How Can Crime Affect You

Crime is something that affects the lives of everyone. There are many different types of crimes that include street crimes, property crimes, victimless crimes, white-collar crimes and terrorism. For some people, this means being a victim of violence, having property stolen, having their home broken into or having their identity stolen. For other people crime means having a family member murdered or watching as a loved one has to suffer from personal and property losses because of the criminal acts of others. Crime means funding a growing criminal justice system with taxpayers money and dealing with a large amount of our societal population being in the correctional system.

Crime is put into two categories violent and non-violent crimes. Violent crimes include homicide, murder, assault, rape, robbery, endangerment, abduction and extortion. Non-violent crimes include white-collar crimes like fraud and tax crimes, property crimes, such as theft, embezzlement and drug and alcohol related crimes. Crime happens from society itself and it affects society making it a social problem. Social issues and poverty are a main cause behind crime although there are many white-collar crimes committed as well but so many of those go unpunished.

There are a lot of issues in society that push people to commit crime, like unemployment and people not being able to find a job. Poverty is another cause of crime, if people do not have the money to make ends meet and provide for themselves or their family they will be tempted to commit crimes. Drugs have a big role in crime, a lot of people who get involved with drugs have lost everything, their jobs, homes and family making committing crimes a way to support their habit and providing for themselves.

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How crime affects the economy is by its damaging effects and cost. Cost include the cost of medical services, property losses and loss of income, the ultimate cost being loss of life. With so much money going into the criminal justice system there is less money going into the resources that need it most like community centers, prevention programs and most importantly education. This is a main cause in students having to pay higher tuitions or not being able to get an education all together.

The economy is affected when victims miss work, communities are additionally affected by loss of people visiting/tourist and sales. Drug abuse affects worker productivity, the use of money for drug treatment programs and medical attention, communities spend public money for police, jails, prisons and the courts. The amount of time spent by victims, offenders, their families, and juries at some point of courtroom trials take away from community productivity.

How crime can be better addressed is by stricter and more effective ways to fight against and prevent crime. Examples for addressing crime are engine immobiliser only allowing vehicles to start with a signal from the owner preventing the vehicle from being taken easily, groups and programs to reduce violence and gangs for our youth, improved street lighting, crime is less likely to happen in well lit areas due to offender being seen and recognized.

Community policing is another great way to prevent crime allowing officers to personally know the community/neighborhoods and who lives there, knowing who is dealing drugs and who is in school, with this police are more knowledgeable and can make better split second decisions. Providing better rehabilitation programs and alternatives to jail/prison for offenders like school programs, mental health centers and drug treatment options. Most importantly, we need to speak up when we see/witness crime being committed, when people speak up then more policy makers are more likely to listen and respond.

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