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News: Crime Prevention | Source: Yahoo! News

Crime is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as an act or the commission of an act that is forbidden or the omission of a duty that is commanded by a public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.  

Laws are designed to protect us and ensure our safety in all aspects of our lives: physical, financial, psychological and social.  Yet not a day does go by that we don’t hear of crimes taking place in our city or state.  When a crime is committed, public safety becomes endangered and specific individuals or groups may feel violated.  While we would like to avoid such events, they take place all too often.  Here are some statistics that demonstrate this:

• Every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.
• In 2002, there were a total of 4,854 cases of aggravated assault in Washington DC.  On a daily basis, this computes to 13.2 aggravated assaults a day.
• In Maryland, there were 3,228 cases of larceny and thefts per 100,000 people in 2002.  This is one-third higher than the national average rate of 2,445.8 cases per 100,000.
• In Detroit, there were 41.79 murders per 100,000 people in 2002.  This is alarmingly way above the national average rate of 5.6 for the same year.
• In 2002, with the exception of burglaries, Philadelphia led all crime levels which were above the national average rates for murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assaults, larceny/theft and motor vehicle theft.

To find out more crime statistics in the , visit the University of Michigan Library.

In addition to crimes against individuals,   

• Corporate crime has recently jolted the corporate world with the likes of the Enron scandal and the Martha Stewart arrest.  Across , worker rights are often violated by threats of firing and other reprisals made to those who dare to exercise their lawful right to collective bargaining and unions.   In 2000, when a department of meat cutters at a Wal-Mart center in Texas voted 7-3 in favor of unionization, Wal-Mart eliminated the meat cutting department, choosing instead to pre-cut meats, resulting in the elimination of meat cutting jobs nationwide.  The garment and fabric factories of New York are filled with immigrant workers, many of whom do not have proper working documents. Many of these workers end up enduring poor working conditions for fear of deportation and INS investigations, encouraged by the factory owners.  Through collective bargaining, unions protect the rights of workers by giving them fair representation in the work place.  On the contrary, some union leaders have been charged for their involvement in crime activities (racketeering, fraud and tax evasion, embezzlement, and extortion).  Union or not, corporate crime exists on both ends of the continuum, where the workers continue to be victimized and their rights violated.   
• Another major type of crime is terrorism.  The tragic events of 9/11 and the terrorists that brought on those acts of destruction have changed the lives of Americans forever.  Support the fight against terrorism.  
• The War on Drugs deals with addressing the violation of drug laws.  Tremendous resources have been devoted and spent on this war, locally and internationally.  The recent extradition of drug criminal Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela to the is a sign that indeed the is continuing to wage a war against drug crime.

Social and Economic Problems Caused by Crime

Our social and economic problems are often a direct result of crime.  In a vicious circle, these problems can fuel crime even more.  For example, those who commit theft and burglaries often do so because of their need for money.  These individuals may be unemployed, incapable of finding work, homeless, sick or impoverished.  These crimes become a tempting way to quickly acquire money.  Unfortunately, when left unpunished, these individuals get the misconception that crime pays.  It is this thinking that encourages some individuals to continue their criminal ways, discouraging them from finding other activities that would give them some normality and stability in their lives.  This way of thinking reinforces crime.

Another crime, prostitution, is frequently associated with drug addiction.  Many prostitutes find it difficult to change their work because of their drug addiction.  Drugs require significant cash and prostitution provides this, faster and easier than legitimate work.  Prostitution often will lead to other crimes such as people trafficking, sexual abuse, and rape.  Those who exploit women often have no regard for people’s lives.  This disregard often leads to physical abuse and even murder.  In addition, prostitution can increase the spread of diseases such as AIDS, other STD’s and hepatitis. 

On a larger scale, drug addiction fuels the illicit drug industry.  Through our web site War on Drugs, you can learn more about the social and economic problems that drugs cause.  In organized crime, you will find other violations related to drug trafficking.  These include money laundering, smuggling and illegal sale of weapons, credit card fraud and counterfeiting.  Poverty often leads to the problem of homelessness.  Those who live on the streets often experience hunger and disease making them more likely to resort to committing theft and burglary as a means to eat or to obtain medicine.  Out on the streets the homeless are exposed more to the risks of drug addiction and other unwanted social behaviors.  All of these factors fuel crime.

Solving the Root Causes of Crime

In order to eradicate crime, we need to address the root causes.  These include, but are not limited to, greed, inadequate corporate oversight, poverty, lack of education, homelessness, drug addiction, racial hatred, and lax gun laws.  Education is one of the biggest factors that plays a role in what becomes of an individual in their adulthood.  Those who have an education possess the training and skills needed to make them marketable to potential employers.  Indeed, even for jobs that pay only a minimum wage, employers likely will prefer interviewing candidates with a decent education over those without.  Thus, many of the uneducated may find themselves unemployed, living in sub-standard housing and in impoverished conditions.  And as money becomes scarce, many of them might be tempted to engage in criminal activities.  At Grassroots.org, we encourage everyone to pursue formal education and stress the importance of governments and universities helping make it accessible to all.  We strongly believe that every American citizen deserves an education and it’s especially important to make it more available to those families who are not able to readily afford it. Education can help eradicate poverty, which will in turn reduce the crime rate.

