Get Tough On Crime Essay

I have had several discussion from my previous criminall justice class espicially in my corrections class. I find it rather interesting how twenty years ago we were looking at a very different America. Our societal approach of "Get Tough on Crime", has been without transpearncy. As the articles has show in the past twenty years we have seen a huge decline, with this, we must examine why.

The article you linked us, has used six findings that are largely related to the decline. As the text has put it, there is not a single reason for the drastic decline of crime. The text points at incarceration, policing, social programs, demographics, unemployment benefits, and fewer opportunities. I am going to examine each of the headings to show the correlation of these headings.

incarceration: We have seen an increase in incarcerations, some have stated that due to the influx of incarcerations, this would reduce the amount of people to commit crimes.
policing: Our models of policing have change.
It is very evident that we as a country are not focused on punitive measures as we once were. We have undergone community policing, which has been tested and has been proven to work. We are seeing this today, with different programs and ways that the police are trying to be one with the coumminty they protect in serve. As well as policing, I was reluctant in placing this point here because it could be link to few oppurtunites, nonetheless, it is harder to commit crimes. With crime the offender would want to do his deviant action undetected, however with security cameras, cell phones, and means of recognition tools that are at the public disposal will deter a the crime due to
detection.

social programs: With children being vulnerable there has to be measures to ensure that their risks of being a chronic or life course offender to decrease is social programs. Social programs can range from many outreach programs, to youth events, social institutions such as school and even after school curiculors. The concept is to keep the children occuipied and allow them to be interacting with one another and doing something more productive in some cases, opposed to doing "nothing" and being on the street with the presence of peers to facilitate delinquent behavior.

demographics: Studies have been shown that offenders are generally older with fewer younger offenders. This has been linked with the offender in their middle thirties.

unemployment benefits: Given our democratic government structures, we have seen an increase of unemployment assitance. These programs consist of unemployment benefits, such as welfare which is money that is intended to be used in componsation for the unemployed; however the amount is designed to be enough to get by. Food stamps and WICK for those who qualify are other forms of assistance to families in a economic disposition. There is also renter assistance programs that are inplace to assist in rent payments. All the above programs, are utilize and able to make a difference. Much of the above wasn't necisarly there or funded as they are now.

Fewer opportunities: From our Sociology 110 class in the fall we spoke about crime brefily and one correlation we can make is that when the economy is well and crime is to increase due to the amount of wealth each household accumelates opposed to a economic downturn, such as the recession, where people are not spending as much and aren't having the abundance of wealth in their homes the playing field is more equal.