Neighborhood Watch Program
According to National Sheriffs Association, “Neighborhood Watch is one of the oldest and best-known crime prevention concepts in North America (2010).”When the National Sheriffs Association established the Neighborhood Watch Program in 1972, the main purpose of the program was to educate individuals about securing their homes to reduce the chances of being victimized by criminals (National Sheriffs Association, 2010). However, as time went on Neighborhood Watch Programs took on a proactive role in helping to reduce crime by encouraging individuals to collaborate with their local law enforcement agency to monitor and report suspicious activities in the community.
However, different communities suffered from different types of crimes; therefore, if a neighborhood watch program is to be effective, the participants in the program must examine, which types of crimes are occurring in their community, and which neighborhood watch program will be most effective for their community. For example, if the neighborhood is suffering from gang and drug activity, then the program must address these issues. The members in the watch group must examine different ways to stop these types of behaviors from occurring within their community. In this report, one will examine different types of Neighborhood Watch Programs, some of which have been around for 30 years. This report will focus on how criminological theories may offer an insight into why Neighborhood Watch Program helps to reduce crimes within a community. Neighborhood watch programs allow individuals in the communities to take back the streets from the criminals, and restore the pride of the community by uniting the members for the purpose of reducing crimes wi...
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Solutions used to deter and prevent crime in the film End of Watch (Ayer, 2012) focused on police and the duties officers perform while on patrol. In the movie police officers played a central role in the capture of many gang and drug cartel members. This was told through the perspective of officers Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala. Therefore, the solution to crime concentrated on the police involvement, in this case Taylor and Zavala, through their presence, protection, arrests, and investigations. This solution could be generalized and would be possible through the hard work of dedicated police officers.
Burglaries, robberies, and shootings, all of which may leave victims or innocent bystanders severely hurt or dead, are now frequent enough to concern all urban and many suburban residents. Living in a dangerous environment places young people at risk of falling victim to such malicious and aggressive behavior observed and learned from others. Social institution such as education, family, religion, peer groups, etc., play a major role in the influence of crime in the urban neighborhoods that Anderson describes. As said in the essay, "although almost everyone in poor inner-...
Sampson, R., Raudenbush, S., & Earls, F. (1997). Neighborhoods and violent crime: a multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science, 277, 918-924.
Therefore, the community has informal social control, or the connection between social organization and crime. Some of the helpful factors to a community can be informal surveillance, movement-governing rules, and direct intervention. They also contain unity, structure, and integration. All of these qualities are proven to improve crime rate. Socially disorganized communities lack those qualities. According to our lecture, “characteristics such as poverty, residential mobility, and racial/ethnic heterogeneity contribute to social disorganization.” A major example would be when a community has weak social ties. This can be caused from a lack of resources needed to help others, such as single-parent families or poor families. These weak social ties cause social disorganization, which then leads higher levels of crime. According to Seigel, Social disorganization theory concentrates on the circumstances in the inner city that affect crimes. These circumstances include the deterioration of the neighborhoods, the lack of social control, gangs and other groups who violate the law, and the opposing social values within these neighborhoods (Siegel,
According to Peak, Gaines, and Glensor (2010), “Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving is a concept whose time has come. This movement holds tremendous promise for creating police-community partnerships to reclaim our communities and keep our streets safe” (p. 84). Community-oriented policing has helped criminal justice managers and community leaders’ work together to solve various types of issues.
Mirsky I (2009). Community Oriented Policing. Internet Journal of Criminology. April 11, 2011. Available at http://www.internetjournalofcriminology.com/Mirsky_Community_Oriented_Policing.pdf
The Phoenix Crime Free Multi-Housing program is intended to help keep unlawful activity and drugs off the premises of owners, residents, and rental property managers. This program was designed for residents to have the chance to distribute the subject information with the police, which will help create and preserve a secure housing environment. The program is driven to develop and solve solutions for current problems in the community. Addition, Crime Free Multi-Housing has proven to be trustworthy and successful in reducing the occurrences of criminal activities in
The new philosophies of problem-oriented policing and community-oriented policing have started numerous discussions. Throughout time, researchers have questioned whether or not problem-oriented or community-oriented policing is the most effective approach in reducing crime, disorder and the fear of crime. Researchers have built on quite an extensive amount of literature, in the quest of discovering the effectiveness of both policing methods. However, while researchers have argued that both policing method have proven to be efficient in reducing crime, fear and disorder, these researchers have also argued that both methods have the potential to fail if not implemented suitably (Weisburd, Telep, Hinkle and Eck 2010; Scott 2006; Sciarabba 2009, Kerley and Benson 2000; Mirsky 2009; Rubenser 2005).
Community policing has emerged since the 1970s as an increasingly important strategy for controlling and preventing crime and enhancing community safety. It is both a philosophy and an organizational strategy that allows the police and the community to work closely together in creative ways to solve the problems of crime, drugs, fear of crime, physical and social disorder, neighborhood decay, and the overall quality of life in the community. Community policing is difficult to define. Although it does not have a single definition, there are many elements of community policing.
The field of criminology has produced multiple theories, each that shaped the perception of how crimes occur in a neighborhood and by viewing these various impressions this can help explain why crimes occur. However, four criminological theories have developed the different perspectives of researchers and outlooks of the field. These approaches have enhanced society by allowing it to analyze crime by establishing an empirical foundation that way to assess which approach is most useful and regulate the difference between a good theory and a bad theory. Every method experiences level of criticisms from either researchers or public policies, however, the focus is only based on four principles that way there can be an assessment to decide which approach is viewed as right or wrong. In order, to determine which approach can be considered a good theory versus a bad theory there needs to be essential elements that give support for each theory. There needs to be criticism, however, with enough empirical evidence that can determine which
Community policing is a strategy used by various departments in order to create and maintain a relationship between the law enforcement agency and the community being patrolled. Community policing is composed of three critical components, community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving (Gardiner, 154, 2016). Community partnerships are pivotal in community policing since they increase public trust and create am improved relationship in law enforcement agencies better serving the community (Gardiner, 87, 2016). These partnerships not only offer public input but also encourage the public to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in order to minimize crime within the community (Gardiner, 88, 2016). Unlike, the traditional strategies of policing, community orientated policing has been adopted by two-thirds of agencies in order to improve public safety and control crime. (Gardiner, 148, 2016).
There are many different ways of policing in the 21st century and all address and apply different theories and ideas to try and control the crime this day in age. One of these methods is called community policing and many law enforcement agencies around our country and the world use it as a model for policing and interacting with communities. Community policing is based on the belief that policing agencies should partner with communities with the goals to prevent or reduce the amount of crime in those areas (Pollock, 2012 p. 99). There are 3 main aspects of community policing that I will talk about in this paper and they are community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving. After hearing about the
Neighborhood watch is one of the most popular and widely used community crime prevention programs in the world. It is estimated that around 41% of United States neighborhood watch programs cover neighborhoods. Neighborhood watch originated out of Seattle, Washington and then spread continuously throughout the United States and United Kingdom (Bennett, Holloway, Farrington, 2...
The key aspects to community policing involve having officers working in permanent neighborhoods, the involvement of citizens to identify problems and have potential solutions, and the reliance on agencies to help locate issues. The cornerstone of the program is the citizen interaction with the police. It is reported that communities that receive community policing funds have reduced levels of violent and property crimes, also has a greater number of arrests. Successful partnership helps with the reduction of gang and drug activities, area crime rate, and the improvement of the relationship between law enforcement and