Community Crime Profile Survey with Questions
The small community of Hasbrouck Heights, NJ is the one square mile home to a comparatively tiny population of approximately 7,600 people, including myself. I live on a residential street of this small suburban town where a great threat of danger and harm has never really been associated with its name. The crime rate on the city-data.com crime index is a minute 35.6 when compared to the U.S. average of 330.6. In the year of 2002 Wood-Ridge did not experience any murders, rapes, or robberies, and only 1 assault, 35 larceny counts, and 7 auto thefts. This is the main reason why all parties who were surveyed either felt very safe or somewhat safe living their lives in this neighborhood and believe crime has either decreased or stayed the same. All parties surveyed also rated the following services from acceptable to excellent: ambulance, cable television, electric utilities, fire, gas, phone, and police. Then when surveyed about police more closely the answers only varied from good to excellent, with most answers in the excellent range. I found this survey relatively easy to perform. My town issues a small phone book of all persons living in town and I drew names at random and surveyed whoever was willing to offer their time. I surveyed five people ages 18-29, one person age 30-39, seven people ages 40-49, six people ages 50-59, and two people over 69 years of age. Seventeen of these people were male and only four were female, 100% of which was Caucasian. Two parties resided in apartments, while nineteen lived in a house. Eighteen families owned the residence they lived in and three rented, and obviously 100% of them have telephones in their homes. Of the parties surveyed, thirteen had full-time jobs, three were self-employed, one was a student, one was unemployed, and three parties were retired. The five most predominant problems exemplified from this survey were the amount of youths that are hanging out on the streets, the use of alcohol, along with the use of drugs, traffic violations, and vandalism. Throughout this summary, these problems will become more detailed with possible solutions requiring efforts from a majority of the community, including the PTA, church organizations, local media, and everyday people that take part in this neighborhood.
The...
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...1 Don’t Know -- 1
Police:
Excellent -- 12
Good -- 8
Acceptable -- 0
Poor -- 1
Don’t Know -- 0
POLICE CONCERNS
Evaluate current performance of the police in each of following areas:
Quickness in Responding to Calls: Successfully Satisfying Your Call:
Excellent -- 13 Excellent -- 13
Good -- 6 Good -- 6
Acceptable -- 1 Acceptable -- 1
Poor -- 0 Poor -- 0
Don’t Know -- 1 Don’t Know -- 1
Willing to Work With Neighborhood: Vehicle Patrols:
Excellent -- 12 Excellent -- 12
Good -- 5 Good -- 6
Acceptable -- 3 Acceptable -- 2
Poor -- 1 Poor -- 0
Don’t Know -- 0 Don’t Know -- 0
Foot Patrols:
Excellent -- 10
Good -- 3
Acceptable -- 6
Poor -- 2
Don’t Know -- 0
VOLUNTEER WORK
Does your neighborhood have a crime watch program?
Yes -- 0
No -- 4
Don’t know -- 17
If not, would you like your neighborhood to have a crime watch program?
Yes -- 13
No -- 6
Don’t know -- 2
Do you/would you participate in a crime watch program?
Yes -- 13
No -- 2
Don’t know -- 6
Does your neighborhood have a neighborhood association or community group?
Yes -- 0
No -- 17
Don’t know -- 4
Do you/would you participate in the association or group?
Yes -- 13
No -- 6
Don’t know -- 2
Sampson, R. J., Raudenbush, S., & Earls, F. (1997). Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy.
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-...
The text provides some evidence to support this theory in Table 14, ”Index rankings of reported crimes in police incorporating the neighborhoods.” This chart shows Projectville ranked highest in every category except motor v...
In contemporary society, there are various methodologies for collecting data (Linden 2012). That being said, there are pros and cons to each that are based on reliability and validity; where reliability is consistency of the statistics, and validity is a measure of how accurate the results are in accordance with the research topic. This ties in with how this paper will explore the Uniform Crime Report system (UCR); a measure of crime that is used the most. UCR statistics reflect the crimes that are reported to the police throughout the country. victimization and self-report surveys, which are statistics that reinforce the findings revealed by the UCR, will also be explored. Lastly, the issue of media coverage of crime news will be examined.
Measuring the impact of the increased police presence was primarily based on the calls for service the police received from residents in two geographic areas. The two areas were the residential zone which was saturated with police and a comparison area that is also residential and close to the first area but did not experience an increase in police attention. To measure the effect in the study areas, all calls that were received by police one year prior to the incident until August 2008 were collected, and only those calls that dealt with crimes and d...
An anonymous and confidential household survey revealing unreported crimes and showing that anyone can become a victim. Participants are chosen at random according to postcode, providing a mixed sample from alternative areas and backgrounds. Conducted within a person’s home by an impartial interviewer it provides a more comfortable and familiar setting enabling victims to open up and provide clarity and details of crimes that they may otherwise not have reported, such as sexual offences (ONS,2013). Universal questioning methodology means everyone experiences the same questions therefore results should be accurate.
Why are some neighborhoods more prone to experience violent episodes than others? What is the extent and in what sociologically measurable ways do communities contribute to the causation and prevention of crime in their neighborhoods? Are neighborhood-level predictors adequate to explain differences in violent crime rates in the respective communities? These are some of the questions addressed by this statistically intense paper published in Science 1997, by Sampson, Raudenbush and Earls.
