Crime Control in America Essay

People began to ask question on why people committed crime. In the beginning people used religion to answer these question, they thought that even before an individual’s birth, people were predetermined to be either good or evil by the spirit that they consisted of. This was followed by the idea that people into specific circumstances that made people more prone to being criminals. Many people researched this theory in order to find where the truth lay, some experiments were conducted which ranged from criminologist looking at characteristics of a mere 400 criminals to gathering data from 13,873 to prove their hypothesis. Time has changed how many people view crime, based on the general public’s intellect. As a people in general becomes smarter they are able to separate the implausible theory and have used logic to better understand criminals

When we get into how society and people look at crime, it happens in every city, every neighborhood, people are victims every day, businesses, and even property. Crime dates back since colonization and the rates have varied over time, believe it or not, crime has decreased over the years. As a matter of fact, the United States has been on a decline. The crime rate for the year 2000 was a total of 11,608,072 a declining year in 2015 with a total of 9,225,197. (U.S. Department of Justice)

Different states in America have varying demographics when it comes to race, income, joblessness, and more, and states also vary when it comes to crime rates. The relationships between economic factors and crime rates are not direct, for example, Alaska has had the 3rd highest median house income but also has had some of the highest violent crime rates in the country. Being able to predict crime rates in a geographical area such as a state is important for public policy and law enforcement regarding making informed decisions. These decisions can help create efficient anti-crime policies. The United States of America was used as the geographical unit of study excluding Alaska, New Jersey, and Hawaii due to missing data. This paper examines which factors related to economics and demographics are linked to the crime rate. Inequality has been theorized to increase crime rates due to ecological factor of crime (Merton, 1938; Shaw & McKay, 1942; Becker, 1968). Certain factors including race are more prevalently associated with inequalities which is why they are included in the analysis.

Throughout history various schools of thought have been created; all attempting to explain why people commit crimes, how to identify criminals, and how we should react to these criminals. These early theories were predominantly deterministic, meaning they all believed there was some trait that can differentiate criminals and non-criminals. Determinism is an important part of the history of criminology and has had a large impact on modern criminology; but these theories are inherently problematic and have some very unfortunate implications.

The three functions I believe that should maintain preserved after the decision of police service cut are deterring crime through routine patrol duties, such as foot patrol in high crime areas and driving through neighborhoods to create a sense of omnipresence, conducting follow-up investigations, processing evidence, serving search warrants, and making arrests and maintaining order, the sense of safety and security, and peace keeping. Patrol duties are essential to the communities, especially the ones that have a high rate of crime. If the people in those areas see that police officers are attentive to the movements they make they will think it twice before doing any crime. Also, police driving around the neighborhood, will help the community and police officers to keep building relationships and trust between them. Although, in the book, Crime Control in America: What Works?

Criminal risk prevention tools are critical in preventing crime behavior. There are principles of effective correctional intervention tools which are emergent inquiries. Initially, to predict crime, one must comprehend what constitutes the behaviors which may lead to crime. The variables which best predict criminal conduct are arranged under a primitive argument: nature vs. nurture. It is necessary to compare both elements and note the differences among behavior characteristics. The way that an individual reacts to social norms may influence his or her motives. However, this predictor is one among many which may entail future behavioral issues.

In the past 30 years the impact of political ideas underpinning criminological theories and crime control has marked a significant shift from earlier criminological thinking of crime, by seeing crime as legally defined and fear of crime as rational, but perspectives on victims of crime remain distinct. This essay will look at the emergence of right and left realism and its effect on crime control in the 1970s to explore the impact of political ideas, as well as the influence of public opinion as a means for driving forward political agendas. Political ideas have significantly underpinned criminological theories and crime control in the past 30 years and this is shown in the discussion in this essay.

