining the impacts of the solutions (Hoover Larry, 2013). The police agency should not only target the offense but they should also identify the problems that lead to the occurrence of the crime. The tactics include identifying the problem, gathering data to understand the problem in deeper, providing response and assess whether the response achieved the intended effects.
Offender targeting- this means that the law enforcement agency should put a focus on the ‘offender group' and in this case, the police agency should focus on the vehicle burglars. The best alternative tactic related to crime reduction is community- engagement in order to address the issue of vehicle crime and build a community free from fear of violence (Hoover Larry, 2013). The community should be an active partner in targeting the offenders. In our city, we suspect that the vast majority of burglars are young people. Note that the police agencies can only get access to information and resources from the community and so, it is important to engage them in investigations and building safe neighborhoods. Community includes youth and families, community organizations and criminal justice agencies and all these people will play a big part in reducing crime, increase public perception, reduce anti-social behavior and, build confidence and trust.
In order to implement the intervention tactics to reduce thefts from vehicles, there should be a number of participants. Various groups should get involved since crime reduction requires a coordinated approach from individuals, communities, government, and organizations.
Local government – the local government administrators should employ an environmental approach in addressing the crime. In other words, they should focus on urban planning initiatives such as protection and security, they should also consider social and economic issues such as lack of employment, poor housing, and social cohesion and more (Spalek, 2013). It is the role and responsibility of the local government to implement prevention strategies such as managing public space, developing policies, implementing crime prevention initiatives and improve street lighting for community safety.
Community- there is no specific number of community members who should play role in crime reduction and this indicates that all citizens should collaborate with police to investigate the root cause of crime and implement creative solutions. It is the role and responsibility of the citizens to come up with ideas and values that should enhance community safety (Spalek, 2013). They are entitled to report the crime, provide the police with information, participate in problem-solving, decision making and creation of crime prevention programmes.
Police officers - in building a safe community and rescue the crime of vehicle theft, all police officers must be the key participants. Police should work together with and local authorities in enforcing and maintaining law and order. They should also have a role in patrolling especially in places where crime is high to reduce fear and build a safe community. Police are obligated to find offenses, offenders and places where anti-social behaviors are high (Spalek, 2013). They should also deter crime, make decisions and enforce the law.
The intervention tactics; that is, tactic patrol and surveillance, community engagement and problem-oriented approaches have common goals of reducing crime in the city. For example, Police patrols are to detect criminal activities, the community is engaged to detect crime and, offenders and police employ the problem-oriented method to provide solutions to the identified problems. This means that all tactics aim at targeting the places, the offender and the offense and more importantly, reduce crime. However, these tactics or approaches differ in terms of the model developed in carrying out the activities toward crime prevention and reduction (Spalek, 2013). Even though the implications of the approaches are the same, each approach has a different model. For example, in targeting the geographical areas, police use surveillance and patrol to detect crime and the offenders. In targeting the offense, the approach on problem-oriented is employed to ensure that once a problem has been detected, there are solution implemented. Finally, police employ community engagement method in finding the offender. This method provides the law enforcement agency with adequate information which assists in understanding the crime, the place as well as the offender. All these intervention tactics toward crime reduction are important and they play a significant role in reducing crime but, the best method is community engagement. Note that the community will report a crime, provide the local government with community condition, play role in surveillance, promote social control over negative behaviors, increase social interaction and report suspicious people (Spalek, 2013). Therefore, community engagement is a significant tactic and can bring far-reaching positive implications.
References
Barak, G. (2009). Criminology: An integrated approach. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Hoover Larry. (2013). Police Crime Control Strategies. Cengage Learning
Spalek, B. (2013). Terror crime prevention with communities. London [u.a.: Bloomsbury.