If one looks deeper into each side, they can see that these stereotypes are not always true. One big stereotype people have about “the hills” and “the flats” is that the “flats” are more prone to violence than the “hills” because of the exposure to a more difficult lifestyle. However, there are numerous counts of violence and hate that has not been accounted for or heard of in a multitude of neighborhoods. According to FBI.gov, there are 365 violent offenses per 100,000 persons in the United States. In addition, these violent crimes have an impact on those who have seen or experienced it. This number includes robberies, domestic violence, and assault and gang activities. According to a scholarly journal published by Sciencedirect, around thirty
...lly relies mostly on the media for their information regarding crimes in their neighborhoods. The media tends to only broadcast certain information about these occurrences in an attempt to boost the ratings for the news station. The public doesn't get an unbiased opinion of what actually occurred or a chance to know all of the facts. In reality, crimes that are reported are only a fraction of what in fact occurs. Crime statistics do not actually reflect patterns in crime or a risk of victimization and are of little or no use to the public in determining the crime rates for any given neighborhood. Since crime statistics only represent reported crime and not actual crime occurrences they should never be considered exact at any time. Statistical information is available upon request from the government and should only be considered an estimate of the true crime rates.
Crime has always been around in the community. The way crime has been measured and defined has changed over the centuries. The FBI collects data from all the police agencies all over the United States, and puts all the data in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) which has all the crimes committed for decades; however, a lot of crimes are not always reported, so the Uniform Crime Report may not be as accurate as possible. The Measurement of crime will never be the same as earlier in life because our government, and police agencies has improved over the centuries which will make the measurement of crime not as harsh as it was back in the early 1900’s. The measurement of crime will continue to evolve as our government does.
The article for discussion this week regarding “Policing and the Fear of Crime” touched on the significant factors that reference the fear of crime. The article first addresses how people feel about crime in their community. Then it progresses the analysis fear from a collection of data and concepts retrieved from research, surveys, and polls. There was an evaluation done in the seventies and eighties, which showed an overwhelming percentage of people who were fearful of becoming victims of violent crimes. There was data retrieved from polls that suggested people were even limiting their activities because they felt uneasy about walking down the street. The sense of fear traveled across different ages, sexes, and professions. The least frightened group individuals were young men, and the most scared were senior women (Moore & Trojanowicz, 1988). There were also variables such as race, class, and residence that altered the public’s perception about fear of violence. The researchers investigated participants who felt as thou if they were ever to acquire wealth and status, their fears of being victims of crime would reduce dramatically. Next, the article addressed what causes someone to become fearful. It was the possibility of actually becoming a victim of a crime which was a considerable influence on person’s fear of crime. There are also the factors of hearsay information about victimization traveling through word of mouth and social networks that cause people to become fearful. While I was assigned to the Gang Unit, people would always ask the questions about the rumors that get passed around about gangs targeting specific individuals for initiations around certain days and times. During my time on the unit,
There is more than one way to collect statistics on crime. Morgan and Clare (2012) highlight a range of other sources for collecting crime data, one of which includes crime victim surveys. A survey is given to a sample population asking questions in relation to their recent experiences with crime in the last year (Morgan & Clare, 2012, p. 33). As highlighted by both Warren and Clare (2012) and Bishop (2004), crime victim surveys allow the collection of information straight from the victims, generating some variance in information, than that collected by the police. They are also able to reach into the previously mentioned dark figure of crime, by being able to include crimes that may not have been reported to the police. Bishop (2004, p. 69) suggests that because of this “these surveys tend to point to greater rates of crime and victimisation than are indicated by police data.” For example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016) state, “in the 12 months prior to interview in 2014-15, 97,800 persons in Victoria (2.1%) experienced physical assault. Of these, 51,300 (52%) reported the most recent incident to police.” Showing that 46,500 (48%) of people experienced physical assault and didn’t report it. So not all statistics are completely inaccurate and unrepresentative of
According to Rachel Boba, “Crime analysis is a law enforcement function that involves systematic analysis for identifying and analyzing patterns and trends in crime and disorder” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime analysis).The information on these patterns can assist law enforcement agencies in the deployment of resources in a more effective manner; it can also help detectives to identify and catch suspects. Crime analysis also plays a role in improvising solutions to crime problems, and developing crime prevention strategies. There are various types of technology that is used in crime analysis. Crime analysis relies heavily on computer technology, and over the past fifteen years there has been a significant improvement in computer hardware and software that has led to tremendous developments in this field. One form of hardware that is used by Crime analysts to complete most of their work is Desktop personal computers, laptop computers are also used by crime analysts for fieldwork and presentations. Other forms of hardware that are used include color laser printers that can produce high-quality documents quickly, plotters which are printers that can produce large poster size color maps, scanners, and digital cameras, these specific types of hardware is mostly used by police departments when analyzing crime.
From 1991-2000, statistically there was a dramatic decline in crime nationally. The statistics studied were of all categories of crimes considered serious, including: homicides which decreased by 39%; rape which decreased by 41%; robbery which decreased by 44%; aggravated assault which decreased by 24%; burglary which decreased by 41%; auto theft which decreased by 37%; and larceny which decreased by 23%. The statistics show a range of decline of 23-44%! (United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation 1990, 2000. Uniform Crime Report. Washington, D.C.) The evidence indicates that the benefit of declining crime rates are concentrated on specific groups with...
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...