Community Crime Prevention
CJUS 340
Thesis
Offenders that receive tougher prison sentences will be deterred from future crimes.
The main purpose of our legal system is to provide peace and order for our society to be
able to feel safe when they are out and about in the world. Crime prevention is put into place so
that people are less likely to commit crimes. It is an active approach of utilizing public awareness
and preventive measures to reduce crime. There are also many Crime Prevention programs that
will reduce crime, stimulate public awareness about crime prevention and enhance our
communities. But the responsibility of crime prevention does not fall on one person it is
everyone’s business. Law enforcement agencies, however, often are the focal point in community
crime prevention. There is a great significance on crime prevention to deter current offenders and
even non-offenders from committing crimes (Lab, 2010). Crime prevention’s importance was
proven through Classical Criminology were Cesare Beccaria introduced his theory on
punishment as deterrence. Within his theory he explained that punishment that is imposed
immediately following crime commission is connected with the wrongfulness of the offense, in
both the mind of the offender and in the mind of others who might see the punishment imposed.
Other would then learn of the consequences of being involved in criminal activity, and this will
act as a deterrent or prevention for would-be offenders (Schmalleger, 2014).
I live in a small community by the name of Plymouth, it is a very small town located in
the state of North Carolina with a population of 3,711 people. The education level of Plymouth
citizens, measured as those with bachelor's degrees or advanced degrees, similar to the national
average for all American cities and towns 18.38% of adults 25 and older in Plymouth have a
college degree. However, only 14.55% of adults in Plymouth have a bachelor's degree or
advanced degree (NeighborhoodScout, 2013). Plymouth also has one of the higher rates of
people living in poverty in the nation. That’s the reason I believe crimes are up in my
community. After a brief conversation with one of the police officers in the community, he stated
that large portions of crimes are committed by juvenile offenders 10-18 years of age. They did go
on to elaborate that most of the crimes are property crimes. Such as: Breaking and Entering,
Larceny and Burglary. In addition, they deal often with petty drug dealing. However, they do get
a few violent crimes like robbery and rape. But the rape is more of the adults’ crimes also they
said homicides are very rare in this town.
My main focus for my community is to develop a positive relationship with the juveniles
and law enforcement officials in the community. I am one of those believers that strongly believe
that if you catch juveniles before the gangs do or their peers start to influence them negatively, I
believe it is possible for majority of them to be deterred.
Analyzing the juvenile crime problem in my community, I believe that gangs have a
major influence why juveniles are committing these crimes. Many homes are one parent
household and the parent cannot be there like that because he or she has to work long hours to
pay the bills. This leaves the juveniles vulnerable to deviant criminal activities or hanging with
gang members. In most cases they lean on the gangs for love, friendship, protection and guidance
as a result of what they don’t receive at home. One of the most common juvenile crime
prevention used in the U.S. is the youth curfew. This consists of a curfew for the youths where
they cannot be outside of the family home. Many places have different curfew times. I know
Greenville Police Department in Greenville, NC who has a curfew set their hours at 11:00 PM-
6:00 AM - Sunday through Thursday, 12:01 AM- 6:00 AM - Friday and Saturday where if
juveniles are seen without a parent or guardian is violation of a law and summit to court and the
parent will have to pay a fine. They were successfully meeting the challenge of gangs and youth
violence being experienced by their community. They also stated in order for curfew laws to be
effective, they must be enforced in a consistent, fair and uniform manner (City of Greenville,
2013).
Another response that could be effective is the neighborhood watch program where
community leaders partner with law enforcement officials to improve the community. I believe
this could create a stronger bond with the interaction between the citizens of my hometown and
the police officers. The town of Plymouth is one of those towns that do not have a positive belief
in police, largely because how they were raised and what they heard from other citizens in the
community.
Secondary crime prevention is the approach that I plan to take with my program. I believe
secondary prevention would be the better approach with the program; I want to develop in my
community especially dealing with juveniles. When trying to get the youth and teenagers to
engage in dealing activities that are sponsored by law enforcement you must have the awareness
and knowledge of what will be interesting to them. There are a couple of programs that my
community tries to use to make difference. The first one was the G.R.E.A.T program, it is
intended to educate the youth on gang and violence prevention program. They built this program
around school activities, law enforcement officer-instructed classroom. A Sergeant from the
Plymouth Police Department stated how the program is really effective in elementary school
through middle school; however, when the students get to high school, they start to distance
themselves from what they learn in the G.R.E.A.T meeting and start getting influence by peer
pressure or just changes because he or she don’t feel the information they receive is still relevant
or important. So the G.R.E.A.T program was effective but only for a short time frame, because it
only caught the interest of the elementary and middle school scholars. The second program that
was use was the Police Explorers program. This program is for young men and women who have
completed the eighth grade and are 14 years of age, or are 15 years of age but have not yet
reached their 21st birthday. For teenagers who are interested in careers in the field of law
enforcement, exploring offers experiential learning with hands-on activities that promote the
growth and development of adolescent youth. In my community, the explorers participate in
different community service activities such as cleaning up the streets or having a food drives.
This program is very effective in the approach it takes but its only guide toward careers in law
enforcements. Many classmates I spoke with said they enjoy the activities they seen the
explorers do but it makes them feel it target more of the future law enforcement workers or
scholars so that discourage them from joining. I know the explorers program in my hometown
helped many of its participants out by giving all the teenagers a scholarships that graduation and
had future plans of furthering his or her education. The Greenville Police Department has
addressed the same concern about the juvenile crimes which led them to come up with a youth
protection ordinance which is similar to what I discuss previous about the youth curfew.
