After School Programs: The Root Cause Of Crime

There will always be a correlation between the type of crime and the afflicted area that is being studied. The connection between the criminal activity and where it is taking place depends on many factors. There is no one right answer as to why the crime rate is higher in some communities than it is in others, but there is always going to be a root cause. Studies have shown that the criminal activity including drug use, has a relationship with the location of the communities’ schools (Willits, 2013). Facts such as these bring up many questions. Does there need to be more funding for after school programs, or are there too many outside influences that affect a child’s decision to involve themselves in criminal activity? The kids affected by

The “after-school gap” ranges from 20-25 hours a week for most students. This is the time where boredom kicks in and the children decide to experiment with alcohol and drugs. Their urge to do so increases by almost 50%, according to the 2006 study by Chait. According to the FBI’s UCR, juveniles under the age of 18 accounted for 16% of the total number of violent crimes in 2005. This statistic converts to two million arrests of the youth in America. These numbers need to be reduced in order to make a change and the implementation of mandatory afterschool programs could have a large impact on these stats. Teens who do not participate in after school activities raise their chances of participating in drug use, abusing alcohol, smoking cigarettes, engaging in sexual intercourse, and also are three times more likely to skip class. (YMCA, 2001) The impact of the afterschool programs might not be immediate, but if a positive trend begins to take shape, this could affect future generations of children in a positive way. Many police chiefs agree that expanding after school and child care programs will reduce the amount of juvenile crime and violence. These polices chiefs also say, “If America does not make greater investments in after-school and educational child care programs to help children and youth now, we will pay far more later in crime, welfare and

Along with many other reasons, this is partly due to the “Broken Windows” theory. This theory basically states that cleaning up these neighborhoods and not allowing small crimes to go by the way side will eventually effect the rate that more serious crimes occur in the future. By cracking down on crimes such as vandalism in these communities will deter future crime from happening. There have been many revitalization projects created over the years in order to clean up some of these urban communities. The reasoning for these renewal projects is to stray away from the common theme or idea that “signs of physical disorder invite social disorder”. (Spader, 2016) If the neighborhood you live in looks run down, then some people will treat it as just that. In recent years the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program has funded local policy makers to refurbish or even demolish vacant homes. In doing so, their goal was to prevent the crime in that area from leaking over into the near-by communities. Over the span of three rounds of funding, the NSP has financed over 7 billion dollars in order to revitalize communites in America. (Spader, 2016) The presence of vacant buildings invites many different crimes to take place in these areas. These crimes including but not limited to, arson, squatting, robbery, etc. These buildings allow crime to take place unseen with