Battling Crime Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Battling Crime - Assignment Example As the program is discussed, the theories are also discussed hand in hand with the program it supports. (Remove: should you need my service again, contact me through my email please ichurya2003atyahoodotcom. Thank you) Battling Crimes Introduction The prevalence of crime in communities differs and so with the type of crimes involved. Battling crimes in each community is a challenging task. It challenges the patience and wit of law enforcers as well as policy makers. While arresting and imprisonment reduce crime, it is not the final answer to all types of crimes. It requires policies and programs supported with theories to effectively respond to the needs of criminals. The focus of this study is to include four policies to battle crimes with the corresponding criminological theories supporting each. Discussion Weed and Seed Programs The Weed and Seed program which started in 1991 is an operation in an effort to control the proliferation of violent crimes, drug related crimes, and drug trafficking among others in selected neighborhood believed to be high risk. The goal of the program is to establish a neighborhood free of crime and free of drug use which would be safe for law abiding citizens to work, live and raise their families. The strategy of the program in making the neighborhood safe and clean is to employ two strategies that is â€Å"weeding† out criminals from the area and â€Å"seeding† the area with services of the law enforcers and the community. Maintaining peace and order is both the concern of the police officers and the citizens living in those areas targeted. Police officers are taken out from their patrol cars and assigned in the streets of the high risk neighborhood to dispatch their duties and responsibilities to be available in cases someone from the neighborhood report any incidences of crimes (Travis, 1999). The assumption of Weed and Seed program exemplifies the concept of broken window theory where in if one window is broken and left unattended or unrepaired the whole window of the building will soon follow to be broken. Along this line, the Weed and Seed program believes that when a single window is left unattended whether this is in the form of small breakage or a huge one, it signals that nobody cares and that window lovers in the form of criminals continue to carry out breaking new windows (Wilson & Kelling, 1982) which might encourage law abiding citizen to do the same as it is accepted in the community. Such postulation gives criminals the freedom to enjoy their criminal acts until the community control is challenged and breakdowns. The Weed and Seed program assumes that bringing the service on foot repairs criminal acts and improve the community. Although, the study of O’Boyle (2007) revealed an unanticipated results that crimes in Pennsylvania remained unchanged, the window theory and the Weed and Seed program posits that the best solution still would be to quickly fix windows being brok en to maintain intact communities. Diversion Programs Diversion program is a form of restorative measures to channel out juvenile offenders from the justice system. The attempt to divert youth offenders is based on a philosophy that the juvenile justice system poses more as a threat than serving good intention. Proponents of the programs believe that courts may stigmatize some juveniles