CRIME PREVENTION

Crime Prevention

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[Instructor's name]

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Crime Prevention

Thesis Statement

Participation of citizen helps the state to reduce the rate of crime.

Introduction

There are a growing criminal justice professionals and researchers that citizen volunteers and local residents play a critical role in the prevention of crime. Community crime prevention programs (CCPPs) were introduced in the mid-1970s as avenues for citizen participation in anticrime activities. These programs have assumed a variety of forms, usually operate under the authority of local police departments and community organizations, and are generally designed to mobilize citizens to prevent, detect, and report crime (Greenberg, Rohe, & Williams, 1982).

In practice, this involvement is achieved through a wide range of undertakings, including resident patrols (Yin, Vogel, Lavrakas, & Green, 1977), Neighborhood Watch programs, home security surveys, property-marking projects, police-community councils (Yin, 1979), and changes in the physical environment. This paper discusses Community Crime Prevention Programs. It also focuses on questions that relate to individual participation in formal CCPPs.

Discussion

Community crime prevention arose partly from a growing realization among citizens that the police and the rest of the criminal justice system were failing in their attempts to reduce crime and to restore and maintain social order. Moreover, it had become increasingly clear that more police did not necessarily lead to less crime. In response, CCPPs emphasize that the success of law enforcement depends heavily on the participation and cooperation of neighborhood residents and that some crime prevention activities are better conducted by residents themselves.

History and Foundations of Community Crime Prevention Programs

Three national commissions have underscored the need for an active and involved citizenry that would engage in a variety of individual, household, and neighborhood activities to reduce crime in American communities (DuBow & Emmons, 1981; Curtis, 1985; Lavrakas & Bennett, 1988). In the language of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, Congress espoused the view that “crime is essentially a local problem that must be dealt with by state and local governments if it is to be controlled effectively” (p. 3). This broad conception of community involvement acknowledged that law enforcement depends on citizen cooperation to successfully apprehend criminals and solve crimes.

The federal government's decision to fund CCPPs in the 1970s assumed that community organizations and local institutions play a critical role in creating and administering crime prevention efforts “through their ability to mobilize the voluntary potential of the local citizenry” (Lavrakas, 1992, p. 11). In theory, the police and indigenous community organizations, along with public and private sector agencies, provide both the impetus that starts neighborhood crime prevention efforts and the motivation that sustains those (Lavrakas, 1992).

Several years after the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) began to fund citizen anticrime projects, the Crime Control Act of 1976 established the Office of Community Anti-Crime Programs (CACP), which was authorized to “enable community and citizen groups to apply for grants to encourage community and citizen participation in crime prevention”. The act also made 30 million dollars available for “crime prevention programs in which members of the community ...