History of the Policy
Boston (as well as much of America) was experiencing an epidemic of youth gun-homicide through the late 1980s and 1990s. The violence in Boston was mostly concentrated in the lower income inner city neighborhoods. “Youth homicide (ages 24 and under) in Boston increased 230% - from 22 victims in 1987 to 73 in 1990. Between 1991 and 1995, Boston averaged about 44 youth homicides a year.” (Kennedy). The approach Operation Ceasefire (The name of the Gun Policy) went with was a Problem oriented policing approach focusing on the concentrated areas where crime was more prevalent. Illicit gun trafficking and gang violence were main causes of the gun violence in Boston. These two problems were the main focus of the operation.
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It was also co-directed by David M. Kennedy, Anthony A. Braga, and Anne M. Piehl of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (where most of my information comes from). The operation had assembled techniques with qualitative and quantitative traits, took a look at what was driving youth violence in Boston, used intervention after implementation techniques and ultimately evaluated the interventions impact on the neighboring area. The Boston Gun Project Working Group regularly participated in the operation. There were other agencies that participated as well which included the
Boston Police Department; Massachusetts departments of probation and parole; the Suffolk County district attorney; the office of the United States Attorney; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (juvenile corrections); Boston school police; and gang outreach and prevention street workers attached to the Boston Community center program. Other important partners with more intermittent participation include the Ten Points Coalition, the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Massachusetts State Police.
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Talking to the gang members and community groups in a meeting setting is the main prevention strategy. Everyone in the community is informed that gang violence has a zero tolerance in the city of Boston. Only an end to increasing gang violence will stop new gang activities. These activities should ultimately with other law enforcement and grassroots community strategies (Operation). Operation Ceasefire is based on “pulling levers” deterrence strategies, which focus criminal justice enforcement on small numbers of regular offenders and the youth that are involved gangs (Kennedy). Early evaluations suggested that the ceasefire operation was in fact associated with the significant reduction in “youth homicide victimization, shots fired, calls for service, and gun assaults in Boston.” (Barga). Within two years of starting Operation Ceasefire, “the number of youth homicides dropped to ten, with one handgun-related youth homicide occurring in 1999 and 2000” (Rushefsky). “After a change in supervising personnel within the Boston police department and city government, this first site was abandoned. Youth homicides began to climb again with 37 in 2005 and reaching a peak of 52 in 2010.”
Schmidt, L. M., & O'Reilly, J. T. (2007). Gangs and Law Enforcement: A Guide for Dealing with Gang-Related Violence. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher, LTD.
Gun violence in youth has become much more prevalent. Today’s youth are more likely to turn to guns to solve their problems with bullies or to help them to fight a mental illness. Kids are taking guns from their parents or are just going to the streets and buying the guns from random people. Although there are jurisdictions that have started to use gun violence programs to help combat these issues the programs are not found everywhere and are not going to work forever. One such program that we will learn about later on is Operation Ceasefire.
"Children, Youth, and Gun Violence: Analysis." Princeton. The Future of Children, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. .
In 2003 as a response to communities with a large amount and growing number of youth gangs the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, initiated the Gang Reduction Program (GRP) (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). The formation of gangs is seen as a response to system failures and community dysfunction. As a result, one of OJJPD’s anti-gang initiatives is to make communities safer and have a pro-social environment (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). Furthermore, OJJDP plans to provide economic and social opportunities that gangs often promise to new recruits which are often obtained in an illegal and dangerous fashion (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). OJJDP believes that the GRP is capable of addressing the underlying issues for the increasing popularity and intensity of gang activity in specific suburban and rural neighborhoods (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). The program takes an integrative approach to dealing with the issue of increasing membership and participation with gangs. The following will discuss the program’s goal, theoretical basis, methods of operation, and overall effectiveness. After reviewing these major aspects of the GRP I will personally assess the value of this program and conclude whether or not the evidence supporting the program’s efficiency is strong enough for me to recommend it for implementation.
According to the National Gang Center, the change is gangs from 2002-2007: +12% in larger cities, +33% in suburban counties, +27% smaller cities and +24% in rural counties (National Youth Gang Center, 2009). The gang problem in the United States of America has been getting worse since the first gang was formed by Irish immigrants in the early 1800s. For low income and areas with high population, gang involvement with youths has also been getting worse. Regarding gang-related homicides, it is for difficult data collection industries to gather correct information because after a murder is committed it must be determined whether the murder is gang-related or not. But despite that, reports of gang-related murders are concentrated mostly in the large cities in the United States of America. Including San Jose, where there are long standing and persistent gang problems, which mean there are a larger number of documented gang members. There are literally thousands of anti-gang advocacy groups because there are so many concerned parents. These groups support politicians who are working to try to create legislation to reduce the gang problem in the United States of America. There are a number of theories on how to combat the gang problem, but a strategy which rarely fails is to take small steps in progress and continue to move forward.. There will never be a perfect solution that solves every aspect of a problem. But one policy that covers a wide range of issues involving gangs is the United States Constitutional bill S.132, “Gang Abatement and Prevention Act of 2009.” It is the most extensive and sophisticated piece of gang legislation to appear in the last decade, it has many objectives on increasing and enhancing law enforcement resources committed to the investigation and prosecution of violent gangs. It has had more supporters from both parties than any anti-gang bill in the last decade. S.132, “The Gang Abatement and Prevention Act of 2009” has the potential to deter and punish violent gang crime, to protect law-abiding citizens and communities from violent criminals, to revise and enhance criminal penalties for violent crimes, to expand and improve gang prevention programs; it will give jobs back to police officers such as those in San Jose who lost their jobs and will help law enforcement indentify gang crimes to be able to put murderers behind bars faster.
