Crime Prevention and Community Safety - Coursework Example

Crime Prevention and Community Safety Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Code and Name University Date of Submission Contents Contents 2 Introduction 2 Crime and Legislative laws 4 Objectives 6 Personal Experience 7 Description: What happened? 7 Thoughts and Feelings 11 Evaluation: The bad feeling about the Experience. 13 Analysis on the incident 16 Action plan 19 Conclusion 19 List of References 21 CRIME PREVENTION AND COMMUNITY SAFETY Introduction Crime is the act of breaking stipulated laws and rules for which for which a particular specified authority or any other form of agency can ultimately prescribe a particular form of conviction that is prescribed by given guidelines, under a specific set of properly reviewed mechanisms (Adint 1997). Any society which regards the acts of crime as one of the most significant problems that is prevalent within a particular state, and yet continues to allow its leaders to refuse to put into consideration the most available forms of solutions surely deserves the leaders and the consequences. Crimes in such states could result in rehabilitation, cautions, or the process of unenforcement. Different individuals tend to define the aspect of crime in different manners, especially within the different localities, different time stages of crime, from planning to disclosure (Hammersley, 2008). Whenever any form of crime tends to violate any human law that is meant to protect the human person from any form, not every type of violation of the described law counts as a form of crime. Modern communities generally regard to crimes as forms of offences or infractions. A majority of the modern societies generally define crime to as offences which are against the public or any given state. Crime within the legal or even within the social framework consists of assumptions or facts which may consist of causes, consequences, and objectives, which are part of a particular case that was committed. It usually includes some felony of violation of the criminal rules or even acts against the law. This normally is considered at the expense of the moral aspect or people. A crime could be illegal as in the case of violation of human rights, or could also be perfectly right, especially when the act is done and is considered not to have any form of evil injury or harm, or when the act committed is not a necessary consequence of the actual conduct of any particular agent, but is strictly determined by others. Punishable and illegal crime defines the violation of any rule that is of administrative, criminal, or fiscal form of liability, especially on the part of agents of a given state or even practice of any wrong doing. This could also include any notoriously harmful effects to self, or other parties a provided for in the criminal law. Legal and not punishable form of crime involves acts with the aspects of self defense or otherwise determined by the set of illegal or even criminal conduct of others. Crime and Legislative laws Despite the type of crime that is prevalent within any specific society, there is a need to formulate legislative laws that protect human life, and any other activity associated to him. It is the obligation of the government and all the necessary agencies to protect human beings from any occurrence of human rights violation. This is done through a process of design and implementation of the necessary policies that are turned into laws that are used in governing the security of the people in any given state. There are different categorizations of crime, depending on the level of harm caused, the consequences, availability of laws to convict the suspect or the offender, or the weight associated with the particular crime. Safety aspect of any particular community is a basic necessity in any state, and should be given a priority by the government agency (Adint, 1997). Protection of any community from harm caused by crime is quite violating especially when the surrounding environment is not very conducive for human life (Buffington, 2000). There are a variety of legislative bodies that can be formed to foresee the safety of an individual, group of residents, or residents of any particular state. Legislative laws are basically formulated by way of using professional mechanism which ensures that the different human rights are fully protected from being violated. There are various drug charges laws which exist in almost any sovereign nation. This area forms a subset of the criminal law and also overlaps with the aspect of criminal defense laws. All of these defense laws are meant to protect the citizens of a given nation in efforts to protect them from the vulnerability to crime related form of harm or violence. This are encompasses the laws that are created to specifically deal with illegal drug possession, the use of drugs, and other related forms of crimes. All of these rules are reviewed after every two years and the necessary recommendations are made depending on the current issues. The rules are regulated in accordance to the state as well as the federal laws which are also reviewed after a period of five years but could vary depending on the system of governance of a particular state. The reviews are specifically done within these laws in effort to ensure that the necessary protective measures are given to the citizens in order to ensure maximum security from crime and violence. These laws exist on both the federal as well as state levels and are extensively enforced. The common form of defense used to fight against drug charges is proving any form of illegal search and the seizure by all authorities who discovered the drugs and related crimes. Even though a majority of the drug related charges are actually classified as felonies, the