Over the past twenty years, the prison system has grown and crime has increased dramatically. Since last year, violent crime rates have increased fifteen percent and property crime rates have increased twelve percent. Police are now present at almost every public corner, every school, every workplace, and every community across the nation yet the crime rates are still increasing. The "militarization of the police" in America is doing little to help decrease crime rates and is becoming a large part of American life today (Madar). As a social problem, crime represents a deviation from social norms and is a result of lack of education, unemployment rates, and issues with the legal system.
The issues with education begin "early in the academic system" (Vindis). By the fourth grade, thirty-one percent of students are behind on the NAEP (National Assessment of Education Progress) standards with the trend running through eighth grade students, as well. Without proper education, people lack the skills necessary to enter the adult world, attend college, and obtain good paying jobs in order to support themselves and their families, resulting in crime. Neighborhoods and cities with high crime rates also tend to have high dropout rates, high poverty levels, and high unemployment levels. For example, East St. Louis, IL is a U.S city with high crime rates. The average educational level of the United States is a five with ten being the most educated. St. Louis' educational level is ranked at three; below national average. It is also among the fifteen percent lowest income communities in America with 34.6% of children in poverty and one school district with 85.6% of the student body economically disadvantaged. In East St. Louis, vio...
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Ellis-Christensen, Tricia, and O. Wallace. "What Are Some Social Problems?" WiseGeek. Conjecture, 11 Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
Grabmeier, Jeff. "Higher Crime Rate Linked To Low Wages And Unemployment, Study Finds." Higher Crime Rate Linked To Low Wages And Unemployment, Study Finds. Ohio State University, 10 Apr. 2002. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
"Increasing Educational Productivity." U.S. Department of Education. Ed.gov, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
Madar, Chase. "The Over-Policing of America." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 09 Dec. 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
Snyder, Michael. "Crime Is Getting Worse: Violent Crime In America Increased By 15 Percent Last Year." Infowars. Infowars.com, 25 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.
Vindis, Miha. "The Decline of American Education." Home. University of Texas at Austin, 25 July 2012. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.
Policing is a very difficult, complex and dynamic field of endeavor that is always evolves as hard lessons teach us what we need to know about what works and what don’t work. There are three different Era’s in America’s policing: The Political Era, The Reform Era, and The Community Problem Solving Era. A lot has changed in the way that policing works over the years in the United States.
Through the first chapter of this book the focus was primarily on the notion of controlling crime. The best way to describe crime policy used in this chapter is comparing it to a game of ‘heads I win, tails you lose’. This chapter also addresses the causes for decline in America’s
There has been a significant surge in murder and violent crimes in San Antonio this year. “According to a recent study, the violent crime rate is projected to grow by 52.5 percent by December, the highest spike among 21 of the nation’s largest cities” (Eaton). So what is the reason for this massive increase in San Antonio crime? The San Antonio police chief, William McManus stated that “there is no one reason why violent crime and murder are rising so fast — both locally and nationwide” (Eaton). His answer coincides with my hypothesis and research outcomes as well. My research shows that San Antonio’s crime rate increase can be attributed to a myriad of social, economic, and governmental factors. These include, but are not limited to, population
Crime is a part of society encompases the news and the public. A variety of studies of media content have estimated that as much as 25 percent of the daily news is devoted to crime (Surette 1992) and that crime is the largest major category of stories in the print and electronic media (Chermak 1994, 103). (Lawrence 18). With crime at an all time high, police are constantly having to deal with more and more issues. This can lead to stressed out and fed up officers, which can lead to poor decisions by an officer. The use of force by police is a highly controversial topic as it raises questions about a government’s ability to use force against its citizens (Lawrence 19). Today’s society is caught up on the ideals of civility and equality before the law, making police use of force a touchy
Violent Crime Up, Property Crime Down." FBI. FBI, 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2014.
There was a decline in crime during the 1990s. Our country enjoyed seven years of declining crime for the period 1991-98, the most recent data available. During this period crime declined by 22% and violent crime by 25%. These are welcome developments, particularly following the surge of crime and violence of the late 1980s. This decline occurred during a time when the national prison population has increased substantially, rising from 789,60 in 1991 to 1,252,830, a 59% rise in just seven years and a 47% increase in the rate of incarceration, taking into account changes in the national population (Mauer 21-24).
The American Education System has been a core component to the development of generations since it became a public system in the 1870s. Since then more rules, higher expectations for some, and even lower expectations for others have been added to the original structure. In recent years, many debates have surfaced over whether the American education system is failing. Too few they believe the American Education System is on the right track. Most researchers however have shown statistics that it is in fact slowly declining as new acts and regimens are added. It has been on a downward spiral for years and citizens have been watching it happen, the lack of government funding, acts like the No Child Left behind Act, focus in the wrong places, and the curriculum set up is acting as a deterrent for success.