The dramatic increase of gun violence in Chicago has many questioning the effectiveness of state policies and police tactics. For many Chicagoans, gun violence is a common occurrence and this would not be the first time in which a big spike has been observed. In fact, Chicago was doing well overall in each crime category until recently in 2016, when they ended the year with 762 homicides victims that were gun related. Towards the end of 2016, Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago, had a press conference with the communities at the Malcom X College. He goes into detail of how he hopes to see a sharp decline on the heavy issue of gun violence surrounding their city. It’s an issue in which the mayor says will only work through a combined effort of its
Street Gangs are becoming popular in many cities across the country. According to the Department of Justice's 2005 National Gang Threat Assessment, there are at least 21,500 gangs and more than 731,000 active gang members (Grabianowski). Gangs bring fear and violence to neighborhoods, drugs, destroy property, involve youth in crimes and drive out businesses. When you have gangs in a community, it affects everyone in the community. An alarming amount of young adults are joining gangs and becoming involved in illegal activity. Most gangs have a rule that when you join the gang you are a member of the gang for life. Gangs can be removed from our communities with more community involvement and education.
Although in practice the STEP Act helps pinpoint gang members and brings awareness to crimes in the community. There are some who argue that the STEP Act is applied disproportionately to minorities. Countless first hand interaction with the criminal justice system have continued to reinforce the claim. In order to prevent street terrorism, I believe the first step is creating programs that deal with the prevention of joining gangs at an individual level. Examples of prevention are mentoring programs, investing in after school programs and providing opportunity for trade school and support for those who are trying to leave the gang life. These are some of the options that can prevent street terrorism.
Rostron, Allen, and Brian Siebel. "No Gun Left Behind: The Gun Lobby's Campaign to Push Guns into Colleges and Schools." Www.bradycampaign.org. N.p.: Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 2007. 9-11. Rpt. in Juvenile Crime. Ed. Louise I. Gerdes. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
CNN presents the documentary, Homicide in Hollenbeck, spotlighting gang activity in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollenbeck. This documentary explores the subculture of gangs existing within Hollenbeck from a several perspectives. The people documented include a mother who lost both of her sons to gang violence, a priest that has tried to help rehabilitate gang members, a police officer that has worked in Hollenbeck for five years in the gang unit, and a current gang member. For a conclusion, Homicide in Hollenbeck focuses on a juvenile exposed to gang life on the cusp of decided where they want their life to lead; gangs or freedom. Problems attributed to the high rate of gang activity and number of gangs in Hollenbeck are the high poverty rate, low employment rate, and broken families that make up the majority of Hollenbeck. The crime most discussed, as per the title of the documentary, is homicide The number of gang related homicides has risen even though the criminal behavior of gangs has ultimately decreased in the neighborhood. In order to fight the overwhelming gang presence, the police believe in increasing the amount of gun power on the streets and number of jailed gang members. The priest who runs Homeboy Industries stated that he feels most gang members are just young men who can’t get out of the gang life. With more funds and opportunities, he thinks the problem could be decreased. In the end, the documentary mentions that the FBI has formed a gang center where local law enforcement agencies can share information to gain more knowledge and to better fight the presence of gangs.
The first chapter of Policing Gangs in America is entitled, “Studying the Police Response to Gangs.” The primary purpose of the chapter is to establish how police agencies; Inglewood, Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Phoenix in specific, respond to gang problems in their respective areas. This chapter served as an introduction, giving a brief history of gang-related policing, how the public and media see the gang problem, research studies done regarding gangs and the recent declaration to shift away from suppression-oriented strategies as a result of overly aggressive actions toward citizens. Examples of this misconduct are given in the forms of gang units from Las Vegas, Chicago and Houston.
Spergel, I., Chance, R., Ehrensaft, K., Regulus, T., Cane, K., Laseter, R., . . . Alexander, A. (1994, October). Gang Suppression and Intervention: Community Models Research Summary. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/gangcorr.pdf
In this case a large engineering consulting firm was contracted by the government to perform civil engineering work for the installation of equipment that would be later used to train firefighters. Prior to the actual work being commenced on site, Donald J. Giffels, president of the consulting firm soon realized through careful observation that there was a significant amount of ambiguity in how critical safety systems were to be designed. In this situation, what are the ethical issues that the consulting firm faces in accepting such a contract from the government. What is the optimal strategy in responding to what Donald J. .Giffels identified as an unacceptable lapse in safety. These two important questions are discussed in further detail with a conclusion of noteworthy facts surrounding this case following.
You can’t turn on the television, or read the paper without hearing about violence in our cities and world. In a report from “Stand Up for Kids” in Chicago, they analyze the relationship between low wages, income inequality, and the epidemic of violence in Chicago’s low income neighborhoods. This report found that in 2012 there were nearly 7,700 gun-related crimes reported in the city. The city of Chicago has the third highest overall metropolitan poverty rate in the nation. Nearly one quarter of all Chicago residents live below the federal poverty threshold according to this report. ("Chicago Not Only Leads the Nation in Gun Violence Rates, but Also in Measures of Urban Poverty." Stand Up Chicago, 1 Feb. 2013. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.) Decades of research have demonstrated that there is a statistically significant link between low wages, income inequality and crime. The analysis presented in this report shows that when a city’s economic conditions improve, the violent crime rates go down.( "Chicago Not Only Leads the Nation in Gun Violence Rates, but Also in Measures of Urban Poverty." Stand Up Chicago, 1 Feb. 2013. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.) Parents and children are turning to violent acts to provide for their family needs. Policy makers and the government need to address the issues of persistent poverty and income inequality such as raising the minimum wage to a living wage and create satisfying jobs for the
Otero, Juan. “Curbing street gang violence,” National League of Cities. 21 Dec 1998. General Reference Center Gold. Jan 2007