seriousness of related offences and the subsequent punishment is mostly determined by the specific type of crime. There exists some controversy about the vigilant pursuit of the drug crime related charges against the various recreational crime partners. Even though a majority of the opponents suggest that drugs form a victimless form of crime, and that it should be treated differently from the violent criminal offenses, this might actually be the case. Objectives This paper intends to majorly focus on the issues that are related to crime and drugs within Mexico. The following are the main objectives that need to be achieved at the end of this paper: Describe a personal experience with activities of crime, by clearly elaborating on what exactly happened. Present the feelings and the thoughts that were being experienced during the incidence that was crime related. Offer an evaluation of what was the good part, and which was the worst part during the process of interaction with the crime related activities when the while scenario took place. Offer a thorough description with clear illustrations of what actually happened throughout the process of this crime related experience. Present a clear analysis of whatever sense that can be made out of the situation that occurred. Provide an appropriate conclusion statement on the whole incident, and also state whatever ought to have been done. Provide an appropriate and a well described action plan that would assist in handling a similar situation if it happened to occur again within the near future (Buffington, 2000). Personal Experience Description: What happened? This experience was gathered in the year 2002, when Mexico fully adopted some new laws that were against the issues of small scale drug dealing. This law introduced some of the most significant forms of advances within the key subjects such as the process of recognition of as well as distinguishing of the user from the addict and from the dealer. The whole story revolves around the issue of Mexican war against the issue of drugs especially with regard to protection of the innocent victims. It is about an experience that depicts of how the military and the police have fallen into actions of corruptions and thereby tend to violate the rights of protecting the safety of the community. The experience is specifically about epic violence and criminal impunity within my own life. It all began on the year 2009. By then, it was the very height of the bloodletting within the Mexicans one of the deadliest city. It started at four in the morning. A family of three awoke to a terrible form of trouble that was fully pounding at the front of the door of our own house. My own husband went to overlook about the strangers who were already at the door, asking for access. He was then immediately heard telling the rest of us to get a hiding place together with the kids. The husband insisted that the strangers had guns with themselves. By the time I already had the baby with me in my hands, the gunmen broke into the house forcefully. It was quite shocking. At that odd hour of the night, nobody actually knew what they wanted. My husband was a member of the Mexican journalists and partial politics. As the gunmen entered the door, I told my sons to remain calm, as we had no means to escape. The men called us to come out from our hiding places as they knew that we were indoors. They grabbed me and threw me to the floor. The men who were properly armed whipped my husband, until he collapsed next to me. They were requesting for money, jeweler, electronic equipments, and any other type of valuable thing that they thought of. We granted them permission to take whatever they were willing. One of the gunmen was claiming of executing all of us, while the other one restricted him from getting out of control. They force me into the room and demanded for silence throughout despite whatever I witnessed. It was a shocking incident. It described vulnerability of human safety within the community. Upon coming out of the room after a period of thirty minutes, I was further shocked to realize that my husband had been kidnapped. It did not actually take long before his brother received a phone call that was accompanied by some very ransom instructions. My husband used to own a car dealer centre. We tried all our best by way of selling a majority of our assets in effort towards liberating him from the incident. The first half of the ransom amount was cleared in the same day. They were supposed to give him a back on the third day, but they did not. In fact, they threw his dead body into the streets. The men who killed my husband were never brought to justice, despite the different laws that had been introduced in effort towards protecting g the vulnerable citizens from criminal violence and harassment. It was however very certain that they used to work for some drugs’ cartels that were very actively involved within Juarez valley. This was quite a strong possibility that was detected by the analysts from the geopolitical intelligence corporation. The corporation claimed that the cartels had increasingly diversified their crime related activities that included actions of kidnapping, human trafficking, extortion, and other activities in responses to all the losses that were incurred within the drug trade. It is quite ironical that this illustrates that almost all the civilians are becoming full victims of the success of the government. After the death of my husband, I was forced to take a job at a particular night club. Being a single mother, I had to feed the children, and was thereby forced to work anywhere with minimal choices. I had to seek some form of assistance from the parents. After a period of one year, they managed to find me again. The cartel violence found its way to me. A certain