Approaches to Crime Prevention
Crime prevention can precisely be referred to as the strategies that individuals, communities, businesses, non-governmental organizations, communities and all government levels can implement in targeting various environmental and social factors that increase the risk of occurrence of crimes and disordered events of victimization. France (2007) attests that governments, businesses and the community utilize different approaches to counter crime. The approaches differ based the activities undertaken and the underlying concepts and theory. These are designed in the most appropriate way in order to achieve the main goal of preventing crime (France, 2007).
Crime prevention is viewed by most people as to the reason why criminal laws are enacted and enforced. Lawyers and other officials of the judicial system believe that crime is a moral failure of the wrong doer (Morgan, 2012). Law enforcement and restricting the wrong doer to some limits is viewed as the only appropriate way of containing crime. This is the reason why policy makers in the United States recommend and call for harsh penalties (Morgan, 2012). Most countries and states across the world utilize the criminal justice system to counter crimes. The criminal justice system further achieves this by employing services rendered by law enforcement, courts and correction programs. Use of community policing and interplay by family interventions also helps in reducing crimes (France, 2007).
Every year millions of criminal cases are filed in local, tribal, federal and state courts. The court system is composed of different courts each designated with its own mandate. Trial courts that are mandated with hearing and determining civil and criminal cases are the most common (Morgan, 2012). Appellate courts are supposed to review cases which have been concluded at the trial courts. The last court is the Supreme Court, which is the superior and of last resort for any case in a judicial system. All these courts aim at reducing incidences of crimes which affect individuals and the society (Schneider, 2010).
Klofas et al. (2010) observes that services offered by the police include; patrols, conducting investigations, responding to calls and making arrests. Law enforcement through police becomes effective when they work together with various community agencies like municipal leaders, social services, school boards and chiefs (Klofas et al., 2010). Analysis of work records from England and United States police have shown that the routine practices which they carryout have had a zero impact at the rate which crimes occur. Increasing patrols and youths arrests needs to be incorporated with other agencies for their services to be considered of utmost help. An example of such positive results was realized in Canada. This was after Edmonton police services carried out an experiment (Klofas et al., 2010). Together with communities that were at great risks of crime occurring, they identified black spots. They developed and integrated crime prevention strategies that reduced the incidences of crime by 41% over a four year period. A further 31% reduction was noted in the number of violent crimes like murder that were reported (Klofas et al., 2010).
For community policing to yield such results and be successful, police need to engage their respective communities in substantive crime prevention strategies. According to the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, this proactive approach is the best community policy that will control crime (Schneider, 2010). This method is both cost effective and efficient. Working with such groups and agencies that influence causes of crime cannot be undermined.
The role played by the police; courts and prisons valuable, but their way of solving and preventing crimes can be enhanced. Studies conducted by Schneider (2010) show that adding police to the streets and sentencing more people to behind bars is not the only and best way that can help solve the crime. Back in 1990, Canada’s police force was reduced by 11% while that of United States was increased by the same amount. That year the number of crimes committed reduced at an equal rate in both countries. Further studies from United States show that helping youth complete school is cheap than incurring costs in correctional treatment. In achieving 10% reduction in crimes by imprisonment, it costs the government seven times more than if it helped the youth complete their studies. Correctional treatment costs Canada $2.5 billion per year (Morgan, 2012).
Another safe crime prevention mechanism is the environmental approach. This approach seeks to alter the properties of the environment that may propagate the occurrence of crimes (Morgan, 2012). This encompasses situational approaches and the general planning activities. The physical environment needs some change to eliminate risks that threatens individuals to crimes. Situational crime prevention strategies assume crime is opportunistic, and it intends to limit chances for offenders to engage in criminal activities. This is done through identification of the situation, manipulating and controlling the situation in regard to the environmental factors associated with the crime (Morgan, 2012).
In conclusion, comprehensive partnership and cooperation among government ministries, authorities, civil society, business sector and individuals is mandatory in crime prevention. This makes sense due to the large number of crimes, their cause, skills and knowledge needed to curb them. Policies and programs should be based on a broad foundation of knowledge with evidence for causes of the crime
References
Fisher, B., & Lab, S. P. (2010). Encyclopedia of victimology and crime prevention. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications.
France, A. (2007). Pathways and crime prevention: theory, policy, and practice. Cullompton, Devon, UK: Willan Pub..
Klofas, J., Hipple, N. K., & McGarrell, E. F. (2010). The new criminal justice American communities and the changing world of crime control. New York: Routledge.
Morgan, A. (2012). Effective crime prevention interventions for implementation by local government. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.
Schneider, S. (2010). Crime prevention: theory and practice. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
