Rising Crime In The 1990's

Militarization of police is an important modern concern within the criminal justice discipline. Many argue that the formation of special units within the police department has greatly aided in this militarization of police. These special units, including the Bomb Squad and SWAT Team, may contribute to the increased police force across the United States. Proponents of the militarization believe that police should use what they find suitable to protect the community and themselves from danger. However, opponents maintain that the cost to supply units with equipment is extremely high and that by arming police with military weapons breaks police-community relations. In addition, adversaries claim that violence used by the police promotes violence in the community. As a result of escalated brutality, it is critical for police departments to gain the support of citizens to alter their perception of specialized police units. Nevertheless, with increased violence throughout the United States, it is crucial

This debate topic speaks about police being less proactive, because of vitriol, and causing an increase in crime rates. This debate topic is not directly related to the book, Ghettoside, but falls into the same bracket. The debate talks about the police becoming less involved because of denunciation, and rates of crimes increasing because of that. Ghettoside talks about the black-on-black homicide rates going up, one reason, because of the ignorance of the police. So, both the debate and the book have crime rates going up because of the lack of interference of the police department. The book shows ignorance because they simply don’t care, and the debate showing ignorance because of criticism. “For

Historical commision reports have been extreemly useful for the fomration of future policy decisions. Looking at the similarities and differences in the circumstances that led to the formation of the Wickersham, Kerner, and Obama Commissions. Also, what were the similarities and differences in the reports ' recommendations. While the nuances of each report are different both in breath and scope the over arching theme of the three reports have very tangable and similar themes. Criminal activity and public outcry led to each of the commisions being formulated.

Incarceration rates have skyrocketed over the last forty years-- which could be interpreted as good or bad. There have been many questions surrounding incarceration directly being linked to a drop in crime rate: both positive and negative. One pair of economical authors, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, approached this concept from a mostly-positive outlook: the high incarceration rate was responsible for one-third of the crime drop in the 1990’s (123-124). The authors use high incarceration rate along with innovative police strategies, plummet of the crack market, and aging in the population to make a base argument of reasons for crime drop; however, the main argument they utilize is the legalization of abortions (Levitt and Dubner 120-121,

Over the past 40 years U.S. incarceration has grown at an extraordinary rate, with the United States’ prison population increasing from 320,000 inmates in 1980 to nearly 2.3 million inmates in 2013. The growth in prison population is in part due to society’s shift toward tough on crime policies including determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing laws, and mandatory minimums. These tough on crime policies resulted in more individuals committing less serious crimes being sentenced to serve time and longer prison sentences.

Current scholars often cite a fourth era of policing since the events of 911. This is known as the Homeland Security Era. Make a case either for or against the naming the Fourth Era Homeland Security. Use current research or events to establish your opinion.

Chicago has had its ups and downs in the cities violent history, but early 2016 to present has been an exception. Chicago increased in homicides by 59 percent in 2016 and it has only become worse since then with a 29 percent increase in just the first few months of 2017 (Asher, FiveThirtyEight.com; Ford, The Atlantic). It is obvious that something needs to be done, but so far there have not been any major changes made or drastic measures taken in order to improve Chicago’s current state of being. Right now, the three most predominant causes are Chicago’s Police, Chicago’s many gangs, and firearms, hand guns in particular. If the city wants to make any improvements whatsoever then it needs act decisively on gangs and guns, start using different

Mass incarceration is a phenomenon described by Ta Nehisi-Coates as a way to explain the increase in incarcerated people in the United States over the past 40 years. This phenomenon can be traced back most obviously to the early 70s, when Nixon started his presidential term (DRUGPOLICY.ORG). Nixon came into presidency when the rebellious 60s were starting to really pose a threat to the government of the United States. His two main enemies were the major proponents of revolution: liberals against the violence of Vietnam and black people (DRUGPOLICY.ORG). He understood that these groups, but especially the poor black communities, depended on black market drug trade for a lot of their income and therefore found an extremely effective way to quell

At first, this argument makes relative sense, “violent crime rates have fluctuated over the years and bear little relationship to incarceration rates—which have soared during the past three decades regardless of whether violent crime was going up or down” (Alexander 101). Even while violent crime rates decline, incarceration rates climb; these two variables should have a dependent correlation, but it appears they do not. However, in response to violent crime, legislators placed longer sentences for less severe crimes to prevent more violent crime in the future (Forman 48). While it may be compelling to simply accept that the War on Drugs caused the prison population spike, it did not; violent crime contributed

The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.

In chapter four of Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner discuss the criminal activity occurring in the United states and what the possible causes are for the decrease of crime rate in the 1990’s. The authors bring up several theories as to why the crime rates have decreased such as policemen, stricter gun laws, drug market changes and even abortion laws. Levitt and Dubner do a really good job in explaining the different theories in the decrease of crimes. The authors also provide very interesting points that might make you think differently about something. Some factors may seem hard to believe but it can cause a great impact in society like abortion. Levitt and Dubner introduces a successful argument that could actually make the reader believe that abortion did have an effect on crime rates decreasing in the 1990’s.

The Broken window policing- when a cop wants to illegally enters and searches a residence he breaking the window policing. This gives him probable cause to investigate and any evidence he turns up becomes miraculously legal. The broken window policing is also addressing the small piddling staff like broken windows, graffiti, trash, panhandlers, and it sends a message that the police, city, and neighbors care and is paying attention to their neighborhood. Hotspots is an effective crime reduction strategy. It’s an Evidence-Based Policing Matrix and in the U.S. DOJ’s Crime Solutions what work clearinghouse. What officers do in hot spots matters. When the authority tells the officers to patrol hotspots is means to increase misdemeanor arrests in

Contrary to the common belief, crime has been on the decline for the past three decades. Yet, news and media have been covering crime more than ever, resulting in the public belief that crime is at an all time high. The sharp drop in crime since the early 1990s has left experts curious to discover the reasons for the decrease in crime. As I compare the article Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors that Explain the Decline and Six that Do Not by Steven D. Levitt and the article Evaluating Contemporary Crime Drop(s) in America, New York City, and Many Other Places by Eric P. Baumer and Kevin T. Wolff, I will briefly describe the articles, compare their agreements and disagreements, as well as discuss my personal preferences.

The purpose of this abstract is to critically review the primary data sources used in the criminological research. The two primary data sources discuss in this abstract will be the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). These data sources are reporting mechanism that tracks criminal activities in the United States. This abstract will discuss the strengths, weaknesses and differences of both data sources. To articulate the nature and extent of a crime, criminologists use records that are collected, compiled, and analyzed by government agencies such as the federal government’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (criminology

In 1968, stop and frisk was based on strict guidelines that explained how far an officer can frisk someone according to the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. Behind the police officers’ stop and frisks, the strategies of broken windows policing and the zero-tolerance policy were introduced. Broken windows theory began in New York during the year of 1982, and former Mayor Giuliani of New York created zero-tolerance policy in 1997. Broken windows was a known policing strategy throughout all departments in the nation. Broken windows was a policing strategy that gave officers the decision to choose what crimes to stop at the officer’s own discretion. Although broken windows theory was effective in reducing crime rates