While at home, work, social gathering, school, or treading down the streets, the feeling of being safe cannot be underestimated. It erodes fear and improves quality of life because crime, disorder, and their manifestations are capable of shutting our social and economic lives. However, danger often lurks everywhere. As such, security measures and policies are paramount to every city and community to tame rogue personalities who might take advantage of the vulnerable. Everybody including the young and old, natives and visitors, have an essential role to play in ensuring public safety but most importantly the government, through their crime-fighting agencies, are tasked with ensuring maximum public safety. As a result, they have to develop adequate policies to tame crime. In a local community, gangs have made it a spot to terrorize residents and criminal justice agency is the region has rolled out a policy named Group Violence Reduction Strategy. Analyzing the purpose, theory behind it, and benefits will form the basis of the paper.
Also known as Group Violence Intervention, this programme is designed to reduce homicide and gun violence engineered by criminal gangs significantly. The policy was pioneered David Kennedy, Director of National Network, and his colleagues in the 1990s period and because of its success, it has been implemented extensively in various jurisdictions (Davies, Grossmith, & Dawson, 2016). Our local community is plagued with terror gangs that have gripped residents with fear. This strategy aims to minimize peer dynamics responsible for promoting group violence through the creation of collective accountability. The theory behind this strategy is the deterrence theory (Group Violence Intervention). This theory blends the arguments of risk and benefits that may arise from criminal activities. When efforts are made to inform the potential offenders of the higher risks involved than the benefits accruing from engaging in illegal activity, crime is easily prevented. Additionally, focused deterrence is founded on the belief that efforts to reduce crime are overly beneficial when groups involved in an inordinate share of crime (Law Enforcement). Therefore, law enforcement agencies, social service providers, and community groups must combine efforts by forming partnerships and engage directly or indirectly with persons capable of or those involved in criminal tendencies.
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This policy is beneficial in many aspects. Since everyone has the desire to reduce violence and insecurity in their surroundings, various stakeholders such as the social groups have embraced dialogue and commitment to eliminate the vice (Crime and Crime Prevention). Such close-knit interactions will bring out a plethora of ideas on how to implement the strategy and rescue potential offenders from committing crimes. Besides, the level of transparency and openness will be advantageous because the police and local authorities will share crucial information regarding the criminal activities that could be unknown to the public and those with little resources to get the information (Sultan & Ulmenstein, 2011). Additionally, the policy has been successful in many big cities and towns where gangs had crippled security. This signals the efficiency of the strategy because it can be implemented everywhere. Moreover, it will come with plenty of advantages such as improved security and safety.
Implementing the guides of this policy would require uttermost cooperation among the stakeholders involved in the success of the strategy. It would combine community-driven approaches that raise public security. Moreover, the implementation phase would require the reconciliation between the police and the community and minimizing unnecessary arrests to offer comprehensive measures to the practitioners of these policies (Group Violence Intervention). If successfully, these strategies will be rolled out to the communities to build effective partnerships with the stakeholders to ensure better results. Additionally, the availability and authenticity of critical information about criminal groups is essential in the implementation stage. Without these, it would be difficult to relay information to the target groups and develop meaningful ways of communicating them. Much still, the communities would be appreciated if they embrace the guides and utilize the provided resources to fight crime. Possible challenges are the time frame for this policy to mature. Involving communities and other stakeholders take a longer time for its results to be experienced. Its vision is long-term and may not necessarily make an immediate impact like other more radical measures. Additionally, many people may not willingly share information because of their varied interests and fear. Moreover, the fear of the policy not being fruitful like in other places with more resources may be a challenge.
In conclusion, the Group Violence Reduction Strategy is a policy that if well implemented can reduce the rate of gang-related crimes. Targeting potential groups or even established criminal groups to convince them of increased dangers of engaging in criminal activities is the underlying theory of this strategy. When the gangs are made to believe that they wouldn’t find benefits in crime, they can opt not to engage in such crimes. Similarly, the role of the community and other social service groups is pivotal to the success of this programme. Without their support, the law enforcing agencies may find it difficult to implement the policy.
References
Davies, T., Grossmith, L., & Dawson, P. (2016). Group Violence Intervention London: An Evaluation of the Shield Pilot. MOPAC Evidence and Insight. Retrieved from https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/gvi_london_evaluation270117.pdf
Sultan, B., & Ulmenstein, S. (2011). Four Case Studies of Swift and Meaningful Law Enforcement Responses. Group Violence Reduction Strategy. Retrieved from https://nnscommunities.org/uploads/LE_Case_Studies.pdf
Group Violence Intervention. Group Violence Intervention: an Implementation Guide. Retrieved from https://nnscommunities.org/our-work/guides/group-violence-intervention/group-violence-intervention-an-implementation-guide
Crime and Crime prevention: Community Crime Prevention Strategy. https://www.crimesolutions.gov/TopicDetails.aspx?ID=10
Law Enforcement. Policing Strategies. Retrieved from https://www.crimesolutions.gov/TopicDetails.aspx?ID=84