group of federal police officers entered the club. The performed an unprecedented form of scrutiny while they were extracting the necessary money and other valuables that they were interested in. It was noticed that at one particular point, a given officer had even began groping their own colleagues. Immediately after the police left, two more armed men came in and did some merciless shootings around the club, causing the death of several clients who were spending time within the club. It was quite worrying and discouraging to note later that by the time the shootings were taking place, the police officers were still around, witnessed the whole scenario before they left, and were also said to have closely contributed to the activities that resulted into the killings. I escaped narrowly from the shootings. I however never thought of protesting against any form of shooting activities, domestic violence, or corruption but fell the victim for the banal reason. It was the fate of being at the wrong venue, at the wrong time. Thoughts and Feelings As all the incidents were happening, I thought of different personal accounts when being isolated. The feelings of shock were glimpsing within the body and mind, as well as feelings of being linked to trauma and tragedy. The feelings were just revolving around the issue of the brutal drug war across Mexico, the rapidly rising rate of exposure to vulnerability towards crime, as well as feelings of hopelessness. During such incidences, an individual had to think of the issue of the state laws that had shortly been implemented and launched by the president of the state. The laws had well structured legal guidelines on how to curb or minimize violence cases that were linked to the issue of drugs and crime, yet crime was still on the rise. Feelings of lawlessness were experienced, and this was associated with feelings of fear that these acts were not going to stop any time soonest. The feelings of fear were dominating the valley due to the extreme to which the government of Mexico had failed to protect its people from attacks that were drug’s related. Thoughts of isolation accompanied by feelings of abandonment were also evidenced. It was quite clear that the Mexicans were feeling the aspect of vulnerability to problem security throughout the country. Personal accounts like hers, while isolated, provide shocking glimpses of the trauma and tragedy that exist for people living amidst Mexico's form of brutal drug war. These stories also reveal a state of lawlessness that experts say is unlikely to stop any time soon. As all the consequential events were taking place, feelings of unlawfulness were prevalent. The government had failed terribly. Community safety was not fully practices. Citizens were left to suffer within the hands of the leaders of the cartels, as they tried to enrich themselves. This left feelings of ruthless abandonment within us. It was the feeling of every citizen who interacted with such incidences of violence, that despite the serious forms of efforts towards purging the actions of corruption and drug related form of crime, numerous reports of the enforcement of the Mexican law were found to engage in different criminal activities. I happened to feel dissatisfied and experienced feelings of hate within myself. The safety if the whole environment around the valley was fully compromised. It was no safer to reside within this area. This issue of community safety with regard to issues of the invasion by the cartels across the valley resulted to all feelings of conflict of interest. Evaluation: The bad feeling about the Experience. There was absolutely nothing to describe as a good form of feeling within the whole set of incidences. The experiences were terrible. The ruthless form of abandonment was experienced especially when the assassins were seen to open fire in each and every direction, while killing everyone that they encountered. Feelings of pain within the people who suffered from the indecencies were quite touching. At the point where the club was lit on fire, the experience was worse. Inhumanity was the acts being practiced at the time. All this happened when the government officials including men from the army were quite aware of the human and community suffering that was being experienced across the valley. It was terribly bad to experience the waitresses claiming that they would rather die than see themselves get burnt alive. After the acts of brutality, the matter was reported to the police the following day, where three survivors gave the necessary police statements about the whole events. The real experience of the spirit of intimidation was fully felt at this stage. The police force was widely identified with acts of brutality and sense of victimization for those who reported incidences that were connected to drug related form of crime or violence. It had severally been reported that the police force used to intimidate those who tried to report such incidences, or those that attempted to make accusations of the senior persons within the cartels. They referred to themselves as the untouchables. This was truly witnessed during the experience where we opted to report the incidence at the police station. They claimed that they were aware of the whole incident, and needed no further information. This statement came along with warnings and threats of the victims. It was my feeling that the whole scenario was quite ironical. The agencies that were expected to be protecting the human life and the community safety were the same body that was in the front line to leave them vulnerable to the crime related form of violence. To me, the ruthless killings that were all over the valley were more or less as worse as the actions of genocide. Innocent people together with the poor suffered most. It