Crime undermines the social fabric of the community. Crime creates fear within a community which undermines their safety. A study by Dugan L. found that individuals who had been victimized by a crime within one mile of their home were more likely to move away from the neighborhood after the incident. With constant victimization within a community, individuals don’t stay within them long enough settle and take root. Once these individuals take root within a community, they are more inclined to be invested into it. High crime rates create a decline within the community. It creates:
“psychological consequences including decreased neighborhood satisfaction, an increased desire to relocate, increasing fear, and a weaker attachment to place and sense of community”. This translate to decreased willingness to intervene in events on the street, more mistrust between neighbors, and less cooperation.
As stated before, crime within communities’ tears at the social fabrics of that community. When communities come together, they are able to attain a much greater opportunity for success all …show more content…
To answer the calls of the American people, Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. This bill was considered the largest crime bill to ever be written into law. The bill granted 100,000 new police officers with $9.7 billion in funding for prisons and $6.1 billion in funding for prevention programs. It also provided $2.6 billion in additional funding for the FBI, DEA, INS, United States Attorneys, other Justice department components, Federal courts and also the Treasury Department. Law enforcement was given the tools to fight the criminal treat that was supposed to be present within America. Some could argue that the passing of this act could be the starting point of the modern-day community policing movement. Community policing became a strategy that was employed to improve communities. Their jobs within the community is to focus on building ties and working closely with the members of the community to help improve it. The form of policing requires officers to have a proactive role to address public safety concerns. This is achieved by relying on community-based crime prevention programs such as neighborhood watch, utilizing civilian education and more foot patrols. These techniques created a bond between the community which became very apparent in some areas. The overall evaluation of the community oriented policing was