Mandating Crime Prevention Strategies

Defining the crime problem is a vital step in controlling crime. Crime is undoubtedly a significant and pricey societal problem but we cannot target the problem without first defining it. There is no one identical solution to crime, instead it is based on a piece by piece basis. Strategies to target crimes need to target larger geographical areas, sometimes entire states. In addition, for a strategy to be successful in controlling a crime it cannot be too vague or extremely specific to an index crime. An example of a crime a law should target is: drug sales in a problem neighborhood or rapes at a city park. –Chapter 1 Page

Chicago is a major city with a huge amount of crime and this paper will address crime reduction and prevention in this particular city. It will also address other issues such as; assisting victims, preventing crime, and achieving effective justice. This paper will address the effect that criminological theories and research have had on contemporary and historical crime control policies in Chicago. It will include theoretical rationale for the recommendations that are suggested. Chicago needs more help in these areas because of the amount of crime they are seeing.

Restorative justice is based on the principle that criminal behavior injures not only the victim but also the community and the offender, and any effort to resolve these problems caused by criminal behavior should involve all of these parties. Common restorative justice initiatives are victim-offender mediation, circle sentencing, community holistic healing programs, and family group conferences. A key to all these responses to criminal behavior is to address not only the offender, but all parties involved including the victim and their families, offender's family, community citizens, and even the police officers themselves.

Restorative justice is a technique to criminal justice that focuses on the needs of victims and the offender. Also, involved in the process is the community where the crime took place. The point is for both parties to play a certain role throughout the process. The offender is to learn of their mistake and take responsibility for their actions instead of using imprisonment. The victim informs the offender the difficulties the crime that was committed against them and how it has affected their lives and other people’s. The process is designed to help make the offender not offend again. The different programs the offender may go through are victim-offender mediation, restitution, and community-work programs. This type of punishment is used towards low-risk offenders.

Youth are joining gangs because of the social action such as parties, hanging out, music, drugs, protection, respect, and money. As a result of these items that youth idealize it causes many crimes in a community. However, many strategies have been implemented such as the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T). G.R.E.A.T, a national and international gang and violence prevention program that has been building trust between law enforcement and communities. G.R.E.A.T is intended as an immunization against delinquency, youth violence, and gang membership. It is designed for children in the years immediately before the prime ages for introduction into gangs and delinquent behavior. G.R.E.A.T provides tremendous benefits for students, law enforcement, educators, and public benefits. According to the G.R.E.A.T website “the G.R.E.A.T. Program reduces gang joining while increasing negative attitudes toward gangs and positive attitudes toward law enforcement. The program provides students with opportunities to model and practice life skills and attitudes needed to treat others with

Restorative justice is a method of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused or revealed by criminal behaviour. It offers a solution that promotes the healing and strengthening of community bonds, by addressing the harm done to victims and communities. The criminal justice system has traditionally concentrated on detaining and committing offenders rather than examining the roots of their problems and providing community-based services that effectively addressed them. Crime rates continue to soar under the present system and the search is ever stronger for a solution to deal with a rising prison population, high costs, overcrowding and poor conditions, a legal process less and less concerned with the victim; but rather a focus on the

Facilitators in the restorative justice programs know how important it is to make all parties feel safe and to control the imbalance of power that may occur in these interventions. “In a restorative intervention, the victim’s safety will be protected, offenders will also not be threatened, and the community’s need for safety will be accommodated” (p.151). The imbalance of power at these interventions between the parties may be due to the different factors that separate each individual, so they’re perspective on what has occurred will be different.