The causes of crime in the United States of America can stem from the biology, sociology, or psychology of a person. This reasoning is because the underlying cause of crime is contingent upon the biological and psychological state of a person as well as the social group in which the individual decides to dwell. The fatal mixture of these forces have the capability to formulate an evil and wicked criminal. An individual’s psychological background, social impact and media influence can weigh heavy on an individual’s choice with crime. The spread of crime has a negative effect in our society, especially with our youth.

Crime is a difficult issue that influences everybody in the public eye. It influences the victims, culprits and their families. Crime has expanded definitely inside the most recent decade. More jails are being are being built in the world over the fact that there is insufficient space to hold detainees. The government has attempted to decrease wrongdoing by creating projects and funding for example, rehabilitation and intercession for youth at danger, and in addition restoration for detainees that will be discharged. Some contend that criminal conduct is because of environment, others trust that it is hereditary, but then others believe that it needs to do with identity. In the event that there were sure identity qualities that could be related to potential criminal conduct, steps could be taken to attempt to decrease or reduce the "criminal identity". In spite of the fact

Humans all pride themselves with having free will. While this is a great thing, free will can cause many problems because it also involves different opinions. The leeway of freedom gives people the option to choose the faulty way. This free will is what creates criminals. The Classical Theory is the most well-known and relevant crime causation ideology, but it is rivaled by the Positivist Theory. While the Classical Theory deals with the social and legal aspects of humans, the Positivist Theory suggests that criminals

This is important to our studies because this is the first, traditional perception of criminology. This line of thinking promotes the idea that individuals have free will and have the ability to evaluate the consequences by controlling the behavior based on pain vs pleasure of the criminal gains. As seen from other lines of thinking this is not a common thought process of criminals in today’s society.

From day to day, everyone experiences some form of racial profiling. When people go to apply for a job, they are required to state their race and ethnicity on the application; this is so that the employer can hire the correct amount of people by their race and ethnicity as required by the federal law known as Affirmative Action (Wikipedia). In addition, when people go apply for college, driver licenses, social security, food assistance/stamps, unemployment, and even health care, you are required to provide your race and ethnicity for approval. Some people may even be required to provide their citizenship.

Before the twentieth century, explaining crime followed Darwin, and Lumbroso’s idea that criminals were biologically inferior. But with the development of the industry and the urbanization of the late 1800s and 1900s, the Progressive movement arose, arguing that crime was a social product. It was not the individual and its biologically inferior traits that would cause him to commit crime, it is rather the environment that causes people to commit crime. That was the beginning of the Chicago School. Because Chicago witnessed a rapid social change due to industrialization and the sudden urbanization and mass population shift, it became the prime choice to study how social change impacted criminal conduct. Researchers at the University of Chicago believed that crime would be best understood by looking at neighborhood characteristics. Shaw and McKay (1929) were influenced by the Chicago School in that they asked the question “does it make a difference if a child grows up in an inner-city community affected by ethnic heterogeneity, poverty, and social mobility?” The question led to shifting the focus of what causes crime from an individual perspective to a social, environmental perspective. Thus, when studying delinquency and crime, Shaw and McKay (1929) and Burgess (1967) argued that neighborhoods may be the contributing factors to crime and not the individual.

Vian pulled up to a house with blue and red lights flashing and curious neighbors trying to get a good look at the situation. He quickly exited his car, ducking under police tape and getting closer to the scene. It was in a small white house, blood splattered across the windows from the inside. This was going to be a messy one. He threw on some plastic gloves before heading inside. The scene was gruesome. Sticky dark blood everywhere, chunks of god knows what on the ground next to the victim. It was a girl. She obviously put up a fight. There were dark purple bruises around her neck and arms. It wasn’t enough to take his attention away from the huge gash starting from the bottom of her neck to her belly button. Gutted like a fish. Her

     A felony is a crime in which the convicted may receive more than a year in prison for their actions. The paper that you are about to read is going to explore some of the issues about kids being charged with felonies. We will also examine some of the issues of how this is portrayed in our news media today. Furthermore, I will offer my opinion, on how kids being charged with felonies could be a positive step in the right direction.