Neighborhood Efforts To Reduce Crime

Neighborhood Efforts to Reduce Crime

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The neighborhood watch is a prevalent crime prevention method. Its primary aim is always to reduce the crime rate as well as reduce the burglary that happens within the neighborhoods and households. The neighborhood efforts are usually implemented as a comprehensive package as it is vital in reducing the rate of crime (MacDonald et al., 2009). The neighborhood effort came up as a result of the movement that started during the 1960s in a bid to involve the citizens in the fight against crime. The use of the neighborhood watch to combat crime has steadily grown over the years. The National Crime Prevention Council reported that by the year 2001, 40% of the American population were involved either directly or indirectly in the neighborhood watch plan. As such, it is true to say that neighborhood watch schemes are one of the best ways through which criminal activities can be reduced.

Various scholars argue that neighborhood efforts are one of the most common crime prevention methods that are used by various governments. Some of the existing evaluations indicate that although the impact of the neighborhood effort in reducing crime is positive, there is need to find out the differences between strategies that are more effective from those that are less effective. Kondo et al. (2018) argue that many authors have tried to examine the effects of neighborhood efforts in crime prevention. These authors go ahead to postulate that the utmost dependable evidence found is located in the territory of blight remediation and housing. They also found out that the demolition of public housing considered as high rise, and the rehabilitation or construction of new houses has been very instrumental in reducing the homicides, violent crime rates, and assault. The scholars further add that many studies have shown that solving the housing problem in some neighborhoods can help in reducing gun violence and other types of violence.

Floyd, (2016) in his study found out that the local institutions have an influence when it comes to neighborhood violence, even though their impact is still quite unclear. Despite the public institutions lacking any connection between crime levels, the vacant slots that are publicly owned however seem to have a major correlation to the racial make-up of any neighborhood. This implies that Floyd (2016) supports the theory that neighborhoods with higher minorities have higher chances of experiencing higher crime levels, as opposed to neighborhoods with majority populations.

Xie and McDowall (2014) in their study realized that the residential movement, especially in instances where it is caused by crime, has a very long time a concern for the governments. Their study gave further evidence that crime victims usually change their residents after victimization. This is always true with those from the White households. These two scholars further found out that service providers within the neighborhoods ought to be very sensitive to the divergent needs of the different races and ethnicities. They outline that the Black victim has their mobility influenced by the property victimization and violence. They conclude their study by arguing that there is a need to go beyond the number of crimes being committed to studying the circumstances of any incident of the neighborhood crime. This should incorporate the social, structural, and financial constraints when it comes to making decisions on where to live after victimization.

References

Floyd, M. (2016). Neighborhood Violence and Crime: Do Public Institutions Reduce Crime In Neighborhoods?. Clocks and Clouds, 6(2).

Kondo, M. C., Andreyeva, E., South, E. C., MacDonald, J. M., & Branas, C. C. (2018). Neighborhood interventions to reduce violence. Annual review of public health, 39, 253-271.

MacDonald, J., MacDonald, J. M., Bluthenthan, R. N., Golinelli, D., Kofner, A., & Stokes, R. J. (2009). Neighborhood effects on crime and youth violence: the role of business improvement districts in Los Angeles (Vol. 622). Rand Corporation.

Xie, M., & McDowall, D. (2014). Impact of victimization on residential mobility: Explaining racial and ethnic patterns using the National Crime Victimization Survey. Criminology, 52(4), 553-587.