It was first implemented and tried on “31 schools … 4,905 students” with the intention to teach skill building, how to avoid gang affiliation, prevent criminal activity, and improve relationships with law enforcement in a time frame of thirteen lessons (Esbensen et. al., 2012, pg. 132). The programs intention was to expose students to crime and its effect on victims, teach about cultural diversity, offer resolutions skills, teach responsibility, and to emphasis the importance of setting goals. Students who received training took less risk-involved actions, had lower rates of victimization, saw law enforcement in a positive manner, saw gangs in a negative manner, were better at refusing and resisting peer pressure, and were less self-centered (Esbensen et. al., 2012, pg. 141). There was also a “39%” reduction in gang affiliation for students who underwent training (Esbensen et. al., 2012, pg. 139). The findings are evident that prevention programs can have great effects on students even if they are taught in a short amount of

These informal meetings make use of talking about the harm caused to victims, responsibility of the victimizer and often apologies Public opinion generally favors restorative justice practices, and prefers alternatives forms of accountability for most crimes. Restorative justice is a “new” approach based on older practices, unique values, and core ethics. These justice principles guide a new justice process based on maximizing participation of victim, victimizer and community and repairing the damage caused by crime. New outcomes put emphasis on accountability for the victimizer based on taking responsibility to make amends to a victim and community and rebuilding or strengthening relationships of both victimizer

The three key goals victims can pursue through the criminal justice system is to punish the offender, compel law breakers to undergo rehabilitate treatment and restitution. Punishment is usually justified on utilitarian grounds as evil. Although it is argued that making transgressors suffer curbs future criminality in a number of ways. It is said if an offender gets punished by unpleasant and unwanted consequences it will most likely discouraged him/her from breaking the law again. Also it satisfies victims thirst for revenge and prevents future vigilantism and incapacitates dangerous predators so they can be off the streets; a safer community. Rehabilitation, some victims want professionals to help offenders become decent,

Restorative justice is a comparative newcomer to the world of criminal justice; however restorative justice has been around, ‘officially’- by means of legislation for 14 years, and unofficially (in innovative practice), for longer. The knowledge and skills associated with restorative justice have slowly but surely migrated to other services, such as education, with startling results (Daniels, 2013). With the criminal justice system being so unfair and bias for years maybe even centuries, restorative justice has been bought up as a useful tool for victims and offenders. Plenty of scholarly articles, journals, books, and research have been written about Restorative Justice.

Other than the conventional Criminal Justice process there is a new way to handle crime called the Restorative Justice program. This program exists only in certain cities throughout the United States. The Restorative Justice program has the purpose to reduce crime. This program has many steps, and during the course of the process has the purpose to set things right between the criminal offender and the people affected by the crime that occurred. A crime committed does harm to many others not just the immediate victim. This paper explains the Restorative Justice Process and

Regardless of, valid reasoning and evidence from the methods mentioned above, others will argue that the restitution and restorative justice approach are the best approach of handling criminal behavior. Individuals who support this approach argue that the ones hurt by the offender are often forgotten, when in fact they are the ones that need the most attention. Over time, a concept known as the victim’s movement has become popular, and it recognizes that victims should be involved in the process of sentencing criminals. This includes the right not to be excluded and the right to speak at criminal justice proceedings. (Seiter, 2004). For the offender, restorative justice could be cruel because the damage done on the victim is fresh and often

Throughout the United States the criminal justice system is in a state of crisis. The public is fearful and angry. Practitioners are weary and frustrated. Criminal justice policy is driven more by anecdote than systematic information. Costs of current policies are not sustainable over long periods. Victims are often re-victimized in the process. The widespread sense of dissatisfaction has caused a fundamental rethinking of our criminal justice system and the formulation of an alternative approach to [ (Criminal Justice Overview) ]criminal justice called restorative justice [ (Pranis, Building Community Support for Restorative Justice: Principles and

Previously, there was not enough knowledge or resources amongst communities to raise awareness or organise crime prevention programs for juveniles. Today, schools together with police and community-based workers are aiming to provide the expertise to help create crime prevention programs for juveniles. It is believed that that one of the most active crime prevention strategies is effective intervention programs. A substantial number of crimes amongst adolescence are detected from anti-social behaviours. Youth need to be more involved in their community activities such as church associated groups, sports clubs, recreation centres (Dodington et al 2012, p. 1026). Other school organisations such as ‘Links to Learning’ helps adolescences engage in activities that will teach worthy skills for future work and careers. All these extracurricular activities will give youth less time to consider committing crimes