Steven Lab: Crime Prevention, 7th Edition


Case Studies with Questions and Answers

Chapter 11: Partnerships for Crime Prevention

  1. You are the mayor of city "x".
  2. Read the following paragraph

From January 2007 - December 2009 (3 years) there were 201 known robberies, 80 burglaries, 34 auto-thefts, and 7 attempted or completed sexual assaults in a middle sized city (city x); the largest 3 year percentage increase in crime in city history. In addition, drug arrests are up by 200% at the same time. There have been limited reports of aggravated and domestic assaults in the city during the same time frame. From January 2010- until the present month (July: half of the year) there already have been 98 reported robberies, 67 reported burglaries, 41 auto-thefts, and 1 sexual assaults. With what appears to be a crime wave hitting the community in some areas, the city must attempt to the fix the problem by taking the following into consideration. (Be sure to recall statistics on certain types of crime)

The city is meeting to discuss the implementation of a community policing strategy and is currently meeting to:

  1. Discuss what program/programs will help in reducing the type of crimes mentioned
  2. Discuss what is needed in order for these programs to be a success
  3. Discuss reasons why the programs may fail
  4. And any other relevant information that will aid the community in controlling for this problem

The city must keep in mind crime prevention programs succeed and fail for many reasons, sometimes many of the same reasons. They also must control for police forces, money, and all other programs which may be too expensive even though beneficial to aiding the city and fixing all or some of the crimes which are increasing.

Questions

  1. What is the initial step the city must take?
  2. Correct Answer

    The initial step in the scenario listed above is a detailed "scanning" and a detailed "analysis" phase to understand the extent of the problem and attempt to address how to prevent and limit the amount of crime in the city. Implementing programs on the fly will not be productive based on statistics of previous programs.


  3. What programs could the city use to address the problem areas?
  4. Correct Answer

    Once the scanning and analysis stage have been implemented, programs such as civil abatement for drug houses, weed and seed programs to better the community and community policing based crime prevention strategies may be effective. These are crimes, for the most part, that increased citizen awareness and increased police pressure could reduce.

    Why may the programs fail?

    Correct Answer

    Programs may fail for the same reasons any program may fail. Using the SARA model, many programs fail because cities fail to respond correctly or assess the effectiveness of their programs. With several programs advised above, it could be that one or all of the programs work effectively and without an intense assessment phase, "how" effective these programs are will never be known.

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