was quite common that bloodshed had to follow after every case of witnessing. If an individual happened to lawfully testify against a given act of crime that was quite possible then actions of victimization which would even lead to death were experienced. Despite the various efforts by the various agencies especially from the United States on curbing of drug trafficking and violence avenues within Mexico, the situation has so far not changed. The states have continuously demanded for the curbing of the trading associated with those illicit drugs, a factor that leads to drug trafficking with various organizations and movements within the valleys, and as a result leads to actions of violence that affects the aspect of community safety. From this experience, the most visible form of cost that is associated and strongly linked to these drug related activities is the unacceptable levels of violence within Mexico. According to my own form of evaluation, there are still other minor but still significant forms of effects that are associated with these drug related activities, and those that also affect human lives, and thereby compromising the issue of vulnerability to security issues. Some of the numerous effects include a huge number of people being incarcerated as a result of drug legislation. The fact that all drug related issues have been considered as a form of national security issue has continuously led to some form of enhanced penalties that are stipulated within the different legal guidelines, but they are rarely or never practiced on a majority of the countries. These provisions for the different penalties linked to different forms of violence related activities have continuously had modified procedures in efforts to give some greater discretion of the police force, the judges, and the prosecutors, and they have allowed for some setbacks in recognition of the most fundamental process rights that are directed towards protecting the communities in any given state from actions of violence. It is however quite evident that there is no well established form of connection between the different legal bodies. The legal bodies are reluctant in cooperating with each other in efforts towards protecting the common citizen. It the police force cannot collect the necessary information that is required to protect the rights of the citizens, then the judges or the legal prosecutors have no chance of accessing the basic information of the real forms of incidences that happen on the ground (Gardner & Anderson, 2012). The fact that the law states that a large number of those persons who ate imprisoned because of the drug related activities do not fully fit within categories of the large scale trafficking and do not have committed offences that are related to commercial activities, makes it impossible to convict such persons, and as a result, they end up being left free. Such factors that have continuously lead to vulnerability of the different communities who are affected with incidents of drug related activities. This was quite similar to the above described incidences because the people who invaded the night club and committed the killings were said to have been imprisoned there before, but were released without full form of conviction (Mackenzie, & Uchida, 1994). The necessary penalties are never imposed to these individuals, and as a result, they still find their way back into the society and still have a chance to continue with the drug and crime related activities (Gardner, & Anderson, 2012). Analysis on the incident The most visible cost that is evident from the whole of this war of drug related crime and violence is associated to human suffering. This cost is prevalent to unacceptable levels within the different countries are form Mexico alone. Community safety has fully been compromised as a result, leaving the residents to be quite vulnerable to the consequences of such criminal related incidences. Actions of drug related form of prohibition is also said to account for much of the proliferation of the handguns. All drug dealers must fully enforce their own forms of contracts and also provide their own forms of protection from all the predators that are commonly known for delivering drugs and weapons. The drug related forms of trade as well as crime and violence attached to it mainly takes place within our cities, and thereby rendering the whole neighborhood to be quite unfit for human habitation. As this form of rot spreads, even more form of crime tends to be generated by the climate of the disorder that is produced in the whole incidence (Mackenzie, & Uchida, 1994). Drug prohibition is also widely known for fostering activities of crime by way of producing official form of corruption. Like in the case provided above, it is quite clear that the police evidenced the shootings, yet they had little or nothing to do in efforts towards protecting the citizens from the violent forms of shootings and killings (Gardner, & Anderson, 2012). The police officers turned the whole incident to be a form of official crime that was evident when they watched the people within the night club as they suffered, to the extent of being burnt alive. In the other incidents that are regularly reported, the news media have frequently been seen to reflect on the incidents of cops who regularly steal money and drugs from the dealers who are caught in the acts of crime (Herring, 2012). There are also various incidents where the judges as well as the prosecutors have reportedly been seen to be implicated in the acts that are related to suspects of drugs and crime. Such pervasive form of evil criminal activities denigrates and also demoralizes all the law enforcers and also causes some significant form of disrespect, fear and aggressiveness amongst the residents of any state. The