Essay 3 Assignment: The Problem-Solution Proposal Essay

Development practitioners in both public and the private sectors, mainly those into urban design and development have now established a consensus that different social structural processes could constitute both driving shafts to stimulate urban development on one side and dealing with bottlenecks on the other side. Security is a primary ingredient in designing an environment that is conducive to successful efforts in developing project plans and putting it into action. Therefore, crime is a critical social structural characteristic that requires proper informed understanding to improve security in the any city and its environs. Proper social structural adjustment leads to creation of a user-friendly environment that will facilitate urban development by the practitioners.

Background

Crime ranges from simple and petty issues such pickpocketing to more sophisticated illegal actions. Crime is measurable. Thus, crime is the level of lawlessness and disintegration of social order. Crime has adverse effect on society. High crime rates disturb the security of any region and eventually leads to a state of insecurity. A United Nations report states, among other things, crime: “impairs the overall development of nations, undermines spiritual and material well-being, compromises human dignity and creates a climate of fear and violence. These adverse effects of crime endanger personal security and erodes the quality of life (United Nations 1992:6)”. It is very difficult to achieve sustainable development in a situation marked by uncontrolled and uncontrollable crime because it breeds and accompanies insecurity. (Albert 1998).

Crimes in the city can be categorized into specific areas. Physical criminal violence or physical assault includes homicide, armed robbery, carjacking, attempted murder, manslaughter, and rape. Psychological violence includes lies, threats, and brainwashing. These serve to diminish mental potentialities (Galtung 1990:10-12). Violent crime causes direct harm (Chesnais1992:217), this is a major contributing factor that disturbs security in the city. Violent crimes are more associated by members of the lower social status in a society. These poor people’s life is characterized by poverty. Also, there is also the violent crime against property ownership,- car-jacking and house breaking. Last, less visible crime is another category which often comes under the name of corruption. This includes criminal activities such as embezzling public funds, and filing false information. Such crimes are mainly committed by the elite in society. Most elites are rich and politically connected. By the very covert nature of hidden crimes, most of their perpetrators go free. (United Nations 1992:6). The local people are the main people affected by these crimes (John, (2010). Identifying the root causes of violence can also point to be strategies to reduce its incidence and impact.

Anticipated question/criticism

Will these methods of solving crimes be successful?

The police service measures success in different ways. These measures are aimed at problem solving. The problem-solving can only be called successful when the events that make up the problem happen less often or obsolete. Measures of police activity, such as the number of arrests made may not be able to reduce the level of harm that the community is suffering (Eck, 2002). For example, the number of crimes that happen each month varies naturally in several ways. There might be more of some types of crimes in the summer than in winter. This makes it difficult to know if a reduction in the number of crimes after you respond to a problem is due to the response or would have on its own. (Clarke, (2002).

Some of the other questions/ criticisms are;

 Who are the experts in solving crimes?

 What should be done when the problem persists?

Whether the responses work or not, the reason why should be worked out because it will help solve similar problems in the future.

Solution

Doing the business of ensuring the security of all people in the city should be a priority. This can be done by:

Identifying the real problem (which has been defined as crime) and coming up with viable and durable solutions hence making insecurity in the city as a thing of the past. Unemployment among the youths who make the most of the perpetrators of crime should be addressed. Finding a solution to the issues of informal settlements and unplanned urban development should be a top priority. People resident in these areas lack legal access to lands and other essential services. These factors create a breeding ground for crimes and insecurity in the city. Addressing the problems of the slum dwellers in the city will significantly address the issues of crimes.

The political arm of the government should come up with effective means of dealing with the criminal gangs in the city. This will reduce robberies and other related casualties in the city. Good urban planning by the practitioners will mitigate these crimes in that they have to design housing with adequate lighting systems and be in a position to provide easy and quick access by the police officers. The city has to develop right and proper comprehensive development plan. The government should also uphold policies regarding the protection of civilians by the police. The ratio of police officers to the citizens should conform to the requisites of the international trademark. Increasing the number of uniformed police officers patrolling the streets will assist a lot in curbing crime activities in the city. Embracing technology also will address insecurity, for example fixing electronic surveillance and street monitoring gadgets will create a safer environment since by preventing those attempting to commit crime because they are aware that someone is monitoring them. The most important is engaging the local leaders to be the examples of peace champions so that together with the citizens they can campaign on behavior change targeted at reforming and rehabilitating criminals.

Conclusion

Crimes in the city have been on the rise for the past years which has caused insecurity concerns among the development practitioners who are interested in the urban setting. Instability creates unnecessary anxiety, high levels of uncertainty and distorts the cost of doing business in the city.

Residents with children longer term-term residents are the main people affected by these crimes. Some of the anticipated questions/criticisms posed involve the questioning the success of the methods used in solving crimes. It then observes that problem-solving can only be called successful when the events that make up the problem happen less often or becomes less harmful. Identifying the root causes of violence can also point to promising strategies to reduce its incidence and impact.

Doing the business of ensuring the security of all people in the city should be a priority. Unemployment among the youths who make the most of the perpetrators of crime should be addressed. This will make the young people across the city to be busy hence reducing casualties. The most important are engaging the local leaders to be the examples of peace champions so that together with the citizens they can campaign on behavior change targeted at reforming and rehabilitating criminals. These will, therefore, ensure that security issues in the city are managed.

References

Eck, J. E., & United States. (2002). Assessing responses to problems: An introductory guide for police problem-solvers. Washington, D.C: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

United Nations. (n.d.). Human development report. From 1998 to 2003. Place of publication not identified: Oxford University Press.

Clarke, R. (2002). Becoming a problem solving analyst. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Albert. (1998) Sustainable development Chicago, Ill. [u.a.: Open Court.

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