66. Americans rank crime among the nations greatest problems. Crime can touch people of all lifestyles, race, and ethnicity. Public polls further illustrate that people in America remain fearful of crime without realizing that serious crime has declined since the record-setting years of the early 1980’s. However, many people still believe that crime rates are rising in United States. The news media and politicians help to keep the public’s attention focused on crime. This attention also keeps people fearful of crime in America. FBI data further supports that there is no national crime wave to fear. Most people will not experience crime directly but instead learn about it indirectly. Researchers believe that conversations with friends may help to magnify the amount of local violence. Fear of crime forces many Americans to “stay of the streets” and away from dangerous areas.
Crime in this country is an everyday thing. Some people believe that crime is unnecessary. That people do it out of ignorance and that it really can be prevented. Honestly, since we live in a country where there is poverty, people living in the streets, or with people barely getting by, there will always be crime. Whether the crime is robbing food, money, or even hurting the people you love, your family. You will soon read about how being a criminal starts or even stops, where it begins, with whom it begins with and why crime seems to be the only way out sometimes for the poor.
American policing originated from early English law and is profoundly influenced by its history. Early law enforcement in England took on two forms of policing, one of which heavily influenced modern policing and it is known as the watch (Potter, 2013). The watch consisted, at first, of volunteers which had to patrol the streets for any kind of disorder including crime and fire. After men attempted to get out of volunteering by paying others, it became a paid professional position (Walker & Katz, 2012). The three eras of policing in America are shaped by these early ideas and practices of law enforcement. Throughout time, sufficient improvements and advancements have been made from the political era to the professional era and finally the community era which attempts to eliminate corruption, hire qualified officers and create an overall effective law enforcement system.
Crime is an extremely prominent part of American society. Recorded activity within the US saw 10,329,135 (1,246,248 violent crimes and 9,082,887 property crimes) crimes perpetrated with 62.5% of all violent crimes pertained to aggravated assault and 68.2% of all property crimes were considered larceny-theft in 2010. (FBI.2011) Despite the large number of crimes the United States also has the largest number of incarcerated citizens per capita in the world with nearly a quarter of the world’s prisoners coming from the United States’ 5% of the world population. This is due to much harder punishments in the US than those that are given a shorter longer period of incarceration or merely fined in other countries.(Liptak 2008) Due to the prevalence of crime in the US, economists have used models to explain the behavior and ramifications of government actions and the motivations behind crime and its effect on society that psychologists and sociologists are usually unable to address.
Modern policing plays a vital role in today’s society. More importantly, the introduction of modern technology contributed to the success of police operation. Both the problem oriented policing and community policing are significant in today’s modern society in solving and preventing crimes. Before modern policing came around in the second quarter of the 19th century, law-enforcers usually consisted of soldiers, city watchmen, guards or other people of authority or military experience. As late as the 1700s, modern police had not yet arrived on the scene as we do today. In today’s society, problem oriented and community policing link vitally for the safety and well-being of people in solving and preventing crimes, and the success thereof is contributed largely to the introduction of modern technology. As it’s written in the Criminal justice in Canada by Colin Goff (six editions) “police patrols didn’t reduce the crime rate; detectives didn’t solve a lot of crime; and arrests didn’t necessarily deter would-be criminal” which tells us that policing was not good in the 80s comparing to today. This led to communities hiring private security companies to protect them. According to Sherman (1986) “citizens weren’t calling the police to report crimes and were living with significant fear of crime.” Until (1979) when Herman Goldstein published an article which changed the style of policing, which indi...
In our times, the police have become the criminals. Some police are using their power to do bad things, and society has come to fear police. The law enforcement system needs change. The courts have failed the police, and the police have turn to other means of justice. We must stop the corruption in the police force.
Kappeler, V.E. & Gaines, L.K. (2009). “Community policing: a contemporary perspective.” Fifth Edition. Newark, NJ: Matthew Bender & Company.
Although violent crime fell and poverty was on the rise a few key distinctions must be made here. Firstly, the result of the United States having the highest prison population in the world can be partly attributed to crime rising dramatically in the past 40 years (NeyFakh 1). Now, the Bureau of Justice reports that prison population fell 1% at the end of 2014 with its population at its smallest since 2005. This is the largest decline in more than 35 years (BJS 1). However, John Pfaff argues that even though we are having fewer arrests we are actually putting more people in prison. As mentioned, even though crime has fallen more people are put in prison even though arrests are low. Also, statistically speaking, it is very difficult to compute