distractive forms of effects of the drug war on actions of law enforcement profoundly and indirectly encourage the acts of crime. In a majority of the cities across the globe, more of the arrests relate to issues of drug, and are further linked to other terrible forms of crime that are as as result of promotion of self motives. As a result, all criminals have a much better chance of escaping any form of detection as well as punishment if any of the drugs related criminal activity or violence was made to be legal. The war and crime that is related to drugs is seen to undercut the role of incarceration in dealing with the people who are convicted with such serious forms of crime as child molesting, rape, and homicide. Violent criminals are actually being paroled early or are having their sentences chopped to make space for the drug users and dealers (Cla Piccato, P. (2001). There have been different candidate principles of the aspect of criminalization that have recently been developed. A particular example of a theoretical principle that has been developed on the basis of enhancing safety of the community by way of curbing different criminal activities is the Harm principle. A majority of these principles claim that the criminal laws should be concerned fully, with the public and not only the private forms of crime that affect the entire community. These forms of principles basically form an important phenomenon of the entire international criminal law. Action plan In case a similar experience occurred again, I would recommend that the victims be courageous enough to report the incidents despite the threats and any form of intimidations. In the previous cases, the victims were intimidated from reporting the incidences, a factor that creates more room for repetition of same criminal activities. I would recommend that people should not have a feeling of liability especially when they are faced with incidents of criminal invasion. Conclusion There have been various legal policies that have been formulated to curb the incidents of crime. This includes different attempts to legalize some of the drugs in efforts to reduce crime activities that are related to issues of drug. Given the enormity of the different nation’s crime problems, there are various suggestions by different legal advisors on the necessity of the process of legalization of activities that are associated or strongly linked to issues of crime. There are different theories that have been established to formulate the necessary strategies that are necessary to curb crime in efforts to ensure that the community’s safety is well enhanced. The strategies have been linked to several administrative policies that are suitable for ensuring safety in the nations. In the recent past, crime rates have tripled, and thus resulted into proportional vulnerability of the members of different communities under the management of different leaders (Duke Univ. Press, 2006). Despite the different agencies that have been in the front line to enact laws that curb drug related activities that are related to criminal activities, the different connections have not been considered as coincidental (Cla Piccato, 2001). According to recent surveys that have been conducted with persons that are associated with acts of burglary, drugs trafficking, and robbery with violence, at least one of them confessed that they committed their criminal activities in relation to the issue of drugs. Controlling issues of drug flow can effectively lead to a proportional change in the rate if almost all other criminal activities (Gardner, & Anderson, 2012). The different philosophical theories on criminal law could either be analytic or even be normative. There is a need to identify the salient features which distinguish criminal law from all other kinds of law. Various instrumentalists portray various criminal laws that ensure community safety, and consider the various theories as an efficient technique which can greatly assist in achieving the safety of the citizens. By way of considering the question on how criminal law needs to be addressed towards the citizens, we can thereby discern the whole truth within the non-instrumentalist for of perspective (Hall, 2006). This indicates the different categories of conducts that need to be legalized in order to ensure that human safety is prompted (Gardner, & Anderson, 2012). Such theoretical principles like the Harm principle should be embraced and fully enacted after being adopted as a legal framework, towards curbing criminal activities and also extending the same in improving international criminal law. List of References Adint, V. (1997). Drugs and crime. New York, Rosen Pub. Group. Buffington, R. M. (2000). Criminal and citizen in modern Mexico. Lincoln, Neb. ;London, Univ. of Nebraska Press. Buffington, R., & Piccato, P. (2009). True stories of crime in modern Mexico. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press. Cla Piccato, P. (2001). City of suspects: crime in Mexico City, 1900-1931. Durham, NC [u.a.], Duke Univ. Press. ES, E. (2006). Privacy and the criminal law. Antwerpen [u.a.], Intersentia. Gardner, T. J., & Anderson, T. M. (2012). Criminal law. Belmont, CA, Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Hall, J. (2006). General principles of criminal law. Clark (NJ), The Lawbook Exchange. Hammersley, R. (2008). Drugs and crime: theories and practices. Cambridge, Polity. Herring, J. (2012). Criminal law: text, cases, and materials. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Mackenzie, D. L., & Uchida, C. D. (1994). Drugs and crime: evaluating public policy initiatives. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications. Singer, R. G., & La Fond, J. Q. (2010). Criminal law: examples and explanations. New York, Aspen Publishers. Read More