Poverty often pushes children to drop out of school.  Those children who do not attend school may end up roaming the streets, exposing themselves to criminal elements and activities.  This is why it is imperative that communities provide safe places where children can gather inside, away from street life.  These include school clubs, youth clubs, and sports and recreational centers where children and youth are given support and supervision through educational and developmental programs.  Without alternatives to schools, children can easily get involved in petty crimes such as shoplifting, residential break-ins, car theft and vandalism.  After the petty crimes, these children may graduate into the more serious crimes of drug trafficking, sexual offences and gang violence.

Crime can also be related to the probability of being caught and the extent of possible sentencing.  On our web site Sexual Abuse, we present information showing that most rapes and most acts of sexual abuse are committed by individuals with whom the victims are related or otherwise acquainted.  Such relationships can discourage victims from reporting incidents to law enforcement agencies, thus failing to bring the culprits to justice.  Part of the underreporting problem is the social stigma that is attached to these victims.  Although they are victims, they are often blamed for the crime, labelled as being promiscuous and loose.  This allows the real offenders to get away unpunished, leaving them free to offend again.  As citizens, we need to adopt laws and reporting procedures that will give full physical and psychological protection to victims who report crime.  Let us not allow offenders to get away with their crimes, giving them an opportunity to repeat.

Corporate crime is becoming increasingly global and its consequences can be devastating.  Consumers are defrauded.  Our environment (soil, air and water) is often compromised.  Our personal safety can be placed at risk by lobbyists who buy influence but do not have the interest of the greater majority at heart.  A case in point is the Federal Ban on Assault Weapons.  The National Rifle Association, a powerful lobbyist organization that opposes the federal ban, including background checks at gun shows, has been a very large donor of money to political parties since 1989.  Although the federal ban and background checks help to ensure our safety, these two issues remain unresolved today.  Visit our web site Lobbyists for a more thorough discussion on influence buying.  Scandals such as the Enron accounting fraud have resulted in job loss, pension loss, investment loss, a negative impact on the confidence of the American public on the corporate system, loss of taxes due to the Treasury and more.  Today, as reported by Citizen Works, there are many other corporations today being investigated for irregular accounting practices.  A few examples are K-Mart, Qwest Communications, WorldCom and Xerox.

We must work to curtail corporate greed.  The practice of “influence buying” needs to be stopped.  Corporations must have tighter controls over their accounting reporting procedures.  We call for greater transparency as well so that irregularities in accounting practices can be detected early to mitigate any damages.  The practice of corporate disclosure needs to be widened.  This will allow consumers and shareholders to become fully aware of corporate records on the environment, human rights, worker safety and financial matters.  It will also allow us to know about corporate criminal records and litigation records.  Multiple functions within consulting firms need to be severed and made independent from each other to prevent conflicts of interest.  The Arthur Andersen firm was caught in such a conflict in the Enron scandal, as the firm served both as the accountants and consultants for Enron.  Arthur Andersen was later found guilty of obstruction of justice.  The company was essentially shut down by that and other accounting scandals.

Our prison rehabilitation and prison systems need reform.  A report published by the Urban Institute confirms that although the number of parolees regularly being released from our prison system is large, the number of them going back into prison is alarming.  In 1980, as many as 27,000 parolee violators returned to prisons. By 2000, this number increased to 203,000.  This amount represents a 652 percent increase.  There are a number of reasons for this:

• Continuing social problems drive parolees back to crime. 
• The number of parole officers is not enough to handle the demand of case loads. 
• Educational and vocational programs for inmates in prisons need improvement.
• Prison personnel need more training in prison based inmate rehabilitation.  This will ensure a higher success rate of inmate re-integration in to society.  Many private prisons have high staff turnover, chronic understaffing and inexperienced correctional officers.  These private prisons are focused primarily on profit, with the inmates being secondary concerns.

If those in charge of our prison system give priority first and foremost to the rehabilitation and re-integration of inmates, this in turn will have a positive effect on the reduction of crime.

Calls to Action

As law abiding citizens, it is imperative that we live our lives according to the rules of our land.  It is also our civic duty to report any crimes that we witness.  The reasons are simple: our laws are meant to preserve the quiet and peaceful enjoyment of living in this great country of the .  Anytime a law is broken, it can compromise the safety of our citizens.  What makes our nation so great is the freedom given to us by our forefathers: our freedom of speech, of religion, of protest, to vote, to get an education, to go to work, to information and many more!  These freedoms are valuable and precious to all of us.  These freedoms are the reasons why the has waged several battles on crime including the War on Drugs and the War on Terrorism. 

Although the costs of these battles are plenty, the rewards are worth it.   9/11 has changed our lives forever, no doubt.  Today, there are Americans who still live in fear of when and where the next terrorist attacks will happen.  Immediately after the strikes on the World Trade Center , such fear was overwhelming and widespread.  There is great debate on whether the is winning the war in .  Many question whether our soldiers should even be there.  However, there is no question that 9/11 has not repeated itself in soil. There is also no question in our minds that the War on Drugs is having a positive effect given the fall and extradition of many Colombian drug lords.  Grassroots.org is asking you to support our law enforcement agencies.  Give encouragement to those who put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms.  And most importantly, let each of us live according to the laws of our nation.  Democracy is powerful.  Freedom makes the war on crime even more worth it!

Here are links to other information.

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