Greenville police department reported since the ordinance was enforced, they have seen a
reduction in juvenile crimes.
The program that, I want to develop in my hometown law enforcement has already been
implementing in many other cities in the U.S. and have shown an effective strategy reaching the
youth and teenagers. Also, it has been supported by the citizens and kids in the community where
it was implementing. The program is called the Police Athletic League this is a crime prevention
program that utilizes educational, athletic and recreational activities to create trust and
understanding between police officers and youth. The PAL program brings kids and teenagers of
all ages under the supervision and positive influence of a law enforcement agency and expands
public awareness about the role of a police officer and the reinforcement of the responsible
values and attitudes instilled in young people by their parents. After myself and my counter
partner agree on the program before implementing the program, I would first survey the
community to determine what programs are wanted but not yet available, review juvenile crime
statistics, contact Parks and Recreation and other community agencies to solicit their assistance.
Local agencies, schools, probation, recreation, juvenile justice commissions and neighboring
police agencies can help in a needs assessment (National Association of Police
Athletic/Activities Leagues, 2013).
Once support is developed, a Board of Directors should be formed with at least a
President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. The Board of Directors should consist of key
individuals including, the chief of police or sheriff, police officers, media representative,
businessmen and women, corporate leaders, an accountant, a lawyer, an insurance representative,
school personnel, parents, clergy, parks and recreation department representatives, and service
club representatives. Due to the many community leaders, I have on staff I plan to ask them to
help me promote it to the citizens in the community. In addition, with the benefits that it will
provide to the community such as the afterschool program for the kids, while the parents work
during the school semester and a summer camp for kids while school is on the summer break.
So, I do not think I will run into many problems with the support. However, when dealing with
the funds that’s what I believe would be the difficult part but I plan to apply for state and federal
grants as well as ask local community business for financial support. Also, have fundraisers such
as candy sales, auctions, bingo, award recognition dinners, charity softball games (police versus
fire), and basketball tournaments. I plan to keep this program running for a long time even after I
leave the department, I want someone to step up and run it. The only ways this will be successful
by promote it and hopefully receiving support from the community. I believe this program will
be effective unlike many other programs because it reaches all the ages from 4-18, so that give
youth and teenagers an early age to interact with the police and gain a positive influence so they
wouldn’t have to listening to hear say from others because, they have their own perceptions of
police officers. It can also create a stronger bond with the citizens in the community because they
will see what the kids are doing in the community and due to the fact that the kids are
participating this will cause parents to interact will police officers more because most parents is
going to want to know what his or her child is doing.
Being that the youths and teenagers are creating a stronger bond with the police, this will
reduce juvenile crimes because they’ll have someone to watch them when the parents are
working, and if they are participating in different activities they won’t have time to think or get
involve in deviant behavior as well as gangs.
My program will be evaluated by how much juvenile crimes are reduced in my
community; this will consist of comparing the juvenile crime statistics before the program was
implemented. This will also give an insight whether the program is achieving what it intending
were. The impact evaluation is the method that, I will use to evaluate my program. This
evaluation will measure that changes that occur when the Police Athletic program was
implement in the town of Plymouth and how it played a major role on juveniles involved in
criminal activities. At the beginning of each year after the program is implemented, I will have
surveys, observations and statistics to test the success of the program it has on youth and teenage
life. To determine the success of this program it will take more than a couple of years to
determine the effectiveness the program because you have to see how many juveniles it will
persuade not to participate in gang activity or how many teenagers it help graduate from high
school.
From this crime prevention program that I plan to develop I hope that it will make my
community a safer and stronger community for me and my family as well as the next generations
to come. I want to be able to be remembered for the positive changes that manifested within my
community. Taking these steps ensures that my small community continues to grow and develop
into a strong and prosperous one. Corinthians 3:6-9 – “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave
the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the
growth. He who plants and he who waters are one and each will receive his wages according to
his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.”
In conclusion, I look forward to getting my thoughts and ideas into further actions that
will get my small community on a greater path to creating more successful and educated people,
which will then result into them contributing back to their community as well. I know this
experience will not be an easy one what-so-ever but I am willing to take this difficult journey so
that my community will become a better and safer one not just for myself but for the many
people to come in the future. It is evident that there should be more crime prevention programs in
these small communities such as mine so that our people are less likely to get into trouble and are
more likely to be able to expand and prosper successfully. Throughout this course I have learned
many great things about crime, the type of criminals that are involved in certain crimes and how
they function. I tend to take the things that I have learned from this course and many other
criminal justice courses within my major and continue to add different ideas to this project so
that it can be developed into a memorable project.
References
City of Greenville, NC. (2013).
http://www.greenvillenc.gov/departments/police_dept/information/default.aspx?id=88
Lab, P. S. (2010) Crime Prevention: approach, practices and evaluations. (7th Ed.). Bowling
Green State University.
NeighborhoodScout (2013). http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/
Schmalleger, F. J. (2014). Criminology (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN:
9780132966757.
National Association of Police Athletic/Activities Leagues Inc. (2013) . http://nationalpal.org/
Atlanta Police Activities League (2013). http://www.atlantapal.org/
G.R.E.A.T (2013). http://www.great-online.org/
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