How Can We Really Prevent Crime?

Crime is not a good thing, but it exists and it cannot be ignored. Crime lurks in many places. In metropolises, cites towns, and even villages. In my essay, you will learn ways to prevent crime and I am going to tell you what leads these people up to committing these crimes. The main factor is that we have to start controlling is guns. Then we have to decide what we want to do with all our drug offenders. To live in a safe community we must start sometime and somewhere and there is no better time then now.

Gun control is a controversial topic like all others on the subject crime. There is many people for gun control and against it. The thing people have to start realizing is that they have to sacrifice something in order to get some kind of results. Sad but true, but how bad do we want to stop crime in our community.

Gun control is one of our largest problems our country has. Guns are deadly weapons that can change a person?s life physically and emotionally, mostly when there not used properly. Many people possess at least one handgun either in purses or in homes for protection, while others own guns for their own pleasure. Despite the fact that a gun can protect a person during self-defense, it can also be dangerous because it can hurt or kill someone. If guns are kept at home, the chance of a person harming a family member or friend other than an intruder is about five times higher. Although it may serve as a protection to an individual, it can also be misused. That is why it should only be limited to the use of authorities such as the government, military and the police.

Death by guns is common in America. Sometimes the victims are famous people like Ronald Regan, or President Lincoln. Often the victim is an ordinary citizen such as a relative or friend. This is one example why the use of guns should only be limited to authorities. Those who own a gun may have a purpose, and that is, to protect oneself, while others use it against each other. Owning a gun may save lives during a burglary, but it will also put many people at risk. A person who is alone at night might suspect an intruder roaming around the house and shoots at the suspect, not knowing that it was just a friend. Guns that are kept at home are often accidentally used against family or friends.

Another way that guns are often used against each other is when violence and arguments get out of hand. A person out of control will not think and will pull out a gun to try to solve the problem. More accidents occur when one uses their own handguns than prevention of criminal attack. Owning a gun can also get into the hands of a wrong person. A child might not know that the gun he is holding is real, and might accidentally shoot someone dead. Children often mistake guns as toys and do not realize their danger. In some cases, the uses of guns are not intentionally used against each other, but are used to kill themselves.

I believe authorities should be the only ones to use a gun because they are trained professionals who have purposes to owning one. In order to handle a gun properly, a person needs to have some knowledge about the weapon. A gun is a sophisticated device that demands education and practice, so that it will be used safely. Police officers are also more responsible and careful when using a gun, compared to most citizens. The authorities, such as police officers, have purposes and reasons to owning a gun such as to keeping the community out of chaos and in control but also for personal safety. They also need to be able to arrest a convict and have restriction of crime. You have to remember police officers also encounter danger a lot more often than people do.

While some people may own a gun for self-defense, instead of protecting themselves; they are adding more danger around them. The joined armed forces, such as the marines, air force, cops and etc serve as the best safe guard against attackers. Limiting the gun ownership to only the authorities will decrease accidents and death rates because when violence occurs, a gun is usually involved. The only way to reduce crime is to make guns unavailable to the public. By passing a law that will eliminate guns to citizens, murderers, and robbers, they will have a harder time committing crimes. Guns are the main reason among children and teenager deaths. If guns were made illegal, the public will be living in a much safer environment, and children will be able to grow up caring, not hating each other.

Gun control is an enormous problem in America. In today?s news, most of the homicides are due to the improper use of a gun, and those who suffer are the innocents. Decreasing the number of guns will also decrease the homicides that occur through accidental weapon use, or the use of weapon to stop an argument. Sometimes when arguments happen, no one will know when a weapon will be used. If guns were made illegal to citizens, such incidents will not occur. By limiting the use of a weapon too only the authorities will help eliminate the danger of our lives and will make people think twice about committing a crime.

Although gun control is a major factor, I keep asking myself if its drugs that really cause crime, or is it our governments way of controlling our communities? Many people blame drugs for every problem in our society. We have been taught over the years that drugs were bad and they only affected the poor and less fortunate, and turned them into crazy criminals. The laws controlling and prohibiting drugs are the true problem. Would our crime levels decline if drugs were legalized to some extent or, would we just increase the corruption of our country? Over the past fifty years, prohibition has been proven actually to increase crime and drug use instead of its intended purpose. We constantly here of prison over crowding, and why is that? Most of our prisons are filled with drug offenders, ranging from users, to distributors of drugs. What is our country coming to?

People awake everyday to their normal and busy life without even thinking about what they are doing. People don?t realize they been controlled by the government and its laws to obey and follow the supposed norm of society. What is the norms of society and who sets the guidelines for them? No one can explain how these laws come about, they only know that we must follow them, or they could get in trouble with the law. We are now in the twenty first century, and we still follow the same laws that were passed hundreds of years ago. Our country is a highly advanced country, and we still spend our time, lives and money on obeying laws that were around before automobiles were even invented.

Imprisonment or Rehabilitation? That is the question. We are constantly building more and more jails every year. We do this because it is easier to put drug offenders in jail than it is to try an help them. As Americans, we have an obligation to help our follow Americans, no matter what color, race or economic background. Many people think our drug laws are two strict and offenders should be dealt with by treatment not incarceration.

Most of these people imprisoned are non-violent drug offenders, who get longer sentences than most violent offenders. ? Once in prison, you would serve a longer time in this country than in England for almost all offenses save murder.? (Farrington, 728) This does not make sense but, its true. Nearly one half of our police resources are devoted just to stopping drug trafficking, instead of preventing violent crimes. We are spending hard earned money out of our own pockets to support prisoners. As the tax payers, we are spending thousands of dollars on the support of each prisoner each year. Most of the drug offenders in prison are low income people who were trying to support their families the only way they knew how, by selling drugs. Is this a crime that should have such a strict penalty attached to it?

If an addict or a occasional user is convicted of a simple possession of a small amount and is sentenced to the five year mandatory minimum sentence, the cost to the public of the prison alone is around $110,000. For the same price we could give the offender one year in prison, one year of residential drug treatment and three years of supervised probation and drug treatment and still have around 60,000 left over. The nation spends about 100 billion dollars a year on crime control. We could surely spend this money on something more useful like, schools and poverty where there is still a lot of problems dealing with crimes. Anyway, prisons are not solving our drug problems, but rather adding to them. After all these people are released, they are labeled as ex ?cons, and that is why most return to jail in the end.

In conclusion, crime is unstoppable and is a controversial topic when it comes to crime prevention. In my paper, I came up with solutions and suggestions for preventing crime. Some people might agree or disagree on my point of view but this is how I feel from my experience and knowledge of the topic. In addition, I would like to add that last year in high school in a law and crime class. I got to go see how these prisoners live and it left an impact on the way I feel about the topic now. I do realize that Gun Control is a hard, long going process but it is a major problem these days and we have to start sometime. On the other hand with the government and drugs, I strongly believe that imprisonment is not the solution to drug offenders. The problem is the communities and the society in which we live. Although higher-class people might not see the problems as easy as others do. I hope that they take in consideration that maybe there next door neighbor might be the next murderer or robber coming for them. Crime prevention is not something we can wait to it directly effects us, it is something we have to prevent and we have to start doing it now!